Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote, is planning to list shares in his petroleum refinery on multiple African stock exchanges simultaneously, in a cross-border offering that would be the first of its kind on the continent and the largest equity raising in African capital markets history.
- •The pan-African structure was confirmed by Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) CEO Frank Mwiti following a meeting in Lagos last week between Dangote and leaders of several African bourses, Bloomberg first reported.
- •Dangote has appointed Stanbic IBTC Capital, Vetiva Advisory Services, and FirstCap as financial advisers for the initial public offering of Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals FZE.
- •The offering is expected to cover between 5% and 10% of the refinery's equity. Analysts place the opening valuation at between US$40 billion (KSh 5.18 trillion) and US$50 billion (KSh 6.47 trillion), with the share sale targeting a raise of up to US$5 billion (KSh 647.40 billion), which would make it the largest IPO ever conducted on an African bourse.
The primary listing is expected on the Nigerian Exchange Group main board between June and July 2026, with secondary listings across participating African exchanges to follow. The transaction timeline tracks toward a prospectus submission to Nigeria's Securities and Exchange Commission in April, a retail roadshow and electronic subscription platform launch in May, and the formal listing in the June-July window.
The NSE was among five exchanges that participated in a closed-door session convened by NGX Group in Lagos on April 1, alongside the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Ghana Stock Exchange, Ethiopian Securities Exchange, and the Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières, which serves eight West African countries. Nigerian SEC Director-General Dr. Emomotimi Agama and the three appointed issuing houses were also present. Mwiti, whose exchange is one of three African bourses explicitly linked to the pan-African structure in Bloomberg's April 13 report, said discussions centred on easing regulatory barriers and facilitating seamless cross-border trading.
Dangote Group confirmed that the exchanges meeting took place but declined to provide additional details on structure or timeline.
Dangote's Energy Play
The refinery, located in the Ibeju-Lekki Free Zone in Lagos, is the world's largest single-train crude oil processing facility, with a nameplate capacity of 650,000 barrels per day. Built at a cost of US$20 billion (KSh 2.59 trillion), it was commissioned in May 2023 and reached full operational capacity in February 2026. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation holds a 7.25% stake.
The offering carries a hybrid currency structure unusual even by global standards. Investors will subscribe for shares in naira but will have the option to receive dividends in US dollars, drawn from the refinery's projected US$6.40 billion (KSh 829.07 billion) in annual export revenues from fuel and petrochemical products. Dangote has described the concept publicly as: "You buy in naira, but you get dividends in dollars." The mechanism requires specific approvals from the SEC and NGX, with both regulators in active discussions with the Dangote team on the mechanics.
The refinery carries US$3.65 billion (KSh 472.60 billion) in debt, which the group says it intends to repay through operations and asset transactions. Dangote plans to expand capacity to 1.4 million barrels per day over the next three years as part of a broader US$40 billion (KSh 5.18 trillion) five-year investment programme covering petrochemicals, fertilizer production, and energy infrastructure. Afreximbank last month underwrote US$2.50 billion (KSh 323.70 billion) of a US$4 billion (KSh 517.92 billion) syndicated facility earmarked for the expansion.
A successful listing at the top end of the analyst valuation range would push NGX's total market capitalization above 200 trillion Nigerian naira for the first time, and could lift the exchange back into the FTSE Russell frontier markets benchmark, where Nigeria is poised to return.
One unresolved tension flagged by exchange officials at the April 1 session concerns float sufficiency. With only 5% to 10% of equity on offer, participants raised concerns about whether the available float would accommodate meaningful allocations across multiple exchanges simultaneously.
The Dangote Refinery has already begun reshaping refined product supply across the continent and since commencing operations, it has exported fuel to Ghana, Cameroon, Togo, Tanzania, and other markets, reducing regional dependence on European and Middle Eastern imports at a time when global supply chains remain under pressure from geopolitical disruption.
