By Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote said on Thursday the initial public offering of his oil refinery, Africa’s largest, will open within the next 10 to 12 days, in what is set to become the continent’s biggest stock listing.
Dangote made the announcement at a briefing in Gaborone, Botswana’s capital, where he met President Duma Boko to discuss potential investments. “So our dream is that we want to make sure we double the capacity of the refinery … which will take us to 1.4 million barrels per day. The IPO will open in the next 10 to 12 days,” he told investors and analysts during the visit.
The Dangote refinery IPO is expected to raise about $5 billion, according to a Reuters report, positioning it as Africa’s largest public offering. A source with direct knowledge of the deal said the target figure could shift depending on the final size approved by Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission, since the primary listing will take place on the Nigerian Exchange.
Dangote said the listing proceeds would help fund an expansion of the refinery’s processing capacity. He said the group aims to more than double output to 1.4 million barrels per day, up from its current capacity.
The refinery reached its existing full capacity of 650,000 barrels per day in February and is regarded as the largest in Africa and one of the biggest single-train refining plants in the world. The facility, located near Lagos, cost roughly $20 billion to build and processes about 700,000 barrels of crude oil a day.
Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals FZE, the entity behind the offering, has submitted an application for the IPO to Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. The application is expected to receive regulatory approval in the coming weeks and allow the company to publish a prospectus.
The planned listing has already drawn financial backing. The refinery secured a $1 billion underwriting programme last month, comprising a fully funded $600 million tranche tied to a completed private placement and a further $400 million commitment to be implemented once the IPO launches, subject to market conditions and regulatory approval.
Dangote said in a joint statement that the completion of the private placement, together with the underwriting commitment, reflected confidence in the refinery’s strategic role.
The refinery has benefited from supply disruptions linked to the war in Iran, exporting jet fuel across Africa and into Europe as buyers sought alternative sources, which has fuelled investor interest in the sale of shares in the plant, according to African market participants.
The wider refining industry has also benefited from stronger profit margins as Middle East turmoil boosted demand for alternative fuel supplies, though Dangote does not disclose the refinery’s own margins.
A $5 billion offering would account for just over 4% of Nigeria’s main All Share Index, which had a total market capitalisation of $116 billion as of Tuesday, a source said. Details on the size of the public stake being offered and the potential valuation of the refinery have not yet been disclosed.
Informal estimates placed the refinery’s value at $20 billion to $25 billion in late 2025, but that figure had roughly doubled by mid-2026, according to industry estimates.
Dangote also addressed plans for Dangote Cement, another major company within his industrial group. He said a secondary listing of Dangote Cement on the London Stock Exchange would most likely take place in October, a move intended to broaden its access to international investors and capital.
Separately, Dangote outlined plans to expand his refining operations beyond Nigeria. He said the group is planning to build a new refinery on Kenya’s coast in partnership with East African governments, a project expected to take up to three years to complete.
The Kenyan facility would supply refined petroleum products to Kenya and neighboring countries, reducing East Africa’s reliance on imported fuel, and would represent Dangote Group’s largest refining investment outside Nigeria. “We are launching it on September 30,” he said.
Nigeria has long been Africa’s largest crude oil producer but relied heavily on imported refined fuel for decades due to underperforming state refineries, a dynamic that drained billions of dollars in foreign exchange reserves annually.
Dangote built the Lekki-based refinery to address that gap, and it has since become his most valuable asset, surpassing Dangote Cement.
Plans for the IPO have shifted several times. Dangote first said in May that the company was targeting a September listing. The refinery had previously flagged a possible listing on the Nigerian Exchange as early as March 2025, a timeline that was subsequently pushed back.
The chief executive of Dangote Refinery, David Bird, has said the company does not plan to pursue a foreign stock market listing for at least three years, prioritizing the Nigerian offering first to build a stronger operating and financial track record before entering international capital markets.
