The President of Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, is planning a landmark cross-border public offering of his $20bn oil refinery, in a move that could reshape capital markets across Africa and deepen regional investor participation, a new report by Bloomberg revealed on Monday.
The proposed listing, which will see shares of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals floated on multiple African stock exchanges, is being positioned as the first pan-African initial public offering of its scale.
Details of the plan emerged following a high-level meeting in Lagos, which involved Dangote and the chief executives of several African bourses under the umbrella of the African Securities Exchanges Association.
Chief Executive Officer of the Nairobi Securities Exchange, Frank Mwiti, who attended the meeting, disclosed that discussions centred on structuring a cross-border listing framework that would allow investors across the continent to participate in the refinery’s ownership.
“The plan is to structure a pan-African IPO,” Mwiti said after the meeting, noting that the initiative would require coordination among exchanges to ease regulatory barriers and facilitate seamless trading across jurisdictions.
A spokesman for the Dangote Group confirmed that the meeting took place but declined to provide further details on the structure and timeline of the proposed offering.
The development comes months after Dangote unveiled plans to list about 10 per cent of the refinery on the Nigerian Exchange Group in 2026, a move widely seen as part of efforts to unlock value and broaden the company’s investor base.
To drive the offering, Dangote has appointed a consortium of financial advisers, including Stanbic IBTC Capital Limited, Vetiva Advisory Services Limited, and FirstCap Limited.
Chief Executive Officer of FirstCap, Ukandu Ukandu, confirmed the appointments, stating that the advisers were already working on the transaction structure.
The report noted that multi-exchange listing could significantly deepen liquidity in African capital markets, while positioning Nigeria as a major hub for cross-border investments, especially as the country eyes a return to the FTSE Russell Frontier Markets Index.
They added that the offering could also provide much-needed capital to support Dangote’s aggressive expansion strategy.
Currently, the refinery, the largest single-train facility in the world, has a processing capacity of 650,000 barrels per day. However, Dangote plans to more than double this to 1.4 million barrels per day within the next three years, a scale that would rival global refining giants, including facilities owned by Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani.
To fund this expansion, the company recently secured backing from the African Export-Import Bank, which underwrote $2.5bn out of a $4bn syndicated financing facility.
The refinery expansion forms part of a broader $40bn investment programme outlined by Dangote over the next five years, covering petrochemicals, fertiliser production, and energy infrastructure.
The pan-African IPO is also being driven by rising demand for refined petroleum products across the continent, as several African countries continue to face supply challenges exacerbated by global geopolitical tensions.
Since commencing operations, the Lagos-based refinery has begun exporting refined fuel to multiple African markets, helping to reduce reliance on imports from Europe and the Middle East.
Further discussions on the proposed listing were also held between Dangote and officials of the Nigerian Exchange Group, alongside representatives of member exchanges of the African Securities Exchanges Association, focusing on frameworks that would allow investors from different jurisdictions to seamlessly access the IPO.
The deal could mark a turning point for Africa’s financial markets by fostering greater integration, improving capital mobilisation, and offering retail and institutional investors across the continent a rare opportunity to own a stake in one of Africa’s most strategic industrial assets.
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