Why Dangote’s Nigeria Refinery IPO Is Such a Big Deal for Africa
A mega-refinery in Nigeria owned by Africa’s richest person is going public, seeking to raise at least $1.6 billion to help fund its expansion. The share sale is set to be the continent’s largest-ever initial public offering. Aliko Dangote has pitched it as an “IPO for the people” and aims to draw in millions of first-time investors by setting the minimum stake in his firm at just $4.
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KAMPALA, Oct 7 (Reuters) — Uganda's Capital Markets Authority has approved investors within the East African country to participate in the Dangote Petroleum Refinery's initial public offering (IPO), a statement on X showed late on Tuesday. Aliko Dangote, Africa's richest man, launched a $1.6 billion initial public offering of the refinery in September, to fund a doubling of its capacity to 1.4 million barrels per day. The deal is being marketed as a "people's IPO" and would be Africa's largest. In the statement, Uganda's state-run Capital Markets Authority (CMA) said it had approved the offer of securities under the IPO of Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals FZE. The approval was granted after an application submitted on behalf of the refinery by Stanbic IBTC Capital Limited. This week Kenya also allowed its investors to participate in the IPO after its capital markets regulator approved a short-form prospectus for a global depository receipt. The Dangote refinery was built by Dangote Group over a period of 10 years at a cost of $20 billion. The refinery, which processes 700,000 barrels of crude a day on the outskirts of Lagos, has reshaped Nigeria's fuel market since it started operations in 2024. (Reporting by VIncent Mumo Nzilani and Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)