ABUJA, Nigeria — Investors placed orders worth more than $7 million (10 billion naira) within the first hour of Dangote Petroleum Refinery’s initial public offering on Monday, signaling strong early demand for what is expected to be Africa’s largest-ever IPO.
Dangote Refinery opened the monthlong offer on Sept. 14, offering 4.1 billion ordinary shares at 525 naira each in an effort to raise about $1.6 billion, or 2.15 trillion naira.
“With this particular, sterling, historic offer and what I have seen in the data room, where already billions of naira have been subscribed by thousands of investors within minutes or under an hour, you are a blessing to humanity,” Access Holdings Chairman Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede said during a presentation at the Nigerian Exchange in Lagos, according to Premium Times.
Umaru Kwairanga, chairman of the Nigerian Exchange Group, gave an early indication of the amount committed by investors.
“From eight o’clock today, we are talking of over 10 billion and above that have already joined,” Kwairanga said.
The orders placed during the first hour amount to less than 0.5% of the total funds Dangote Refinery is seeking to raise. The early figure therefore indicates initial investor interest but does not establish that the offer has been fully subscribed.
The offer will remain open until Oct. 13, with the company expecting its shares to begin trading on the Nigerian Exchange in November.
Investors can subscribe for a minimum of 10 shares, costing 5,250 naira, or about $4. Dangote Refinery has approved 40 banks, fintech companies and mobile money operators to facilitate subscriptions.
The offering is designed to attract retail investors, with the company targeting as many as 10 million shareholders across Africa. It will give members of the public an opportunity to acquire a direct stake in the refinery, while Aliko Dangote and existing investors will retain control of the business.
If fully subscribed, the offering would surpass previous listings on African stock exchanges and significantly expand the size of Nigeria’s equities market.
The Nigerian Exchange had a market capitalization of about $117 billion, or 157.6 trillion naira, when trading opened Monday. Dangote Refinery is being valued at about $47 billion to $49 billion under the offering, meaning its listing could substantially increase the exchange’s overall market value.
That valuation will face further scrutiny once trading begins and the refinery’s share price is determined by market demand rather than the fixed IPO price.
Dangote Refinery plans to use the proceeds to support an expansion program that would increase its processing capacity from about 700,000 barrels per day to 1.4 million barrels per day by 2029 or 2030.
The refinery, located outside Lagos, would then rank among the world’s largest refining facilities, alongside India’s Jamnagar complex.
Built at a reported cost of about $20 billion and operational since 2024, the refinery has altered petroleum trade flows in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy and a major crude oil producer. Nigeria had previously relied heavily on imported petroleum products despite its domestic crude production.
The refinery has since increased local fuel production and exports to other African and international markets.
Dangote Refinery reported net profit of $1.82 billion in the first half of 2026, compared with a loss of $476 million a year earlier.
Before the IPO, the refinery raised $2.5 billion from institutional investors through a private placement led by the Africa Finance Corp.
The public offering is being closely watched as a test of retail investor participation in Nigeria’s capital market and could influence how other privately held African companies approach public fundraising.
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