By Radarr Africa Business Desk
LAGOS, October 28 (Radarr Africa) – Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals closed its initial public offering (IPO) on Tuesday, October 27, with investor applications from 120 countries, including all 54 African nations, BusinessDay reported.
The offer, branded “The People’s IPO”, put 4.1 billion ordinary shares on sale at N525 each, a proposed raise of about N2.15 trillion, according to the newspaper.
It opened on September 14 and was due to close on October 13. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved an extension to October 27, BusinessDay said.
Applications came from all six inhabited continents. Commercial banks, stockbrokers, fintech platforms and other capital market institutions distributed the offer, and digital platforms let investors apply without a local broker or a physical presence in Nigeria, the report said.
Aliko Dangote, president and chief executive of Dangote Industries Limited, said the offer was meant to give ordinary Africans a stake in their own industries. “We proved that Africa could build it,” he said, according to BusinessDay.
David Bird, managing director and chief executive of the refinery company, said: “Investor applications spanning 120 countries demonstrate the extraordinary international interest in our business.” He said management’s focus is now on operations, the newspaper reported.
Murat Erden, group chief financial officer of Dangote Industries, cited the refinery’s results for the first nine months of 2026. “It marks a defining moment in the evolution of African capital markets,” he said of the offer.
Revenue for the nine months was $22.5 billion and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were $5.52 billion, BusinessDay reported.
The refinery plans to expand its refining and petrochemical operations and strengthen its distribution network, the newspaper said. It ties the plan to a “Vision 2030” strategy aimed at cutting Africa’s reliance on imported refined petroleum products and supporting energy security.
A separate BusinessDay report on Tuesday on manufacturers’ foreign exchange demand pointed to the refinery’s effect on the country’s trade accounts. It said the refinery’s capacity is expected to rise from 650,000 to 1.4 million barrels per day.
That report said Nigeria earned about $6.13 billion from refined petroleum exports in 2025, according to Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) balance of payments data.
It also said foreign exchange utilisation in the oil sector fell 18.7% to $2.15 billion in the six months to June 2026, from $2.64 billion a year earlier, a reduction of $494.47 million, according to the CBN’s second-quarter bulletin.
Tunde Abidoye, head of research at Quest Merchant Bank, cited import substitution through the Dangote Refinery as one of two factors that may have contributed to lower foreign exchange use. He said he had not yet established how far the factors explain the change, BusinessDay reported.
BusinessDay’s report did not give an allotment date or a date for the shares to begin trading on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX).
The newspaper did not report how many applications were received or how much money was subscribed in total at the close of the offer.
