Nigeria’s capital markets are bracing for what could be the largest share sale in the country’s history after the Securities and Exchange Commission formally approved the initial public offering of Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals FZE, the Dangote Group confirmed on Friday.
The regulator’s approval, conveyed in a letter to lead issuing house Vetiva Advisory Services Limited and signed by the Director of the Securities and Investment Services Department of the SEC, Abdulkadir Abbas, clears the final regulatory hurdle for a transaction that Reuters and company sources say could reshape the profile of African capital markets.
The refinery is proposing to sell 4.1 billion ordinary shares at N525 apiece, a structure that could generate roughly N2.15 trillion, the equivalent of about $1.55 billion if the offer is fully subscribed.
Alongside the new share issue, the SEC has registered the company’s existing 120.13 billion ordinary shares, a move Reuters calculates implies a company valuation in the region of $47 billion.
That scale places the transaction firmly in record territory for Nigeria’s exchange, with local media describing it as poised to become one of the largest capital market transactions in Nigeria’s history.
The facility at the heart of the offer needs little introduction on the continent. Built on the outskirts of Lagos at a cost of roughly $20 billion, the 650,000-barrel-per-day refinery has moved rapidly from construction milestone to market force since coming online, cementing itself as a dominant supplier of refined products both domestically and abroad.
Its footprint is increasingly visible in trade data. According to U.S. Energy Information Administration figures, Nigeria’s seaborne refined petroleum exports to Europe jumped roughly 767% to 130,000 barrels per day in the second quarter of 2026, up from just 15,000 barrels per day in 2023, a surge attributed largely to the refinery’s ramp-up.
The subscription is expected to open on September 14, according to a source familiar with the matter, a timeline that aligns with comments made by Aliko Dangote, the group’s majority shareholder and chief executive, at a business gathering in Botswana earlier in the week. Dangote told investors the offer would launch within 10 to 12 days of his remarks.
The company has spent recent months shoring up its balance sheet ahead of the listing. It raised $2.5 billion through a private placement and on August 18 announced it had completed a $1 billion underwriting programme, insurance of sorts against any shortfall in investor demand. A formal signing ceremony with the Nigerian Exchange is expected to follow next week, according to company sources.
For Aliko Dangote, the IPO is being pitched as more than a domestic milestone. Speaking in Botswana, he framed the offer explicitly as a pan-African event rather than a Nigerian one, telling investors it would be priced and settled in dollar terms for participants across the continent, including Nigerian retail investors.
He has also set out an ambitious earnings target for the refinery, aiming for it to rank among Africa’s largest companies with EBITDA exceeding $12 billion.
Proceeds from the sale are earmarked chiefly for expansion, more than doubling the plant’s capacity from 650,000 to 1.4 million barrels per day, a move that would push it further up the ranks of the world’s largest refining complexes.
The group is simultaneously eyeing refining opportunities beyond Nigeria’s borders, including a proposed facility in Kenya, suggesting the Lagos plant may become the flagship of a broader continental refining network rather than a standalone asset.
With SEC approval secured and underwriting commitments locked in, attention now shifts to next week’s signing ceremony with the Nigerian Exchange and the September 14 subscription opening.
For a market that has watched the refinery evolve from a multibillion-dollar construction project into a genuine export force, the listing represents the first real opportunity for ordinary investors in Nigeria and across Africa to own a stake in it directly.
Whether the offer draws enough demand to hit its N2.15 trillion ceiling will be the first test of how far retail and institutional appetite extends for what Dangote insists is not just a Nigerian story but an African one.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
Nigeria’s SEC has cleared the Dangote Refinery IPO, a 4.1 billion share offer at N525 each, potentially raising N2.15 trillion ($1.55 billion) and valuing the company near $47 billion. The subscription opens September 14, positioning it as Africa’s largest-ever share sale.
This isn’t just a Nigerian listing; it’s a deliberate continental play. Dangote has structured the offer to be dollar-denominated and open to investors across Africa, using the proceeds to double refining capacity to 1.4 million barrels per day.
For everyday investors, it’s a rare chance to own equity in Africa’s largest industrial asset, one already reshaping fuel trade from Nigeria to Europe.
