President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, is targeting a valuation of $50 billion for his Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals ahead of a planned stock market listing later this year. This valuation aims to signal the refinery's significant worth to potential investors following its commencement of operations in 2024.
Bloomberg reports that the refinery company could sell up to a 10 per cent stake through the Nigerian stock exchange, implying a potential offering size of about $5 billion. A senior executive at the Dangote Group confirmed that the projected valuation aligns with the company’s current internal expectations.
The planned listing comes as stronger global crude oil prices and growing domestic fuel demand improve the commercial outlook for the 650,000 barrels-per-day refinery. It has increasingly become a dominant player in Nigeria’s downstream petroleum market.
Dangote is planning a landmark cross-border public offering of his $20 billion oil refinery, which could reshape capital markets across Africa and deepen regional investor participation. 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 meeting in Lagos involving 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, disclosed that discussions centered 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, 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 the meeting but declined to provide further details on the structure and timeline of the proposed offering.
The development follows months after Dangote unveiled plans to list about 10 per cent of the refinery on the Nigerian Exchange Group in 2026. This move is 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. The Chief Executive Officer of FirstCap, Ukandu Ukandu, confirmed the appointments, stating that the advisers were already working on the transaction structure.
A multi-exchange listing could significantly deepen liquidity in African capital markets while positioning Nigeria as a major hub for cross-border investments. The offering could also provide much-needed capital to support Dangote’s aggressive expansion strategy. The refinery, the largest single-train facility in the world, has a processing capacity of 650,000 barrels per day. Dangote plans to more than double this to 1.4 million barrels per day within the next three years. To fund this expansion, the company recently secured backing from the African Export-Import Bank, which underwrote $2.5 billion out of a $4 billion syndicated financing facility.
