Africa's richest person and President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has explained why the Dangote Petroleum Refinery rejected the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited's (NNPC) request to increase its equity stake.

Dangote disclosed this during an interview with Nicolai Tangen, CEO of the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund, on Wednesday, May 13. The NNPC currently owns a 7.25% stake in the $20 billion Lekki-based refinery, having acquired the shares for $1 billion in 2021. Initially, the state oil company had planned to acquire a 20% stake before reducing the deal.

According to Dangote, the refinery denied the NNPC's request for additional equity because the company intends to broaden ownership and eventually permit more Nigerians to participate through a public listing. He emphasized that the company aims to spread the shares across a wider pool of investors rather than concentrating ownership further.

Dangote also reiterated that future investors in his businesses would be able to receive dividends in foreign currency. This move is anticipated to attract both local and foreign investors amidst ongoing pressure on the naira. He stated that the company's growing export earnings from cement, fertiliser, petrochemicals, and refined petroleum products provide sufficient foreign exchange inflows to sustain dollar-denominated dividend payments.

“What we are announcing is that when you invest in any of our businesses going forward, in cement or in the refinery, in petrochemicals, in fertiliser, we guarantee to pay you a dividend in dollars because we are very well into exports. 80 per cent of our revenue will be in dollars,” he said.

Dangote further shared personal sacrifices made in building his industrial empire in Nigeria, including selling luxury properties in the United States and the United Kingdom to focus on his domestic businesses.