Africa’s richest man aiming to make $23bn from continent’s biggest-ever IPO

Aliko Dangote speaks at the Nigerian stock exchange in Lagos to launch the Dangote refinery IPO. Photograph: Sodiq Adelakun/ReutersView image in fullscreenAliko Dangote speaks at the Nigerian stock exchange in Lagos to launch the Dangote refinery IPO. Photograph: Sodiq Adelakun/ReutersAfrica’s richest man aiming to make $23bn from continent’s biggest-ever IPOPublic offering of Aliko Dangote’s Nigerian oil refinery business could swell his net wealth by two-thirds

The fortune of Africa’s richest person could swell by two thirds to nearly $60bn (£44bn) after his refinery in Nigeria listed publicly in the continent’s biggest-ever initial public offering.

If Monday’s flotation of Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals on the Nigerian exchange goes to plan, then Aliko Dangote will add a further $23bn (£17bn) to his $35bn net worth.

Dangote, who has framed the offering as “an IPO for the people”, hopes it will draw in a broad mix of institutional and retail investors with a minimum subscription of just 10 shares at a cost of 5,250 naira (£2.94). The share purchases have a month to complete, with the process finishing on 13 October.

The IPO has been marketed to young Nigerians in particular, through banking platforms and fintech ventures, as a way of building wealth and growing the economy. If completely subscribed, the refinery’s value is expected to rise to about 65.22tn naira (£36.5bn).

That would be a big win for Dangote, who has financed several successful presidential campaigns in Nigeria, where policymakers have granted him a near monopoly in his chosen sectors.

Read moreResponding last year to criticism of his political influence, he said: “We have chosen to build here, to employ here, to produce here. Let us not use the cry of monopoly to stall growth. No one is prevented from investing.”

Dangote, 69, made his fortune in cement and sugar. He started his company in the late 1970s with a loan from his maternal grandfather, who was a member of one of west Africa’s all-time richest families, the Dantatas.

His recent move into the petroleum sector led to Nigeria becoming a net exporter of refined fuel for the first time. Prior to the opening of the $20bn Dangote refinery on the outskirts of Lagos in January 2024, the country had relied on exporting crude and importing refined petroleum for domestic use, while expending billions to subsidise fuel costs and inject life into its colonial-era refineries.

The Dangote refinery now has a capacity of 700,000 barrels a day and is expected to double that by the end of the decade. This year, it has benefited from disruptions in supply across the globe as a result of the war in Iran. The Brent crude benchmark touched $108 a barrel on Monday, after attacks on Saudi Arabia’s east-west pipeline.

Dangote has said he will use profits from his Lagos oil refinery to spur continental growth and curb Africa’s reliance on foreign goods. His ambitious plan is to build a $100bn industrial empire centred on heavy manufacturing and regional infrastructure. Key to this is a planned $17bn energy complex in the Kenyan island town of Lamu with an oil-refining capacity of 700,000 barrels a day, to boost the region’s energy security.

“We, as Nigerians and Africans, must be bold and lead the change to develop our economies,” Dangote said at an IPO signing ceremony in Lagos on 7 September. “Only then will the others take us very seriously, only then we’ll be in a position to negotiate and walk away with terms we deserve, not those terms that are given to us.”

After the ceremony, Dangote’s fellow Nigerian billionaire, the banker Tony Elumelu, called the IPO “a landmark moment for Nigeria and a huge milestone for Africa”.