• Aliko: No amount of hurdles will stop us from industrialising Africa
•Says IPO offering Nigerians stake in continent’s biggest project
• Rewane: Offer can trigger industrial transformation
•Facility raises $750m eurobond on Vienna stock exchange
Emmanuel Addeh, James Emejo in Abuja and Peter Uzoho, Kayode Tokede in Lagos
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State has described the Dangote Refinery as more than merely an industrial project, asserting that its construction showcased Africa’s ability to execute ambitious projects on a market-changing scale.
Sanwo-Olu spoke yesterday at the official launch of the Africa–Diaspora Leadership Programme 2026 Young Global Leaders Convening, tagged “Building Africa at Scale,” held at the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical Complex in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos.
The governor disclosed that the refinery was built on land reclaimed from swamp, lagoon, and open water, while additional infrastructure, including a jetty and power plant, had to be developed to support the project.
He cautioned, however, that Africa’s development should not rely on individual “heroism,” emphasising that the true measure of the refinery’s success is whether the next major industrial project becomes easier to build.
Sanwo-Olu highlighted the Lekki Deep Sea Port, Lekki Free Zone, and Lagos Blue Line rail as part of his administration’s efforts to create infrastructure that would lessen the barriers for future investors and developers.
The governor also called for increased participation of African pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and the diaspora in owning strategic assets across the continent. He stated that Africa’s next growth phase requires collective ownership and collaboration.
He said: “Mr. Dangote did not build a refinery. He built a country around a refinery, and then he built the refinery. There was no port capable of receiving the equipment, so he built a jetty.
“There was not enough power, so he built a power plant. The plant was late; it cost far more than anyone had planned. It endured a pandemic, a currency that lost much of its value, and more than one season in which serious people whispered — quietly, and sometimes not so quietly — that it would never run.
“It runs. That is the first thing to note: Africa can build on a market-changing scale. Not in theory. The thing dismissed as unrealistic is the very thing you are standing inside.
“Scale that depends on one man building his own port and his own power plant is not real scale. It is heroism. And heroism does not repeat. You cannot ask a pension fund to underwrite it. If Africa must wait for a builder of Aliko Dangote’s stubbornness every time it needs a refinery or a railway, then we will build one of everything, and we will build it once.”
Sanwo-Olu urged the Young Global Leaders to move beyond discussions and turn connections made during the gathering into practical projects that address real problems, insisting that Africa does not need the world’s permission to build.
He said: “In eleven days, you will gather at 1280 Fifth Avenue, on the edge of Harlem, overlooking Central Park. When you get there, notice something. You will be standing in an island city built on water by people who arrived from somewhere else with nothing but ambition — and you will have just left another one.
“Lagos and New York are not strangers. They are the same argument in two accents: that a city can be made from the sheer determination of people who refused to wait for conditions to be perfect. Carry that with you.
“Carry the numbers, yes, but carry the harder lesson too: that Africa does not need the world’s permission to build, and that the world, if it comes as a partner and not a prospector, will find that Africa has already started.”
At the event, Dangote said the philosophy behind the IPO was to extend the prosperity created by the refinery beyond its promoters and give ordinary Africans an opportunity to become owners, a statement by Dangote Group quoted him as saying.
“I want drivers, cooks, the women selling food on the streets of Ghana, Rwanda and South Africa to invest so they can share in this prosperity,” Dangote said during a fireside chat. “We are doing the IPO to pass this prosperity to Africans,” he explained.
Dangote said his ambition had always gone beyond accumulating wealth to building enterprises capable of creating jobs, opportunities and prosperity across the continent.
“I am wealthy, not rich. A wealthy man creates wealth, while a rich man makes money and keeps it for himself,” he said. “What keeps me going is that we must industrialise Africa. There is no amount of hurdles that will stop us. If you put a brick wall in front of me, I will make a hole and pass through.”
He expressed confidence that the refinery could eventually become Africa’s largest company by size and profitability, drawing parallels with global corporations such as Amazon, Microsoft, Tesla and Alibaba, which grew substantially after entering the public markets.
“By the grace of God, this refinery will be the largest company in Africa by size and profitability,” he said.
He said the group’s wider mission was to reduce the perceived risks associated with investing in Africa and demonstrate that globally competitive enterprises could be built successfully on the continent. “Our job is to derisk Africa, encourage more investors, create jobs and create more opportunities. That is how we will transform Africa,” Dangote said.
Speaking, former United States Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs and Co-Chair of the Africa Center, Ambassador Jendayi Frazer, said the proposed IPO could connect African industrial production with African and diaspora capital, broadening participation in the value created by the continent’s strategic assets.
“The refinery connects us all through the proposed IPO that creates broader ownership,” Frazer said. “It can broaden participation in the value created by African industry. It can connect investment with African production to scale with African institutions, pension funds, savers, individual investors, including the African diaspora coming into this, owning a stake in Africa’s growth.”
Frazer said the refinery had already “changed the equation” for Africa, with implications extending far beyond petroleum production into the continent’s geopolitical standing.
“Economic power is not only what a country possesses, it’s what it can create, process, finance, transport and sell. Supply chains, energy systems and capital markets shape sovereignty,” she said.
She said the refinery demonstrated what was possible when African ambition was matched by capital, technical knowledge, partnerships and disciplined execution.
Group Executive Director, Commercial Operations, Dangote Industries Limited, Fatima Aliko-Dangote, said Africa must now move beyond merely possessing natural resources and talent to building the productive capacity and institutions required to retain the value they create.
She said the deeper question was what Africa could build, process, finance and own, arguing that development must ultimately translate into tangible improvements in people’s lives.
“This is more than a Dangote story. It is a story about what Africa must build, what Africa must own, and what this generation of leaders must help make possible,” she said.
A Trustee of the Aliko Dangote Foundation, The Africa Centre in New York and Patron of the Aliko Dangote Young Global Leaders Fellowship, she said that sustainable development must ultimately be measured by its impact on people.
Similarly, the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), which provided significant financial backing for the refinery, described the project as its African industrialisation mission “made concrete”.
Speaking on behalf of the President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank, Director, Creatives and Diaspora, Intra African Trade and Export Development Bank, Temwa Roosevelt Gondwe, said Afreximbank underwrote $2.5 billion of the $4 billion syndicated loan supporting the refinery and subsequently provided a $1 billion working capital facility.
“Unless we produce, we cannot trade. Unless we capture value, we cannot prosper,” Gondwe said, describing the refinery as proof that Africa could move from exporting raw materials towards processing resources and capturing more value on the continent.
The convening also highlighted the Aliko Dangote Foundation’s investment in Africa’s leadership pipeline.
Also yesterday, Dangote, emphasised that the planned public offering of shares in Dangote Petroleum Refinery was not merely a capital-raising exercise but an opportunity to broaden Nigerians’ participation in one of Africa’s most ambitious industrial investments.
Dangote spoke at the Abuja leg of the refinery’s investor roadshow tagged, “The Eagle Has Landed”.
He said the offering was designed to give ordinary Nigerians and other investors an opportunity to take ownership in an industrial asset with significant implications for the country’s energy security, Foreign Exchange (FX) earnings and broader economic development.
The proposed Initial Public Offering (IPO), which is expected to become Africa’s largest, is targeting about N2.15 trillion from investors through the offer of 4.1 billion shares at N525 each.
Dangote said the refinery represented a long-term investment rather than an opportunity built around temporary market conditions, stressing that the company’s ambition extended beyond its current operations. He was represented by the group’s Regional Director and Senior Adviser, Fatima Abdurrahman.
He said the refinery was being positioned for further expansion, with plans to increase its processing capacity substantially, while also developing supporting infrastructure that would strengthen its ability to serve both the Nigerian and wider African markets.
According to him, the objective is to build an enduring industrial enterprise capable of creating value for shareholders while contributing to Nigeria’s emergence as a major refining and energy hub.
Dangote maintained that the investment case for the refinery should be viewed from its long-term fundamentals and potential rather than short-term developments in the global oil market.
In his intervention, Managing Director/Chief Executive, Financial Derivatives Company Limited (FDC), Mr. Bismarck Rewane, said the planned IPO could become a catalyst for industrial transformation, deepening the capital market while reducing Africa’s dependence on imported refined petroleum products.
Rewane said the significance of the offering extended well beyond the Nigerian Exchange (NGX), stating that the refinery had the potential to reshape regional energy trade, stimulate industrial output and create stronger linkages across the Nigerian economy.
He noted that Africa had historically lacked sufficient functional refining capacity but said the emergence of the Dangote refinery had positioned Nigeria as a potential refining hub for West and Central Africa.
According to him, the facility’s impact would become more pronounced as its backward and forward linkages expand, particularly with the development of pipeline infrastructure capable of improving operational efficiency and lowering logistics costs.
Rewane said the refinery’s integration into the wider economy could generate a multiplier effect, strengthening Nigeria’s industrial base while supporting real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth.
He said the IPO could therefore be viewed as much more than a stock market transaction, describing it as a potential catalyst for capital mobilisation, refinery expansion, import substitution, exports and increased foreign exchange earnings.
The economist also projected that the offering could deepen participation in the Nigerian capital market and strengthen investor confidence by providing investors with an opportunity to take positions in a major productive asset.
Beyond Nigeria, Rewane said a more efficient and expanded Dangote refinery could help reduce Africa’s reliance on refined petroleum products sourced from Europe and the Middle East.
He added that increased domestic refining capacity could also encourage stronger intra-African trade, particularly as countries within the region increasingly source refined products from a major refinery located on the continent.
For the average Nigerian, Rewane said the significance of the offer should not be limited to the immediate value of the shares purchased but to the potential benefits of disciplined, long-term investment.
Using an illustrative investment of N5,250, he demonstrated how consistent reinvestment could potentially grow a modest investment substantially over five years if an annual growth rate of 50 per cent were sustained.
Rewane further linked the refinery’s potential impact to Nigeria’s broader economic ambitions for 2030. He outlined a scenario in which Nigeria’s nominal GDP could rise from a baseline of about $278 billion to $600 billion by 2030, supported by stronger real GDP growth, increased investment, higher oil production and improved manufacturing performance.
In his keynote address at the roadshow, Professor of Capital Market, Nasarawa State University Keffi (NSUK), Uche Uwaleke, urged prospective investors seeking to participate to look beyond immediate price movements and consider the potential of the underlying business over the longer term.
He also urged them to approach the IPO from the standpoint of sound investment principles rather than sentiment or the prominence of the Dangote brand.
Uwaleke advised investors to study the offer documents carefully and understand the fundamentals of the business before committing their funds.
He emphasised the importance of examining the company’s earnings prospects, business model, valuation, risks and expected returns, noting that investors should make decisions based on their individual financial circumstances and investment objectives.
He also stressed the need for investors to distinguish between the reputation of a promoter and the actual investment merits of a company.
Also speaking at the event, economic analyst and consultant, Dr. Biodun Adedipe, said the refinery’s emergence as a major domestic refining facility had implications far beyond the petroleum industry.
Adedipe noted that the project could generate wider economic benefits through its linkages with other sectors, including logistics, manufacturing, agriculture, financial services and trade.
He stressed that the ability of large industrial projects to stimulate other areas of the economy would ultimately determine their broader developmental impact.
The economist also pointed to the importance of ensuring that Nigerians derive greater value from the country’s natural resources through domestic processing and industrialisation.
According to him, the refinery’s significance lies not only in its size but also in its potential to deepen local value addition, strengthen Nigeria’s productive capacity and improve the country’s position in regional energy markets.
Besides, Financial market commentator, Ugodre Obi-Chukwu, also urged investors to pay close attention to the investment opportunity presented by the IPO, particularly the possibility of gaining exposure to a large-scale Nigerian industrial enterprise through the capital market.
He noted that increased participation by retail investors could help deepen the Nigerian equities market while giving more Nigerians the opportunity to benefit from the growth of major domestic businesses.
Obi-Chukwu, however, echoed the need for investors to understand what they were buying and to approach the offer with a clear investment strategy.
The roadshow in Abuja formed part of efforts to educate prospective investors ahead of the offer, with the company seeking to broaden participation in what is expected to be a landmark transaction for the Nigerian capital market.
Meanwhile, the Dangote Petroleum Refinery has raised $750 million through debut Eurobond listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange, with a term of 10-year senior unsecured notes, due July 16, 2036.
The coupon rate, which is 8.375 per cent, has a date of January 16, 2027 and pricing/settlement fixed for September 9, 2026, with the denominations fixed at $200,000 x $1,000.
A report seen by THISDAY stated that J.P. Morgan, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, are the lead bookrunners.
Analysts said the amount raised is targeted at funding expansion and strengthening the balance sheet of the Refinery ahead of Initial Public Offer (IPO), maintaining that the proceeds would help double capacity to 1.4 million barrels per day by 2028.
The refinery had also announced a plan to invest about $14.3billion to expand capacity to 1.4 million barrels/day from 700,000 barrels per day, so part of the investment case is essentially betting on the refinery becoming much larger and more profitable. The refinery is currently maximising its production of diesel and aviation fuel for the European market, where supplies from the Middle East have been severely disrupted.
The $750 million Eurobond is coming days Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) granted approval of its listing on Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) next week, as the company and its advisers had signed the documents for the proposed IPO at a ceremony in Lagos.
The offer is scheduled to open for subscription on Monday, September 14, and close on October 13, 2026, with trading in the refinery’s shares expected to commence on the NGX in late November.