President and Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, on Monday declared that the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of the 650,000-barrels-per-day Dangote Refinery would give ordinary Nigerians an opportunity to buy shares in the facility.

Dangote made the declaration while delivering the opening speech at the signing ceremony in Lagos on Monday.

“What we are trying to achieve is to make sure our drivers, cooks, servants, and everybody have the opportunity of having stakes in the refinery,” he declared.

Chairman of Zenith Bank, Jim Ovia, and Chairman of Heirs Holdings, Tony Elumelu, were among other financial experts who attended the historic refinery IPO signing ceremony held in Lagos State.

Under the IPO, the private refinery will offer 4.1 billion ordinary shares of $0.000013 each for subscription at ₦525 per share.

The official application list will open on September 14, 2026, and run for exactly 25 days, closing on October 9, 2026.

Investors can participate with a minimum subscription of 100 ordinary shares, valued at ₦52,500, and in multiples of 50 shares thereafter.

The ceremony, led by the leadership of Dangote Petroleum Refinery, headed by Dangote, marks the refinery’s first public offer since its inauguration in 2023, following nearly 10 years of construction and an investment of approximately $20 billion.

Located in the Lekki Free Zone in Lagos, the refinery has a refining capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, making it Africa’s largest single-train refinery.

The Securities and Exchange Commission approved the launch of the IPO, “paving the way for what could become one of the largest capital market transactions in Nigeria’s history”, the company said.

Proceeds from the public float are intended to fund a major expansion of the Lagos-based facility, raising its processing capacity from its current operational baseline of 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 1.4 million bpd.

Achieving that target would make it the largest operating oil refinery in the world, surpassing India’s Jamnagar complex.

The capital raise follows a $2.5 billion private placement completed in July.

At the offer price of ₦525 per share, the market valuation of the refinery stands at approximately $47 billion.

If fully subscribed, the listing will, by itself, increase the total market capitalisation of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) by an estimated 30 to 40 per cent.

To attract both institutional and retail buyers, the company has proposed paying dividends in US dollars, leveraging foreign exchange revenues generated from refined-product and petrochemical exports to cushion investors against local-currency volatility.

The Dangote Refinery was commissioned in May 2023.

While the refinery currently meets more than 80 per cent of Nigeria’s domestic petrol demand, its long-term returns remain tied to crude feedstock availability, export growth, and refining margins.

Data from the Africa Finance Corporation indicate that African nations spend more than $230 billion annually on imported commodities, with refined fuel accounting for more than 70 per cent of regional consumption. The Dangote Group is positioning its refining capacity to address this regional deficit.

As part of its broader footprint, the group also plans to break ground on a 700,000-bpd coastal facility in Lamu, Kenya, on September 30.

The September 14 public offering will serve as a key indicator of market liquidity on the domestic exchange and investor demand for large-scale industrial asset