Nigeria’s Dangote refinery IPO puts Africa’s refining shift in focus
Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals FZE opened a NGN2.15 trillion ($1.62bn) IPO on September 14, offering 4.1bn new shares at NGN525 each, about 3.3% of enlarged share capital; it is Africa’s largest share sale to date. Nigeria’s seaborne petroleum-product imports fell from almost 400,000 bpd in 2023 to less than 130,000 bpd in Q2 2026, while product exports averaged about 350,000 bpd. The IPO prospectus says Dangote plans to spend about $14.3bn to raise crude-distillation capacity from 700,000 bpd to 1.4mn bpd by 2029.
Why it matters: The IPO puts Africa’s refining shift in focus because the planned expansion and feedstock constraints will determine whether more of Africa’s oil is refined on the continent.