The proposed Initial Public Offering (IPO) of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals has received strong backing from African and international leaders, who described the plan as an opportunity to democratise ownership of one of the continent’s biggest industrial assets.
The leaders spoke at the 2026 ADF Africa Diaspora Leadership Programme Young Global Leaders Convening in Lagos, where they said the proposed IPO could give ordinary Africans, pension funds, institutional investors and members of the African diaspora an opportunity to participate in the wealth generated by the refinery.
President and Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, said the decision to take the refinery to the public market was driven by a desire to extend its prosperity beyond its promoters.
Dangote said he wanted ordinary Africans, including drivers, cooks and small business owners, to have the opportunity to invest in the refinery and benefit from its success.
“We are doing the IPO to pass this prosperity to Africans,” he said.
The billionaire industrialist said his focus had always been on creating wealth through industrialisation, job creation and expanded economic opportunities rather than merely accumulating personal wealth.
“I am wealthy, not rich. A wealthy man creates wealth, while a rich man makes money and keeps it for himself,” Dangote said, stressing that his determination to industrialise Africa would not be hindered by challenges.
He expressed optimism that the refinery could eventually become Africa’s largest company by size and profitability, noting that several leading global corporations achieved significant growth after accessing public capital markets.
Dangote also said the refinery was part of a broader effort to reduce the risks associated with investing in Africa and encourage more capital and investors into the continent.
“Our job is to derisk Africa, encourage more investors, create jobs and create more opportunities. That is how we will transform Africa,” he said.
Former United States Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs and Co-Chair of The Africa Center, Ambassador Jendayi Frazer, said the IPO could provide a bridge between African industrial production and African and diaspora capital.
According to her, wider ownership of the refinery would enable pension funds, individual investors, savers, institutions and members of the diaspora to hold a stake in Africa’s economic growth.
Frazer said the refinery had already altered Africa’s economic and geopolitical equation by demonstrating the continent’s ability to produce and process strategic resources at global scale.
“Economic power is not only what a country possesses, it’s what it can create, process, finance, transport and sell,” she said, adding that supply chains, energy systems and capital markets were increasingly important to national sovereignty.
She further argued that Africa did not need external permission to develop its industrial capacity, urging international partners to approach the continent as partners rather than merely as prospectors.
Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, also backed the idea of broader African ownership of strategic assets, saying the continent’s next phase of development should involve millions of ordinary people participating in its economic growth.
Sanwo-Olu described the Dangote refinery as evidence that Africa could execute projects previously considered impossible.
“Mr Dangote did not build a refinery. He built a country around a refinery, and then he built the refinery,” the governor said.
He noted that the project required the development of supporting infrastructure, including a jetty and power plant, because existing facilities were inadequate to meet its requirements.
According to him, the refinery survived major construction difficulties, the COVID-19 pandemic and severe currency depreciation despite widespread doubts about whether the project would ever become operational.
“It runs,” Sanwo-Olu declared, describing the refinery as proof that Africa could build projects of market-changing scale.
He, however, challenged African governments to improve infrastructure and institutions so that future investors would not have to overcome the same obstacles faced by the Dangote project.
“The true measure of this refinery is not that it stands. It is whether the next one is easier,” he said.
Group Executive Director, Commercial Operations, Dangote Industries Limited, Fatima Aliko Dangote, said Africa must move beyond the possession of natural resources and talent to developing the productive capacity and institutions needed to retain more value within the continent.
She said the conversation should focus not only on what Africa possesses but also on what it can build, process, finance and own.
“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.
Meanwhile, the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) described its financial support for the refinery as a practical demonstration of its commitment to African industrialisation.
Speaking on behalf of Afreximbank President and Chairman of the Board, Dr George Elombi, the bank’s Director of 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 that supported the refinery.
He added that the bank later provided a $1 billion working capital facility.
“Unless we produce, we cannot trade. Unless we capture value, we cannot prosper,” Gondwe said, stressing the importance of processing Africa’s raw materials within the continent.
The convening also spotlighted the Aliko Dangote Foundation’s investment in developing Africa’s next generation of leaders.
Over the past 15 years, the Aliko Dangote Young Global Leaders Fellowship, in partnership with the World Economic Forum, has supported more than 130 young African leaders to join the global Young Global Leaders community.
Among the beneficiaries who commended the Foundation for its support were Lady Mariéme Jamme, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of I Am The Code; Chief Executive Officer of African Leadership Academy, Hatim Eltayeb; and Kenyan technologist and open-source advocate, Angela Oduor Lungati.
The discussions reinforced the argument that the proposed Dangote Refinery IPO could represent more than a conventional capital-market transaction, potentially opening a new pathway for Africans at home and abroad to participate directly in the ownership of strategic industrial assets.
