Africa’s wealthiest man, Alh. Aliko Dangote, has disclosed that the highly publicised initial public offering (IPO) of Dangote Petroleum Refinery failed to meet its ambitious target of attracting 10 million investors, despite generating subscription orders estimated at ₦6.4 trillion.
Dangote made the disclosure at the 25th Annual Conference of Women in Management, Business and Public Service (WIMBIZ), held on November 5–6, 2026, in Lagos. He attributed the shortfall to time constraints and difficulties prospective investors encountered accessing the offer. “We didn’t hit the 10 million because of time constraint, and a lot of people, they didn’t know how to access,” he said, adding that the final number of participating investors had yet to be officially established.
Despite missing the target, Dangote described the response as impressive, drawing comparisons with other major public offerings. He cited GTBank’s previous offer, which he said attracted approximately 200,000 investors, Kenya’s Safaricom, with fewer than 900,000, and Saudi Aramco’s global IPO, which recorded about five million investors.
The industrialist said the refinery’s offer had attracted millions of participants, demonstrating growing confidence among Nigerians and other Africans in investing in businesses rather than leaving their money idle. He added that the experience had changed his perception of Africa’s capacity to mobilise domestic capital for major industrial ventures.
Branded The People’s IPO, the offer opened on September 14, 2026, with 4.1 billion ordinary shares priced at ₦525 each. Investors could subscribe to a minimum of 10 shares for ₦5,250. Initially scheduled to close on October 13, the deadline was extended to October 27.
The company targeted approximately ₦2.15 trillion, but Reuters reported that subscription orders reached about ₦6.4 trillion, nearly three times the offer size. More than two million investors had reportedly subscribed through digital channels before the offer closed, with applications received from 120 countries, including all 54 African countries.
Proceeds from the offer are expected to support the refinery’s expansion plans, including increasing its installed processing capacity of approximately 700,000 barrels per day to 1.4 million barrels per day by 2029.
The next milestones include regulatory approval of share allotments, crediting successful investors’ accounts and the planned listing on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX).