NOTE this story is for news information purposes only, it is not an invitation to invest.
African investors across different markets have unprecedented access to the $1.6 billion initial public offering (IPO) of shares in Dangote Refinery. This follows months of work by regulators, exchanges, brokers and banks across the continent, opening cross-border investment channels that have been discussed for decades.
The Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals FZE share offer – 4.1bn shares at N525 ($0.40) each, with a minimum application of 10 shares – was launched on 14 September. The share sale could be increased to $2.1bn if there is enough demand. The prospectus can be found on the Dangote Refinery website here.
On 12 October Dangote Refinery announced that the offer, previously due to close on 13 October, would be extended until 27 October. Billionaire Aliko Dangote said the extension was to allow the cross-border participation and that Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission had approved the extension (see interesting stories in African Markets and Ecofin agency). Dangote Refinery CEO David Bird said: “The additional time will help us extend that opportunity to more investors across Africa.”
According to reports, parts of the offering have been reserved for different African regions, including 20% for East African investors.
Dangote Group appointed Stanbic IBTC Capital to coordinate the international placement and manage relationships with foreign investors, Vetiva Capital Management for expertise in the Nigerian market and sales to retail investors, and FirstCap (First Capital) for placements with Nigerian institutional investors, especially pension funds (story on African Markets).
6 months of preparation
Preparations for African access to the share offer started months ago.
On 1 April senior leaders of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), Ethiopian Securities Exchange (ESX), Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières (BRVM) and Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) travelled to Lagos to meet Dangote (see the ACMN story from April. The Rwanda Stock Exchange and the Egyptian Exchange later joined the discussions.
The initial discussions were around cross-listing on other African exchanges, as highlighted by this interview of Frank Mwiti, CEO of the Nairobi Securities Exchange, told Bloomberg “The plan is to structure a pan-African IPO.” (read the interview on Bloomberg in April).
However, from the point of view of an individual exchange, when shares are listed for trading on another exchange, that can take business away from the first exchange. Having large amounts of trading and resulting accurate pricing in one market (known as “liquidity”) is vital for an exchange to perform its economic functions effectively. The counter argument in favour of cross-listing, for instance when African shares are cross-listed in Johannesburg, London or New York, is that this brings in new investors.
By August, the focus had swung onto making the primary listing on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) successful (for example see the ACMN story in August and setting up the cross-listings later. The scale and impact of the primary listing on the Nigerian market was already huge. The NGX had said it had 6 million retail investors (see story on 16 October on Bloomberg, while billionaire Aliko Dangote aims to bring 10m investors onboard with the IPO.
The Nigerian market, including the Exchange, the Central Securities Clearing System Plc (CSCS), the Securities and Exchange Commission of Nigeria and other participants have scored many big successes this year as they upgraded technology. This includes the successful transition on 1 June 2026 of the market to T+1 (settlement of trades the day after trading) from T+2 (2 days after trading) in June, putting it in line with the US, Canada and other countries and ahead of UK and Europe which are only aiming to reach this level in October 2027 (see ACMN story).
How Africans access Dangote IPO
In many markets, investors can buy shares in other markets, if they seek the shares out themselves and make their own arrangements with a stockbroker in another country, including completing identity, money laundering and other checks (part of processes named “Know Your Client” or KYC), and transfer funds. For Dangote Refinery and other Nigerian investments, investors can apply directly to open an account with a Nigerian stockbroker and transfer funds. In some countries, investors can apply through their local stockbroker if the broker has links to a Nigerian stockbroker involved in the offer.
Applicants inside Nigeria have at least 53 channels, including brokers, banks and trading apps. The Dangote prospectus lists Ecobank brokers and SBG Securities, linked to pan-African Ecobank and Standard Bank, both of which banking and other operations in many countries.
Regulators focus on marketing securities
The focus of regulators is not usually on what individuals choose to do, but of marketing and dealing in securities in their countries. Regulators may also make distinction between marketing to the general public and limited and closed-door marketing to “sophisticated” investors. The latter, also known as qualified investors in some regulatory frameworks, can include investment institutions, market professionals who are more knowledgeable, and “high net worth individuals” (HNWI) who may have risk funds to spare.
Regulators’ first priority is to protect the general public from risky or badly informed investments. They also check who is permitted to accept funds from the public for investments and usually limit this to approved institutions. If the investment is with a listed and regulated entity inside the country, marketing may be easier than if it is outside the regulatory framework. Mutual recognition of other countries’ regulatory frameworks is being developed.
Retail-focused continental investment platforms such as MyStocks Africa and Bamboo had previously worked with regulators and other market participants to offer access to cross-border African investments. Here are their pages about the Dangote IPO: Mystocks Africa website and Bamboo website. Bamboo CEO Richmond Bassey said the access is through a licensed nominee in Nigeria while MyStocks Africa also says the shares will be held through a nominee.
With regard to Dangote, different market regulators have taken different approaches and some were still evolving as we went to press in mid-October. Here are some of the responses in different markets.
East Africa
Kenya: Licensed stockbroker and investment bank Renaissance Capital (Kenya) is offering securities known as Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) which will be traded on the Nairobi Securities Exchange and can be bought using Kenya shillings currency (see Reuters story). The Capital Markets Authority regulator announced approval of a short-form prospectus for the offer on 5 October. On offer are about 729m GDRs at Ksh53.50 each ($0.41), total some $300m. They are issued in linkage to Renaissance Capital Africa, which is licensed in Nigeria, and each GDR will represent one underlying Dangote share in Nigeria.
The CMA said it had allowed at least seven other licensed firms to support Kenyan investors to participate in the share offer through linkages with counterpart firms licensed in Nigeria.
The CMA Uganda has said the share offering cannot be marketed to the general public. Only SBG Securities Uganda can market the offer and only to professional investors and high net-worth individuals.
In Rwanda, investors are reported to have to register with the local CMA. Rwanda Stock Exchange CEO Celestin Rwakumbuka said: “Those eligible will be assisted by authorised intermediaries but registered in Nigeria.”
The Ethiopian Capital Market Authority said in an announcement on 13 October that the shares can be marketed only to up to 100 qualified investors as determined by legislation, unless approval is sought for more qualified investors. “The proposed offering does not constitute an offer to the general public in Ethiopia. The securities shall not be advertised, marketed, offered, distributed or sold to any person in Ethiopia who does not qualify as a Qualified Investor under the applicable regulatory framework.”
Southern Africa
The 14 exchanges of the Southern African Development Community region, are working together through the Committee of SADC Stock Exchanges (COSSE) in an exciting regional breakthrough, supported by regulators after weeks of negotiations (see Bloomberg news story).
Collen Tapfumaneyi, chair of COSSE said on 14 October: “We’ve then agreed that one amongst us becomes the host trading venue to reduce any complications,” He is CEO of the Financial Securities Exchange (FINSEC) platform which will route orders from Zimbabwean investors.
Sheperd Aisam, MD of the Botswana arm of Nigeria’s Access Bank said the bank will act as issuer of the depository receipts, which will be listed for trading on the Botswana Stock Exchange and accessible in neighbouring countries. Local head of marketing Duduetsang Chappelle-Molloy said that Dangote expects to raise $500m through the depository receipts.
There have also been broker linkages, for instance in Namibia it was possible to apply using local stockbroker IJG Securities, through a link to Nigeria’s Coronation Securities (see story in Namibian Sun newspaper.