Billionaire Businessman Dangote Claims Lagos Refinery Will Become World’s Largest By 2028 | Sahara Reporters

The refinery, which Dangote described as Africa’s largest and the world’s largest single-train refinery, is expected to further expand its capacity and become the largest refinery in the world by 2028.

The Dangote Refinery is expected to become the world’s largest refinery by 2028, its owner, Aliko Dangote, has said.

Dangote made the disclosure during the opening speech at the signing ceremony in Lagos on Monday.

While announcing plans to commence the initial public offering (IPO) of the refinery, he described the development as a major milestone for the company, Nigeria and Africa.

The refinery, which Dangote described as Africa’s largest and the world’s largest single-train refinery, is expected to further expand its capacity and become the largest refinery in the world by 2028.

“Today marks a significant milestone for us, as not just a company but as Nigerians and also Africans, as we gather today is that we set in motion, the initial public offering of the 700,000 barrels per day Dangote refinery and Petrochemicals, the largest refinery in Africa, World’s largest refinery single-train and soon to be the largest by 2028 in the World history.”

Dangote made the projection as he announced that the company plans to raise more than N2trillion through the IPO.

According to him, the shares will be offered at N525, with investors able to subscribe for a minimum of 10 shares.

He said the funds raised would support the expansion of the refinery, although he stressed that raising money was not the only reason for the IPO.

“In this IPO, we intend to raise a bit more than N2 trillion which I am sure is too small at an offer price of N525 with a minimum of only ten shares to fund our expansion of the refinery.”

Dangote said the IPO was also designed to give ordinary Nigerians an opportunity to own part of the refinery.

He specifically mentioned workers such as drivers and cooks, saying they should be able to acquire shares and benefit from the future growth of the company.

“But really, it’s not only to fund the expansion of the refinery because it’s a meagre amount, what we are trying to do is to make sure that majority of our drivers, our cooks, they will have an opportunity to have a stake in this refinery.”

He said the company deliberately set the share price at a level that would encourage wider participation rather than simply seeking to raise the maximum possible amount from investors.

“The price is not for us to say we want to maximise, no, I think it is to drive where people will now have their future savings where they would earn, where they would say, I am waiting for the cheque of my dollar dividend, to send for the school fees of my daughter in the United Kingdom or anywhere in the part of the World.”

Dangote said the IPO was therefore intended to create an opportunity for Nigerians to invest in the refinery and potentially benefit from its future earnings.

The planned IPO could significantly broaden ownership of the refinery by allowing members of the public to become shareholders in the business.

Dangote’s announcement also links the share sale to the refinery’s planned expansion, which he said would position the facility to become the world’s largest by 2028.

The Dangote Refinery has been positioned as a major industrial project for Nigeria, with its large refining capacity expected to strengthen domestic petroleum production and reduce the country’s reliance on imported refined petroleum products.

With the proposed IPO and planned expansion, Dangote said the refinery was entering a new phase that would combine increased production capacity with broader public ownership.