The Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX Group), Temi Popoola, has described the launch of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery initial public offering (IPO) as a significant new chapter for Nigeria’s capital market, saying the transaction could help expand public participation in corporate ownership.
Popoola spoke following the launch of the refinery’s public offer at the Nigerian Exchange in Lagos on Monday, September 14, a transaction that has been described as the largest IPO in African capital-market history. The offer comprises 4.1 billion shares priced at ₦525 each, with the company seeking to raise about ₦2.15 trillion.
According to Popoola, the significance of the transaction goes beyond its size, as it provides an opportunity to broaden ownership of major African businesses among ordinary investors.
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“Some transactions come; they bring scale. Some transactions come, and they just change the way that the market participants, the market operators look at that market. And this is a combination of both,” Popoola said in an interview with CNN.
He said the transaction could help change the traditional pattern in which Nigerians participate in economic growth primarily as consumers, employees and entrepreneurs, by creating greater opportunities for them to become owners of businesses.
“Transaction like this helps us to change that narrative, where for the first time, Nigerians can also become owners,” he said.
The NGX Group CEO said the exchange had spent the past three years developing infrastructure aimed at making participation in the capital market more accessible through digital channels.
A major component of that effort is NGX Invest, which connects the offer to more than 100 distribution channels, including stockbrokers, banks, fintech companies and other financial institutions.
Popoola said the objective was to make it easier for investors to access capital-market opportunities through platforms they already use.
“The objective is simple: instead of asking investors to find the capital market, we are taking the capital market to the investor,” he said.
He also highlighted the integration between the capital market and Nigeria’s financial infrastructure through the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), with support from the Central Bank of Nigeria.
According to Popoola, the connectivity, which was first demonstrated during the banking recapitalisation exercise, is helping to deepen the relationship between Nigeria’s financial system and its capital market.
Beyond the Dangote Refinery transaction, Popoola said NGX’s ambition is to contribute to the development of a more integrated African capital-market architecture that would facilitate cross-border investment and enable African capital to finance African businesses more efficiently.
He described the Dangote Refinery IPO as significant not only because of its scale but also because the infrastructure developed around the transaction will remain available for future offerings.
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“This is an important transaction. Its greater significance may ultimately be in what it makes possible next,” Popoola said.
The Dangote Refinery IPO opened to investors on September 14 and is scheduled to close on October 13, 2026. Investors can subscribe for as few as 10 shares at ₦525 per share, making the offer accessible to a broad range of retail investors.
The refinery, which began operations in 2024 with a capacity of 700,000 barrels per day, plans to expand capacity to 1.4 million barrels per day as part of its long-term growth strategy.
Popoola commended the Securities and Exchange Commission, NGX Group’s board and other capital-market stakeholders for their roles in supporting the transaction and congratulated Aliko Dangote and the Dangote Petroleum Refinery team on the public offering.
