NGX Group, Nairobi Exchange Deepen Cross-Border Ties

By Aduragbemi Omiyale

Stakeholders in the Nigerian and Kenyan markets met in Nairobi on Tuesday to explore opportunities to strengthen connections between the two markets and across Africa.

Talks involved the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Group Plc and the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) on how to deepen cross-border ties.

The Nairobi engagement builds on a strategic meeting convened by NGX Group in Lagos in April, which brought together leaders of major African exchanges to discuss cross-border market connectivity and opportunities to strengthen collaboration among African capital markets.

The platform for today’s discussions was the Dangote Petroleum Refinery IPO High-Level Investor Engagement hosted by the NSE.

According to the chief executive of the NGX Group, Mr Temi Popoola, the significance of the talks extends beyond any single transaction.

“When we began this engagement, our objective was continental: to bring African exchanges together and explore how we can create stronger connections between African capital markets,” Mr Popoola said.

“Kenya represents an important first step in translating that ambition into practical collaboration. We see this engagement with the Nairobi Securities Exchange as a model that can be strengthened and potentially replicated across other markets on the continent,” he added, noting that the ambition is to build on the Kenya engagement and develop a model for broader cooperation across the continent.

“We see the work with Kenya as a prototype for how African markets can support greater connectivity among themselves. This is an important step towards facilitating cross-border access to capital-market opportunities, with the potential to scale across West Africa and the wider continent,” he said.

In his remarks, the chief executive of the NSE, Mr Frank Mwiti, commended NGX Group for its role in facilitating the engagement, noting that stronger collaboration among African exchanges could deepen relationships between markets, promote the sharing of expertise and create greater opportunities for investors and issuers across the continent.

On his part, the president of Dangote Industries Limited, Mr Aliko Dangote, disclosed that stronger collaboration among African exchanges could create opportunities for companies to access capital across multiple African markets, rather than limiting their capital-market presence to their home countries.

He cited the planned Dangote refinery in Mokowe-Lamu as an example of the opportunities that could emerge from stronger integration, suggesting that companies with operations across the continent should be able to consider listings in more than one African market.

Mr Dangote plans to set up a 700,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Lamu. The project is intended to serve the East African market.

The businessman already has a similar facility running in Lagos, Nigeria, with the intention of expanding the capacity to about 1.4 million barrels per day in the next two years or more.

To secure funds for this expansion, Dangote Refinery is selling more than 4 billion shares to members of the public through an initial public offering (IPO), which commenced on September 14, 2026, and will close on October 13, 2026. The shares are being offered to investors at N525 per unit, with a minimum subscription of 10 units.