Dangote Refinery Shares to be Available to Public in Five Months

By Adedapo Adesanya

The chairman of Dangote Group, Mr Aliko Dangote, has said that within the next five months, Nigerians should be able to purchase shares of Dangote Petroleum and Refinery.

Mr Dangote made this revelation on Sunday during a tour of the facility by the chief executive of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mr Bayo Ojulari, alongside members of the company’s executive management.

The $20 billion refinery is the largest single-train refinery in the world with 650,000 barrels per day refining capacity. There are efforts to boost the capacity to 1.4 million barrels per day soon.

Speaking with journalists, Mr Dangote said, “And the other issue is that they (NNPC) are holding 7.25 per cent of the shares that we have here, which is more than the shares Elon Musk has in Tesla. And they are holding that on behalf of Nigerians,” he said.

“So individually, Nigerians too will have an opportunity in the next, maybe a maximum of four to five months. There will actually be an opportunity to buy the shares.”

He added that shareholders will have the option to receive their dividends in either naira or dollars, as the refinery also earns in dollars.

Commenting on Mr Ojulari’s visit, the billionaire businessman said the NNPC, represented by Mr Ojulari and its management team, was not just a guest but a shareholder.

“Today is really our best day ever” at the facility. I know NNPC invested in us when we were not really sure whether the refinery would be successful.

“So that’s the kind of level of confidence. But right now, the relationship with the new set of people that we have at NNPC, I think the sky is the limit, and we will cooperate and also make sure that we work together to make sure that we make Nigerians proud.”

Speaking on prospects of partnership with NNPC in the upstream sector, he said, “We have block 71, 72, but we’re going to look much deeper”.

“Most likely, depending on our own discussions with them, we will partner with them, maybe in some of the upstream. They, too, will partner with us here because here is not just a refinery, it’s an industrial hub.

“And that’s why we’re doing linear alkaline benzene, which is a raw material for detergents, ” he added.