Nigerian Exchange Group Chairman Dr. Umaru Kwairanga has disclosed that the exchange was in active preparation for the initial public offering of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, which was offering three billion ordinary shares at $0.35 per share with investor demand already exceeding $2 billion, and expressed hope that the refinery would pursue a dual listing in a major international financial center to extend its investor reach to Middle Eastern and global institutional capital.
Kwairanga made the disclosure during a visit to the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange in the United Arab Emirates, where he met with the exchange’s board and management to explore collaboration opportunities including knowledge-sharing programs, cross-border listings, and product development initiatives.
He said the Dangote refinery IPO was viewed as a continental project rather than merely a Nigerian one, given the scale of the facility and its significance for Africa’s energy independence, and said the exchange was working to position itself to capture the full benefit of what could be Africa’s largest-ever capital markets transaction. Reuters had separately reported that the offering required investors to subscribe to a minimum of one million shares valued at $350,000, with additional purchases in multiples of 500,000 shares, and that proceeds would be applied to expansion and general corporate purposes.
Kwairanga said the Nigerian Exchange had seen its index and market capitalization more than double over the preceding two years and was attracting renewed investor interest from across the globe including the Middle East, creating a favorable environment for major listings. He said he expected the UAE leg of his exchange visit to open discussions on specific areas of bilateral collaboration and on access opportunities for UAE-listed companies considering expansion into Nigeria.
The NGX chairman also highlighted the exchange’s role in the African Exchanges Linkage Project, which he said was designed to connect stock exchanges across several African countries to enable seamless intra-African trading and significantly deepen the continent’s capital markets, describing the initiative as a structural contribution to the broader African Continental Free Trade Area vision.
