After Petroleum Refinery, Dangote Announces 2028 IPO for Fertiliser Business

President and Chief Executive of Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), Aliko Dangote, has announced plans to take the group’s fertiliser business public in 2028, projecting that the company would become the biggest fertiliser company in the world.

Dangote, who disclosed this in an interview with Bloomberg’s Francine Lacqua at the Qatar Economic Forum UNGA Special Edition in New York, said the planned listing would follow the ongoing initial public offering (IPO) of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, which he said was designed to broaden African participation in the ownership of major businesses.

He said the fertiliser business was being expanded significantly, with the group targeting 12 million tonnes of urea production, alongside investments in potash and phosphate mines and 2.2 million tonnes of diammonium phosphate (DAP) production.

“Yes, we will IPO it. It’s going to be the biggest fertiliser company on earth,” Dangote said when asked about plans to list the fertiliser business. Asked when the listing would take place, he replied: “Yes, it will be here in 2028.”

Dangote Fertiliser currently operates a $2.5 billion fertiliser plant in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos, with an annual urea production capacity of about three million tonnes. The group has been expanding its fertiliser operations as part of a broader strategy to build production capacity across Africa and reduce the continent’s dependence on imported agricultural inputs.

Dangote said the group was targeting an increase in urea production from three million tonnes to 12 million tonnes, while also developing potash and phosphate resources and adding 2.2 million tonnes of DAP production. “I think we alone can satisfy at least more than 40 per cent of Africa’s demand,” he said.

The businessman said the move was partly driven by the experience of African countries during the Russia-Ukraine war, when disruptions to global fertiliser supplies exposed the continent’s dependence on imports.

“Four years ago, at the beginning of the Ukraine-Russia crisis, the African Union sent the German President Michel to go and say that we needed fertiliser. We are running out of fertiliser because they are our suppliers. And I saw that, so we made an announcement. I said in four years, Africa will not go and beg anybody for fertilizer,” he said.

According to him, the group’s investments in fertiliser are part of a wider ambition to build productive capacity within Africa rather than continue exporting raw materials and importing finished products.

Similarly, Dangote said the group was investing between $46 billion and $50 billion across Africa, arguing that the continent’s growing population and large consumer market provided sufficient demand for large-scale industrial investments.

“Africa is not going to ask for aid anymore. We will now go there and develop our continent,” Dangote said.

“So what we are doing right now is trying to convert most of our raw materials that we will be shipping at a very cheap price, which means when you ship raw material, you are actually shipping jobs out because you are not going to create any jobs. Then you import poverty into your continent. So we have cancelled that now.”

Dangote said the group was investing heavily in refining, fertiliser, petrochemicals and infrastructure, adding that he expected other African businesses to follow.

“We are doing massively, and I’m sure a lot of companies are going to join us. We have $46 to $50 billion, which we are now investing back into the continent. I’m sure a lot of people are going to follow suit,” he said.

The fertiliser IPO announcement comes as the Dangote Petroleum Refinery’s IPO continues to generate significant interest from retail investors, with Dangote targeting 10 million shareholders.

He said the refinery IPO was intended to bring what he described as “democracy into capital markets in Africa” by enabling more Africans to participate in the ownership of major businesses.

“We are looking for 10 million shareholders. So the idea that we’re doing is actually to bring democracy into capital markets in Africa, is to have Africans be able to participate in this prosperity,” he said.

According to him, the response to the offering had been substantial, with technical difficulties occurring after its launch because of the volume of traffic from prospective investors.

“We launched the IPO on Monday, so immediately after we started, I think the whole system crashed, including the banks. Only the stock exchange was actually running live, but then we did it again. I think three days later it crashed again because of the number of traffic going in there to participate, but I’m sure right now they have stabilised,” he said.

Dangote said the group was working with banks in Kenya, Botswana and South Africa to enable investors from those countries to participate in the offering.

He expressed confidence that the refinery would achieve its 10 million-shareholder target, noting that the number would exceed the number of subscribers recorded in some of the world’s major IPOs.

“You can be rest assured. I’m very confident we’ll reach that. I mean, today as we speak, we really look at it, which is the biggest IPO in the world. The biggest, I think, was sold to Aramco by just about five million subscribers. And what we said we can find, this is Africa. We want to show that Africa is rising now. And that’s why we went for 10 million,” he said.

He also disclosed that the group had initially planned to raise $2.5 billion through the IPO and private placement, but strong demand resulted in changes to the structure of the offering.

Dangote said the private placement, which was initially expected to raise $1 billion, attracted demand of $3.7 billion. The company eventually took $2.5 billion and refunded $1.2 billion.

“We had a plan as of June to sell $2.5 billion worth of shares. We are not doing over full sale, we are doing over full subscription. So the money is going into the company for increasing our capacity, which will end up using partially our free cash flow. And our free cash flow is very, very huge now,” he said.

The businessman also reiterated that the Dangote Refinery would increase its capacity from the current 700,000 barrels per day to 1.4 million barrels per day by the end of 2028 or the first quarter of 2029.

“When you talk about 1.4 million barrels of capacity, you might not really figure out how big that is. So we will now have 10 per cent of the United States’ total refining capacity,” he said.

He added that the refinery’s expansion would also increase its petrochemical output to 2.4 million tonnes, while production of linear alkylbenzene (LAB), a raw material used in detergent manufacturing, would rise from 100,000 tonnes to 400,000 tonnes.

Dangote said the refinery would eventually be dual-listed, with the primary listing in Nigeria followed by a proposed listing in New York after the expansion.

The refinery IPO has also generated a wave of memes and humorous social media posts among new retail shareholders, with some portraying themselves as co-owners and executives of the company.

Asked about the trend during the interview, Dangote joked about the growing demands by some new shareholders for access to the company’s board. “You must have seen that they’ve been calling me now for a board meeting,” he said.

The comment comes amid online skits and memes by some Nigerians who bought shares in the offering, including posts depicting themselves as newly appointed executives, co-founders and partners of the refinery.

Some of the posts have featured mock certificates bearing investors’ photographs and titles, while others have jokingly portrayed the new shareholders as monitoring the refinery’s operations or preparing for meetings with Dangote.

Beyond the refinery and fertiliser businesses, Dangote said the group was pursuing a broad investment programme across Africa, including major pipeline and refining projects.

He said a proposed 2,650-kilometre pipeline linking Namibia, Botswana and South Africa had an estimated cost of more than $3.5 billion, while another pipeline project linking Djibouti and Ethiopia was scheduled for launch. He also highlighted his plans for another $16 billion refinery project in Kenya.

Explaining the group’s preference for large-scale investments, Dangote said he did not believe in taking “baby steps”, arguing that the size of Africa’s market justified major investments in productive capacity.

“I don’t believe in baby steps. We believe in doing things at scale because we know that we have the market,” he said.

“Because the market is actually replacing dumping into our continent. So the market is there. It’s not the question of we don’t have a market. So we have a market, and we will deliver them on time,” he explained.

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