Dangote seeks deeper NNPC partnership as refinery eyes public share sale
The president of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has said his conglomerate will deepen cooperation with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) to strengthen operations at the Dangote Refinery and widen its economic impact.
Speaking to journalists on Saturday during a tour of the refinery by NNPC’s group chief executive officer, Bayo Ojulari, Dangote outlined plans for closer collaboration between the two entities, including possible upstream partnerships and a move to open the project to broader public investment.
He said both organisations were aligned in their ambition to boost Nigeria’s energy security and industrial capacity.
“The sky is the limit,” Dangote said. “We will cooperate and make sure that we work together to make Nigerians proud.”
Beyond the refinery’s expansion, discussions are under way on potential joint ventures across the oil and gas value chain. Dangote suggested that cooperation could extend into upstream operations, while NNPC could also increase its participation within the refinery complex.
“Depending on our discussions with them, we will partner with them, maybe in some of the upstream. They, too, will partner with us here because this is not just a refinery. It’s an industrial hub,” he said.
Dangote also highlighted what he described as the national ownership element of the project. NNPC holds a 7.25% stake in the refinery on behalf of Nigerians, he said, framing the investment as a public interest holding rather than a purely commercial one.
In a further step towards widening ownership, Dangote said individual Nigerians would be able to purchase shares in the refinery within the next four to five months.
“Individually, Nigerians too will have an opportunity … they will actually be able to buy their shares,” he said.
Investors would have the option of receiving dividends in either naira or dollars, reflecting the refinery’s foreign currency earnings.
“People will have a choice either to get their dividends in naira or to get their dividends in dollars because we earn dollars,” he said.
Dangote added that new industrial projects within the complex — including the production of linear alkylbenzene, a key ingredient in detergents — would position the facility as a supplier to markets across Africa.
He said output from the plant would be sufficient to serve the entire continent, with delivery expected within 30 months.