Dangote plans New York listing after completing refinery expansion

Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote is considering taking his refinery business to a U.S. stock exchange after completing a major expansion of the facility in Lagos, extending the company’s international ambitions beyond its planned listing in Nigeria.

Dangote Refinery launched its initial public offering on the Nigerian Exchange on Sept. 14, in what Reuters described as Africa’s largest share sale to date. The offering is intended to raise funds for the expansion of the refinery, which is currently operating at a capacity of about 700,000 barrels per day.

Dangote has said the company plans to pursue a listing in New York after completing the expansion programme. The plan would depend on the refinery first reaching its targeted capacity of 1.4 million barrels per day.

The expansion is estimated at $14.3 billion and is expected to be completed by 2029, according to the refinery’s IPO prospectus. The project would double the facility’s processing capacity from its current 700,000 barrels per day to 1.4 million barrels per day.

The Nigerian IPO is designed to broaden ownership of the refinery while helping finance its next phase of development. The public offering targets up to $2.1 billion and represents about a 3% stake in the business.

The refinery has become an important part of Nigeria’s energy infrastructure since beginning operations, supplying refined petroleum products to the domestic market and increasingly targeting export markets.

The expansion is expected to increase the facility’s scale further, as Dangote seeks to establish the refinery as a major regional supplier of refined petroleum products.

The company’s international ambitions come as the refinery reports stronger financial performance. According to its IPO prospectus cited by Reuters, the facility recorded a net profit of $1.82 billion in the first half of 2026, compared with a loss of $476 million for the whole of 2025. Revenue exceeded $13 billion during the first six months of 2026.

A future U.S. listing would give Dangote’s refinery access to a much broader international investor base, but the plan remains conditional on the completion of the expansion. No specific U.S. exchange, listing structure or regulatory timetable has been announced.

For now, the company’s immediate focus remains its Nigerian listing and the $14.3 billion expansion programme, with the target of reaching 1.4 million barrels per day by 2029.