LAGOS, NIGERIA – Africa’s foremost billionaire industrialist, Aliko Dangote, has announced that the highly anticipated listing of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) is designed to democratise wealth creation and give Africans a direct stake in the continent’s industrial transformation.
Dangote made these remarks while hosting a high-level delegation from South Africa’s Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF), alongside the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) and Alterra Capital Partners. The delegation, which included GEPF Chairperson Frans Baleni, PIC CEO Patrick Dlamini, and other top executives, toured the massive Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals and Dangote Fertiliser Limited facilities in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos.
The strategic visit highlights a growing appetite among major African institutional investors for long-term infrastructure and industrialisation projects. Currently, GEPF stands as Africa’s largest defined benefit pension fund (managing benefits for over 1.8 million public sector workers), while PIC is the continent’s largest asset manager with roughly $230 billion in assets under management.
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Empowering African Investors
Speaking on the forthcoming listing, Dangote stressed that the next phase of Africa’s economic growth must be driven by large-scale industrial projects that create jobs, strengthen domestic production capacity, and foster broad-based prosperity.
“We are opening the doors for investors to participate directly in Africa’s industrial future and the prosperity it will create,” Dangote stated.
He explained that the mega-refinery project underlines the immense, untapped opportunities within Africa’s energy market. Despite rising industrial and domestic consumption, many African nations remain overly dependent on imported refined petroleum products.
Dangote also revealed that demand for the refinery’s products, including aviation fuel, refined petroleum, and polypropylene, has already exceeded initial projections. “We thought about Nigeria first and then exports, but even with our current production, we are practically living hand to mouth because the market demand is extremely high,” he added, noting that this confirms the commercial viability of the facility and shapes future expansion plans.
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“Redefining the Possibilities of Africa”
The South African delegation praised the refinery as a monumental achievement for the continent.
Frans Baleni, Chairperson of GEPF, noted that the project proves Africa can successfully execute transformational infrastructure when backed by visionary leadership, robust technical expertise, and long-term investment. “If it can be done anywhere else in the world, it can be done in Africa. What has been built here is reshaping how the world should think about African industrial capability—and it should reshape how Africa thinks about itself,” Baleni said.
Patrick Dlamini, CEO of PIC, echoed these sentiments, describing the refinery as one of the most transformative industrial endeavours on the continent. Quoting Nelson Mandela, Dlamini said, “It always looks impossible until it’s done. This project is redefining the story of Africa and the possibilities of Africa.”
Dlamini confirmed that PIC is actively seeking long-term partnerships across the continent to support industrialisation and economic transformation. He emphasised that poverty, unemployment, and economic exclusion remain major drivers of instability in Africa, making massive job-creating projects like the Dangote Refinery critical for long-term development.
“What we have seen today reinforces our conviction that the next chapter of African prosperity will be written through partnership between African institutional capital and African industrial champions,” Dlamini concluded, signaling strong strategic alignment and potential avenues for future collaboration between South African capital and Dangote’s industrial agenda.
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