President and Chief Executive of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has said the planned listing of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals on the Nigerian Exchange is aimed at broadening wealth creation and allowing Africans to participate directly in the continent’s industrial transformation.
Dangote made the remarks during a visit by senior officials of South Africa’s Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF), the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), and Alterra Capital Partners to the Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals and Dangote Fertiliser Limited in Lagos.
The South African delegation included GEPF Chairperson, Frans Baleni; GEPF Principal Executive Officer, Musa Mabesa; PIC Deputy Chairperson, Mongwena Maluleke; PIC Chief Executive Officer, Patrick Dlamini; and Managing Partner of Alterra Capital Partners, Genevieve Sangudi.
The visit comes amid increasing investor interest in Africa-driven industrialisation and infrastructure development. GEPF is Africa’s largest defined benefit pension fund, managing retirement benefits for more than 1.8 million South African public sector workers, while PIC remains the continent’s largest asset manager.
Speaking on the planned refinery listing, Dangote said Africa’s next phase of growth must be driven by large-scale industrial projects capable of creating jobs, boosting domestic production and delivering shared prosperity across the continent.
“We are opening the doors for investors to participate directly in Africa’s industrial future and the prosperity it will create,” Dangote said.
According to him, the refinery demonstrates the scale of untapped opportunities in Africa’s energy market, particularly as many African nations continue to rely on imported refined petroleum products despite rising industrial demand and consumption.
Dangote noted that the Group’s long-term investment strategy is focused on addressing Africa’s expanding energy needs and increasing regional refining capacity to serve multiple markets across the continent.
He added that demand for products such as polypropylene, aviation fuel and refined petroleum products had surpassed earlier projections, strengthening the commercial outlook of the refinery and informing future expansion plans.
“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 said.
Speaking after touring the facilities in Ibeju-Lekki, Baleni described the refinery as proof that Africa can successfully deliver transformational infrastructure projects when supported by visionary leadership, patient capital and technical expertise.
“If it can be done anywhere else in the world, it can be done in Africa,” Baleni said. “This project has shown that the continent is capable of achieving world-class industrialisation at scale.”
He added that the significance of the project extends beyond Nigeria, saying the refinery is changing global perceptions about Africa’s industrial capabilities.
“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,” he said. “The Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals Complex is a powerful demonstration that, with visionary leadership and long-term capital, that perception no longer holds.”
On his part, Dlamini described the refinery as one of the most transformative industrial projects on the continent, noting that it is redefining global perceptions about Africa’s economic potential.
Quoting former South African President 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.”
He stated that PIC, which manages approximately $230 billion in assets largely on behalf of GEPF, is seeking long-term partnerships that align with infrastructure development, industrialisation and economic transformation across Africa.
“PIC’s mandate is to deploy long-term, patient capital in service of industrialisation, infrastructure and economic transformation across Africa,” Dlamini said. “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 added that poverty, unemployment and economic exclusion remain major drivers of instability across the continent, stressing that industrialisation and large-scale job creation are essential for Africa’s long-term development.
L-R: Group Chief Risk Officer, Dangote Industries Limited, Dr Pontsho Mokoena; Group Vice President, Oil & Gas, Dangote Industries Limited, Devakumar Edwin; Group Executive Director, Commercial Operations (Oil & Gas), Fatima Aliko Dangote; Chairperson, Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF), Frans Baleni; President/Chief Executive, Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote; Deputy Chairperson, Public Investment Corporation (PIC), Dr Mongwena Maluleke; Managing Director, Alterra Capital, Genevieve Sangudi; Chief Executive Officer, Public Investment Corporation (PIC), Patrick Dlamini; Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals, David Bird; Group Chief Financial Officer, Dangote Industries Limited, Murat Erden; and Group Chief Economist, Dangote Industries Limited, Dr Hassan Mahmud, during the strategic visit of the leadership of GEPF & PIC to the Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals, Lekki, Lagos, at the weekend.
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