Dangote Refinery IPO surpassed MTN, GTCO digital records in one day – Chapel Hill

The ongoing Initial Public Offer (IPO) of Dangote Petroleum Refinery has surpassed the digital subscription levels achieved by the public offers of MTN Nigeria and GTCO within its first day, according to Chapel Hill Denham.

Lanre Buluro, Managing Director, Capital Markets at Chapel Hill Denham, disclosed this while speaking on the Follow The Money podcast hosted by Ugo Obichukwu, just days after the launch of the four-week offer.

According to Buluro, the refinery’s IPO reached investor participation levels that previous landmark offers took weeks to achieve.

MTN, GTCO public offers

Buluro said GTCO’s public offer was reported to have attracted about 150,000 investors through digital channels and previously held the record for the largest digitally driven public offer in Nigeria.

He also noted that the MTN Nigeria public offer, which he helped execute, attracted between 120,000 and 130,000 subscribers, leading to the creation of about 130,000 new Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) accounts.

• “The MTN, the GTCO, those offers were for like four weeks. So it took them four weeks to get those numbers. And we did it in a day already.”

According to him, subscriptions has now grown significantly beyond those figures , describing the first week’s performance as encouraging.

Why Dangote is targeting 10 million investors

Responding to questions about the refinery’s ambitious target of attracting 10 million investors, Buluro said the offer team initially projected between two million and three million investors based on the distribution channels and partnerships assembled for the transaction.

• He noted that First Bank currently has Nigeria’s largest shareholder register, with slightly more than one million shareholders, while Access Holdings has approximately 900,000 shareholders.
• Buluro said the 10-million-investor ambition was partly inspired by Saudi Aramco’s IPO, which attracted about 4.9 million investors.

He explained that Saudi Aramco benefited from its status as a national asset, with Saudi citizens encouraged to participate and supported through government-backed financing initiatives.

• “So I think there was just an element where if that’s the record, maybe we should be bigger than that, go past that.”

Fintechs and banks powering distribution

Buluro attributed the strong early response to the digital infrastructure provided by the Nigerian Exchange (NGX), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS), and the offer’s distribution partners.

He specifically commended the CSCS for enabling seamless account opening for new investors.

The distribution network includes PiggyVest, Moniepoint, MTN MoMo, Bamboo, Paga, Flutterwave, Cowrywise, InvestNaija, as well as commercial banks and their branch networks.

• “Some of them are traditionally capital markets oriented… Whereas your Moniepoint or MTN, they are built for their core business. Well, we thought that their customer base, their reach are also suited for something like this.”

According to him, while selling securities is not traditionally the primary role of banks and fintechs, their extensive customer reach makes them effective channels for broadening participation in the offer.

• “If you just triangulate all these platforms, their customer bases, their reach across the country, the numbers indicate that we should be able to get 10 million customers.”
• ‘Trying to share the wealth’

Buluro said a key objective of the offer is to democratise ownership of one of Africa’s largest industrial assets and deepen retail participation in Nigeria’s capital market.

• “It’s really just trying to share the wealth, really to give everyone an opportunity to have a stake in this business.”

He added that a wider shareholder base could also strengthen public support for the refinery.

• “If you have as many Nigerians and as many shareholders as you can, they’re your biggest advocate, they’re your biggest supporters.”

Describing the transaction as a financial inclusion initiative, Buluro said the widespread public discussion around the IPO reflects growing interest in ownership and investing.

• “It’s called the people’s IPO. They’re trying to get as many Nigerians involved in ownership.”

He added that efforts remain focused on achieving the 10 million investor target before the offer closes, noting that the transaction could serve as many Nigerians’ first experience with investing and wealth creation through the capital market.

Dangote Refinery IPO

The Dangote Petroleum Refinery IPO opened on September 14, 2026, and is scheduled to close on October 13, 2026.

The offer involves the issuance of 4.1 billion new ordinary shares at N525 per share, representing a capital raise of about N2.15 trillion and one of the largest equity offerings ever undertaken in Africa.

Because the transaction is a primary issuance, existing shareholders are not selling any shares. Instead, the offer is designed to raise fresh capital while introducing a relatively small public float into a company that will remain majority-controlled by its founder, Aliko Dangote.

If fully subscribed, Dangote’s beneficial ownership of Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals FZE will decline modestly to about 84.34%, while total shares outstanding will rise to approximately 124.23 billion shares. The new shares will represent roughly 3.3% of the enlarged share capital.