Nigerian billionaire investor and chairman of First HoldCo, Femi Otedola, has announced plans to invest $100 million in the forthcoming equity offering of Dangote Refinery, reflecting growing investor confidence in what could become Africa’s biggest refinery listing.
Otedola disclosed the planned investment on Wednesday after leading senior executives of First HoldCo on a visit to the Lagos-based refinery owned by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote. The investment forms part of the refinery’s planned $2 billion private placement targeted at select institutional and high-net-worth investors ahead of an initial public offering (IPO) that is expected to reshape Africa’s capital market landscape.
Speaking during the visit, Otedola said his long-standing relationship with Dangote and repeated visits to the refinery influenced his decision to commit a significant portion of his personal capital to the project.
“From a personal note, I’ve appealed to him. I’ve been here with him 25 times, so my compensation is he’s going to allocate to me shares worth $100 million in the private placement,” Otedola said.
The billionaire investor further revealed that proceeds from the divestment of his stake in Geregu Power Plc would partly fund the investment in the refinery’s anticipated public offering.
“That’s one of the reasons why I sold my stake in Geregu plant — to invest my proceeds in the IPO of Dangote refinery,” he added.
The announcement indicates mounting market anticipation around the refinery’s planned stock market debut. In October 2025, Dangote disclosed that up to 10 percent of the refinery’s equity could be offered to investors through a cross-border IPO structure designed to attract both local and international capital. At the time, Bloomberg estimated the value of the proposed stake sale at approximately $5 billion.
More recently, reports indicated the refinery could seek a valuation of as much as $50 billion, potentially making it one of the most valuable industrial assets on the African continent. The planned listing is expected to deepen Nigeria’s capital market while offering investors direct exposure to the country’s downstream oil and gas sector at a time of rising energy demand and ongoing import substitution efforts.
Dangote has consistently described the IPO as more than a fundraising exercise, pointing it out as an opportunity to “democratise wealth creation” and enable Africans to participate directly in the continent’s industrial transformation.
With investor appetite already building ahead of the IPO, market watchers expect Dangote refinery’s private placement to become one of the most closely watched capital raises in Africa’s recent history.
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