Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has said the public offering of shares in his refinery failed to attract the 10 million retail investors initially targeted, blaming the shortfall on limited time and difficulties some prospective shareholders faced accessing the offer.
Dangote disclosed this at the 25th annual conference of Women in Management, Business and Public Service (WIMBIZ) in Lagos, where he said the offer nevertheless generated massive interest from investors across the country and beyond.
Although the exact number of subscribers is yet to be established, the businessman said millions of people participated in the exercise, describing the response as remarkable compared with other major share offerings in Africa and internationally.
He explained that the refinery's IPO attracted far more individual investors than some previous major offers, including that of GTBank, which recorded about 200,000 participating shareholders.
Dangote also cited Kenya's Safaricom share offer, which attracted fewer than 900,000 investors, and Saudi Aramco's IPO, which recorded approximately five million participants.
“We didn't hit the 10 million because of time constraint, and a lot of people, they didn't know how to access,” he said, while expressing satisfaction with the level of public interest generated by the offer.
He added that the response demonstrated growing confidence in investment opportunities within Africa, noting that more people were becoming willing to move their savings into productive ventures rather than keeping cash at home.
The offer, tagged 'The People's IPO', involved 4.1 billion shares priced at N525 each, with a minimum subscription of 10 shares worth N5,250. It opened on September 14 and was later extended to October 27.
Before the exercise, Dangote had set a target of attracting 10 million retail investors to expand public ownership of the refinery.
However, Reuters reported that more than two million investors subscribed through digital platforms before the offer closed, while total orders reportedly reached N6.4tn, about three times the targeted offer size.
Dangote also disclosed that applications came from 120 countries, including all 54 African nations.
