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Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) has confirmed it is in talks with Dangote Group over a potential secondary listing of Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals, as the company prepares what could become Africa’s largest initial public offering (IPO) on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX).

The refinery has filed its listing application with Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and is planning an IPO of about $5 billion in October. According to the JSE, Dangote intends to complete its primary listing in Nigeria first, “with the firm intention” of subsequently listing in South Africa.

A $2.5 billion private placement in July, in exchange for a 6% equity stake, valued the refinery at around $40 billion, underscoring investor interest in what could become Africa’s largest ever stock market listing. 

Built at a cost of about $20 billion, the refinery processes 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day, began production in 2024, and has gradually reached full operating capacity this year. Dangote ultimately plans to expand processing capacity to 1.4 million barrels per day, with IPO proceeds expected to support the expansion. 

The Nigerian national oil company NNPC Limited holds slightly more than 7% of the refinery.

The idea of a regional listing has been under discussion since April. On 1 April in Lagos, NGX Group convened executives from the stock exchanges of Johannesburg, Nairobi, Accra, Addis Ababa and the Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières (BRVM), which serves the eight member states of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU/UEMOA), under the auspices of the African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA).

“The project is to structure a pan-African listing,” Nairobi Securities Exchange Chief Executive Frank Mwiti said at the time.

Rather than direct dual listings, participating exchanges are exploring depositary receipts or exchange-traded instruments backed by Nigerian-listed shares. This would allow investors in South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Ethiopia and WAEMU markets to gain exposure to the refinery without transferring the underlying stock from Lagos. Kenya alone could mobilise as much as $500 million, largely from domestic pension funds.

The planned Dangote Refinery IPO comes at a time of rapid expansion in Nigeria’s capital market. The NGX says market capitalisation of listed companies has risen from about ₦30 trillion in May 2023 to over ₦150 trillion as of August 2026, driven by major listings, strong corporate earnings and macroeconomic reforms. 

NGX Chief Executive Temi Popoola recently projected that market value could reach around ₦230 trillion by the end of 2026, with the refinery’s listing identified as one of the transactions expected to boost market depth and investor confidence further. 

Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and NGX have been working under the Investment and Securities Act 2025, as well as banking-sector recapitalisation and foreign-exchange reforms, to position the market as a financing hub for large-scale infrastructure and industrial projects. Banks have raised more than ₦4 trillion in new capital, with the figure expected to exceed ₦5 trillion by year-end, mostly from domestic investors. 

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has complemented these efforts by liberalising the FX market, modernising the payments system and improving cross-border settlement frameworks, making it easier for foreign investors to participate in Nigerian listings and for Nigerian issuers to tap regional capital pools.

At an estimated $5 billion, the Dangote Refinery IPO would represent a significant single transaction on NGX and reinforce Nigeria’s ambition to use its capital market to finance large industrial assets and energy infrastructure.

Despite strong interest from African exchanges and investors, several uncertainties remain. Regulators have yet to approve the final offering structure, the timetable is tight ahead of the planned October launch, and the company has not publicly confirmed its targeted valuation for the IPO.

However, the combination of a primary listing on NGX, a potential secondary listing on the JSE, and a pan-African depositary receipt framework under ASEA would mark a new phase in African capital market integration, anchored by a Nigerian industrial asset and supported by ongoing Nigerian capital market and policy reforms.