Dangote Refinery IPO rush crashes Bamboo, disrupts Cowrywise access

A surge of investors seeking to buy shares in the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals FZE has overwhelmed some Nigerian investment platforms, with users reporting difficulties accessing their accounts.

The disruption occurred on Monday as the refinery’s initial public offering opened to investors, triggering heavy traffic on platforms including Bamboo and Cowrywise.

Bamboo acknowledged the problem in a post on X, attributing the login difficulties to an unusually high volume of users attempting to access the platform to participate in the Dangote Refinery offer.

“Hey everyone, we’re getting a much higher than expected traffic trying to get into the Dangote IPO and it’s making it difficult for some users to log into the Bamboo app,” the platform said.

It added that its technical team was working to resolve the problem.

Cowrywise also confirmed that its platform was experiencing heavier-than-usual traffic.

“We’re currently seeing more traffic than usual on the Cowrywise app. Our team is already on it and working to get things back to normal,” the investment platform said.

The two platforms are among the approved channels through which investors can subscribe to the Dangote Refinery public offer.

The offer seeks to raise about N2.15tn through the sale of 4.1 billion ordinary shares at N525 per share.

Retail investors can subscribe for a minimum of 10 shares, requiring an investment of N5,250, a structure intended to broaden access to the offer.

The public offering is one of the largest share offerings in Africa and gives investors an opportunity to acquire stakes in the Dangote Refinery, one of the continent’s largest industrial projects.

The refinery, owned by the Dangote Group, plans to deploy the funds raised through the offer to support expansion and increase its refining capacity.

The strong retail interest has been building ahead of the opening of the offer, with the investment opportunity promoted as a way for Nigerians and other African investors to participate in the ownership of the refinery.

The technical difficulties experienced by some investors on Monday underscored the scale of the demand and the pressure such high-volume investment exercises can place on digital investment platforms.

The development comes after earlier regulatory concerns surrounding the proposed IPO.

In June, the Securities and Exchange Commission warned investors about unauthorised promotions linked to a purported Dangote Refinery public offer, saying at the time that no application for the IPO had been filed or approved.

The commission subsequently directed capital market operators to stop accepting deposits or expressions of interest connected to the purported offer.

Following regulatory approval, the Dangote Refinery public offer was cleared to proceed, with the company releasing a list of authorised banks, fintech platforms, mobile operators and NGX Invest through which investors can subscribe.

The heavy traffic recorded on the opening day suggests significant appetite among retail investors for the offer as the subscription window gets underway.