Dangote rejects NNPC bid to raise refinery stake

President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has disclosed that the company turned down attempts by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to increase its 7.25 per cent stake in the Dangote Petroleum Refinery.

Dangote made this known during an interview with the Chief Executive Officer of the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund, Nicolai Tangen, monitored on Wednesday.

He explained that the decision was taken because the refinery owners intend to list the business publicly and allow more Nigerians to own shares in the facility.

According to Dangote, “The national oil company already owns 7.25 per cent, and they are trying to buy more. We are the ones that said no; we want to spread it and have everybody be part of it.”

The NNPC had in 2021 acquired a 7.25 per cent stake in the $20bn Lekki-based refinery for $1bn, with an option to raise it to 20 per cent by June 2024. However, the company later decided to retain only the stake it had fully paid for.

Dangote also revealed that investors in the group’s businesses, including the refinery, cement, fertiliser and petrochemical arms, would receive dividends in dollars due to the company’s growing export earnings.

“What we are announcing is that when you invest in any of our businesses going forward, we guarantee to pay you dividends in dollars because 80 per cent of our revenue will be in dollars,” he said.

The billionaire businessman further disclosed that he sold his luxury properties in the United States and the United Kingdom to focus fully on industrial investments in Nigeria.

“When I decided to go into industry, I sold all my properties in the US and the UK because I wanted to stay in Nigeria and concentrate,” he stated.

Dangote noted that the refinery has now processed up to 661,000 barrels of crude oil per day, exceeding its 650,000 barrels-per-day installed capacity.

He added that the refinery currently sources about 56 per cent of its crude from Nigeria, while additional supplies come from Angola, Libya and the United States.

Dangote also spoke on the impact of the ongoing tensions involving the United States and Iran, saying the crisis had boosted demand and prices for products such as fertiliser, aviation fuel and polypropylene.

According to him, fertiliser prices rose from about $400 per tonne before the Middle East crisis to around $850 per tonne, while polypropylene prices increased from about $900 to nearly $3,000.

“Our aviation fuel is oversold till the middle of July, and we are producing 20 million litres daily,” he added.

He alleged that vested interests benefiting from fuel subsidy and importation had previously tried to frustrate the refinery project.

“The people benefiting from subsidies, importation and crude allocations did not want us to succeed because they believed we were coming to displace them, and that is exactly what has happened,” Dangote said.

Meanwhile, data from the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority showed that local refinery petrol supply rose to 3.18 billion litres in the first quarter of 2026, while imports dropped sharply to 965.52 million litres.

Industry records indicate that the Dangote refinery remains the only facility currently producing petrol commercially at large scale in Nigeria.

The data showed that local refinery supply accounted for 76.7 per cent of Nigeria’s total petrol supply in the first quarter of the year, compared to 23.3 per cent from imports.

The figures also revealed that petrol imports fell by more than 60 per cent year-on-year, signalling Nigeria’s growing reliance on domestic refining capacity.

Dangote said the group plans to attract more investors and inject about $45bn into its businesses as part of a strategy to achieve $100bn in annual revenue and a market valuation above $250bn by 2030.