The President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has revealed that the company rejected 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 Nicolai Tangen, stating that the refinery plans to go public and allow more Nigerians to become shareholders in the multi-billion-dollar project.
According to Dangote, the national oil company had shown interest in acquiring more equity in the refinery, but the request was declined to ensure wider public participation in ownership.
“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 now spread it and have everybody be part of it,” Dangote said during the interview.
The Dangote Refinery, located in Lekki, Lagos, has continued to expand its influence in Nigeria’s downstream petroleum sector. Findings showed that petrol supply from the $20bn facility rose to 3.18 billion litres in the first quarter of 2026, while fuel imports dropped sharply to 965.52 million litres during the same period.
Data also indicated that the refinery’s average domestic ex-depot petrol price between January and March 2026 stood at about ₦1,000 per litre. This suggests the refinery supplied more than ₦3.2tn worth of petrol into the domestic market within three months.
The refinery has also reportedly benefited from rising global tensions involving the United States and Iran, which disrupted parts of the global oil market and increased export opportunities for refined petroleum products.
In 2021, the NNPC acquired a 7.25 per cent stake in the refinery for $1bn, with an agreement that allowed it to purchase an additional 12.75 per cent stake before June 2024. However, the company later decided against completing the acquisition.
Dangote had previously disclosed in 2024 that many Nigerians mistakenly believed the NNPC owned 20 per cent of the refinery. He clarified that the state oil company only retained the portion it had fully paid for.
“The agreement was actually 20 per cent, which we had with NNPC, and they did not pay the balance of the money,” Dangote had explained at the time.
During the latest interview, the billionaire businessman also announced plans to pay future dividends in dollars to shareholders investing in the refinery, cement, fertiliser, and petrochemical businesses.
“What we are announcing is that when you invest in any of our businesses going forward, we guarantee to pay you a dividend in dollars because 80 per cent of our revenue will be in dollars,” he stated.
Dangote 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 the industry, I sold all my properties in the US and the UK. I wanted to sit in Nigeria and concentrate,” he said.
He also identified government policy inconsistency as one of the biggest risks facing businesses in Nigeria, alongside the possibility of civil unrest.
Dangote noted that the refinery project received financial support from institutions including Afreximbank, Africa Finance Corporation, Zenith Bank, Access Bank, and United Bank for Africa.
Former NNPC spokesman Olufemi Soneye had earlier defended the reduction in the company’s planned refinery stake, saying the decision was made to redirect investments toward compressed natural gas projects.
