Nigeria’s Dangote Says His Fertiliser Company Will List in 2028
Nigeria · Companies
Key Facts
- The country — Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country, with well over 200 million people and one of the continent’s biggest economies. Farming employs a large share of them.
- The company — Dangote Industries is a Lagos conglomerate spanning cement, sugar, fertiliser and fuel refining, run by Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man. Its urea plant near Lagos cost US$2.5 billion.
- Why it is news now — Dangote said in June 2025 that the fertiliser arm would list that same year. It did not, and his separate refinery share offer closes on 13 October 2026.
- What happened — On 20 September 2026 in New York, Dangote said the fertiliser business will go public in 2028. He spoke at a Qatar Economic Forum event powered by Bloomberg.
- The numbers — The plant makes about 3 million tonnes of urea a year. Dangote says it will reach 12 million tonnes, plus 2.2 million tonnes of diammonium phosphate, and new potash and phosphate mines.
- What it means for you — If you invest in African equities, a second large Nigerian listing is coming, but not for two years. Treat the date with care: this one has slipped before.
- Still open — No exchange, offer size or valuation has been named for 2028. The refinery share sale closes on 13 October 2026.
Aliko Dangote now has a date for floating his urea business. It comes three years later than he once promised, and while his refinery share sale is still open.
The Dangote fertiliser IPO now has a year attached: 2028. Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, gave the date on Sunday 20 September 2026 in New York.
He spoke at a special edition of the Qatar Economic Forum, a business event powered by Bloomberg. It was held alongside the United Nations General Assembly.
Asked whether he would take his urea business public, he replied: “We will IPO it.”
Asked when, he said: “Yes, it will be 2028.”
Dangote is president and chief executive of Dangote Industries, a Lagos-based conglomerate spanning cement, sugar, fertiliser and fuel refining. His fertiliser arm makes urea, the most widely used nitrogen fertiliser for crops.
“The biggest fertiliser company on earth”
He predicted the listed company would become “the biggest fertiliser company on earth.”
According to Nairametrics, a Lagos financial news site, he described the growth plan in blunt numbers. “We are now going from 3 million tons to 12 million tons of urea,” he said.
He added that the group is opening potash and phosphate mines. It will also make 2.2 million tonnes of diammonium phosphate, a common phosphate fertiliser. Nairametrics reported his claim that the expansion could meet more than 40% of Africa’s fertiliser needs.
He recalled the 2022 scramble after war in Ukraine disrupted supplies. The African Union sent its chairman, Senegal’s then president Macky Sall, to Russia seeking fertiliser.
A plant near Lagos, and a timetable that slipped
The existing business runs a US$2.5 billion urea complex at Ibeju-Lekki, on the coast east of Lagos, the Nigerian newspaper BusinessDay reported. Its capacity is about 3 million tonnes a year.
This is not the first date Dangote has given for the listing. In Abuja on 27 June 2025, he spoke at the annual meetings of Afreximbank, the African Export-Import Bank. He said then that the fertiliser company would join the Nigerian Exchange, Lagos’s stock market, that year.
At the same event he promised to list the refinery in 2026. That pledge is now on course, with the refinery’s share offer open until 13 October.
The fertiliser flotation, by contrast, has moved back three years.
In New York he did not say which exchange the fertiliser company would use. Nor did he give a size or price for the offer.
The Ethiopia project gets bigger
Part of the planned growth sits in Ethiopia. On 28 August 2025 Dangote signed a shareholders’ agreement for a US$2.5 billion urea complex at Gode, in the country’s Somali region.
His partner is Ethiopian Investment Holdings, the Ethiopian government’s investment arm, which owns 40%. Dangote holds the other 60%, and the partners set a 40-month build period.
The budget has since grown. In May 2026, company and government statements put total planned spending above US$4 billion. BC Insight, a fertiliser trade journal published by the research firm CRU, reported the figure.
The wider scope adds a gas pipeline, a power plant and a blending unit for mixed fertilisers. Gas is the key raw material for making urea.
The refinery offer sets the scene
The fertiliser news lands in the middle of Nigeria’s biggest share sale. Dangote Petroleum Refinery is offering 4.1 billion shares at ₦525 each (about US$0.39).
If fully subscribed, the offer would raise about ₦2.15 trillion (about US$1.6 billion). Those conversions use the Central Bank of Nigeria’s central rate of 1,329.30 per US dollar on 21 September 2026.
The Securities and Exchange Commission, Nigeria’s capital-markets regulator, cleared the offer in a letter reported on 4 September 2026. Subscriptions opened on 14 September and close on 13 October 2026.
Demand has been strong, The Guardian Nigeria reported, with online platforms straining on opening day. Dangote has called it the “people’s IPO” because of the retail investors taking part.
What the founder wants from the listings
Dangote already controls companies listed in Lagos, including Dangote Cement and Dangote Sugar. His refinery and fertiliser ventures, however, were built as private businesses.
For the refinery offer, he told the New York audience he was seeking 10 million shareholders, the Lagos newspaper ThisDay reported. “We don’t have partners,” he said of those ventures, according to the Nigerian news site Legit.ng.
“That’s why we are now looking for all these massive number of people to now become our partners,” he added.
In New York he also floated a later New York Stock Exchange listing for the refinery, once its expansion is done. The Abuja newspaper The Abuja newspaper Daily Trust reported that he wants capacity doubled to 1.4 million barrels a day by early 2029.
The same newspaper said he plans more than US$10 billion of investment in power generation. None of these plans has a published prospectus yet.
For investors, the Dangote fertiliser IPO would open another of his big industrial ventures to outside shareholders, but not before 2028.
More: Africa coverage, every day from The Rio Times.
When is the Dangote fertiliser IPO planned?
Aliko Dangote said it will be in 2028. He gave the date in an on-stage interview at the Qatar Economic Forum’s New York event on Sunday 20 September 2026. He did not name an exchange, an offer size or a price.
Had Dangote promised a fertiliser listing before?
Yes. At the Afreximbank annual meetings in Abuja on 27 June 2025, he said the fertiliser business would list in 2025. That did not happen, and the new target is three years later.
How big is the fertiliser business?
Its Lagos-area complex cost about US$2.5 billion and can make about 3 million tonnes of urea a year. Dangote says he wants 12 million tonnes, helped by a jointly owned plant under development at Gode in Ethiopia.
Is the refinery share sale still open?
Yes. The Dangote Petroleum Refinery offer opened on 14 September 2026 and closes on 13 October 2026. It offers 4.1 billion shares at ₦525 each (about US$0.39), worth about ₦2.15 trillion (about US$1.6 billion) if fully taken up.
Sources: Nairametrics on the 2028 remarks, BusinessDay on the Lagos plant, Legit.ng on the Sunday interview, Qatar Economic Forum on its New York event, CNBC Africa on the June 2025 plan, Ethiopian Investment Holdings on the Gode agreement, CRU BC Insight on the higher Ethiopia budget, TheCable on the refinery IPO clearance, The Guardian Nigeria on refinery offer demand, ThisDay on the New York interview, Daily Trust on the power and New York plans, Central Bank of Nigeria exchange rates
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This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief
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