The President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has disclosed that the group rejected requests by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) to increase its 7.25 per cent stake in the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, revealing instead that the company is planning to go public and give ordinary Nigerians the opportunity to own shares in the $20 billion Lekki-based plant.
Dangote made the disclosure in an interview with the Chief Executive Officer of the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund, Nicolai Tangen, monitored on Wednesday. The revelation came as data analysed from official documents of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) showed that petrol supply from domestic refineries dominated by the Dangote refinery rose to 3.18 billion litres in the first quarter of 2026, while imports crashed to 965.52 million litres, representing a fundamental shift in Nigeria’s decades-long dependence on imported fuel.
Dangote explained that the NNPC had made attempts to acquire additional stakes in the refinery beyond its current 7.25 per cent holding, but the offer was turned down because the group intends to list the business publicly.
“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 stated.
The NNPC originally acquired a 7.25 per cent stake in the refinery in 2021 for $1 billion, with an option to acquire the remaining 12.75 per cent of a planned 20 per cent total stake by June 2024. However, the national oil company reneged on the arrangement. In 2024, Dangote publicly revealed that the NNPC held only 7.2 per cent not 20 per cent as many Nigerians believed.
“The agreement was actually 20 per cent, which we had with NNPC, and they did not pay the balance of the money up until last year; then we gave them another extension up until June (2024), and they said that they would remain where they had already paid, which is 7.2 per cent,” Dangote had stated at the time.
The former NNPC spokesman, Olufemi Soneye, had previously defended the decision to reduce the planned stake, saying the funds were redirected to invest in compressed natural gas stations.
In a move likely to attract significant investor interest, Dangote announced that shareholders in the group’s businesses would receive their dividends in dollars.
“What we are announcing is that when you invest in any of our businesses going forward, in cement or in the refinery, in petrochemicals, in fertiliser, we guarantee to pay you a dividend in dollars because we are very well into exports. 80 per cent of our revenue will be in dollars,” Dangote said.
Data from NMDPRA official documents showed that Nigeria’s total petrol supply stood at 4.14 billion litres between January and March 2026, with local refinery supply accounting for 76.7 per cent at 3.18 billion litres, while imports contributed just 23.3 per cent at 965.52 million litres.
Although the NMDPRA documents did not directly name the Dangote refinery in the first-quarter supply table, industry records show that it is the only refinery in Nigeria currently producing Premium Motor Spirit on a commercial scale.
With the average domestic ex-depot petrol price from the Dangote refinery across January to March 2026 estimated at approximately N1,000 per litre, this implies the plant supplied over N3.2 trillion worth of petrol domestically during the review period.
The figures represent a dramatic year-on-year transformation. Local refinery supply jumped by 59.2 per cent from 1.99 billion litres in Q1 2025 to 3.18 billion litres in Q1 2026. Importation, however, dropped by 60.2 per cent from 2.43 billion litres to 965.52 million litres.
Month by month, in January 2026, local refinery supply stood at 1.24 billion litres with imports at 698.19 million litres for a total of 1.94 billion litres. February saw local supply drop to 824.45 million litres while imports collapsed to just 85.10 million litres, bringing total supply down to 909.55 million litres. In March, local supply recovered to 1.11 billion litres while imports rose slightly to 182.24 million litres for a total of 1.29 billion litres.
Despite the surge in local refining, total petrol supply declined by 6.2 per cent year-on-year from 4.42 billion litres in Q1 2025 to 4.14 billion litres in Q1 2026, suggesting that increased domestic output has not yet fully translated into higher overall petrol availability.
Dangote revealed that the refinery is now operating at 661,000 barrels per day — exceeding its 650,000 bpd nameplate capacity — and announced plans to more than double capacity to 1.4 million barrels per day within the next 30 months.
“The refinery has been tested. We have now processed even crude at 661,000 barrels a day. So we have demonstrated that capability. Now, a lot of financial institutions are saying that, ‘Yes, if it is you doing this project, we are there to back you because we know that you can deliver; you have the capacity, you have the knowledge, and you have the experience,’” Dangote stated.
On crude supply, Dangote disclosed that the refinery sources about 56 per cent of its crude from Nigeria and the rest from Angola, Libya, and the United States. “We have to now buy 21 cargoes every month. That’s how big we are,” he said.
Dangote described the ongoing conflict between the United States and Iran, and its resultant disruption of global energy markets, as having been more beneficial than harmful to his businesses, as the demand for fuel and petrochemical products has surged globally.
“The effect of the war on our businesses is more beneficial than a downside because today, fertiliser is in very high demand. In February, before the Middle East crisis, urea was selling for about $400 a tonne. Today we are selling a tonne of fertiliser for $850, and we are actually oversold,” Dangote disclosed.
He added that polypropylene prices had risen from $900 to about $3,000 in the UK, and that most Nigerian plastic companies would have shut down if not for the polypropylene produced by his plant. Aviation fuel from the refinery, he said, was oversold until mid-July, with production at 20 million litres of jet fuel per day.
Dangote identified a category of individuals he called “the Mafia” who had attempted to sabotage the refinery because of the billions they were making from Nigeria’s former fuel importation regime.
“The Mafia are the people who are actually benefiting because Nigeria was giving out almost $10 billion every year as a subsidy. There are shippers who are making tonnes of money. There are traders who are making a lot of money buying crude and sending us refined products. There are also the local people; because it was subsidised, very few people are getting allocations. So they are making billions of naira,” Dangote explained.
“These are the people that did not want us to settle down because they believed that we were coming here to displace them, and of course, that’s what we have done now,” he added.
Dangote laid out an ambitious growth roadmap targeting $100 billion in revenue and a market valuation of more than $250 billion by 2030. He disclosed plans to raise approximately $45 billion through a combination of selling stakes in the business, attracting new investors, and reinvesting internally generated funds.
“Our target is to get to $100 billion by 2030, with a market valuation of maybe more than $250 billion, because as we speak today, last year, our EBITDA was $3 billion, but the target by 2030 is to be 10 times that amount, to be at over $30 billion of EBITDA,” Dangote stated.
Cement production, he said, would increase to 100 million tonnes, noting that the cement business generates enough cash flow to fund its own expansion without significant external financing.
Dangote revealed that the initial plan was to fund most of the refinery’s construction from internally generated funds, but naira devaluation forced the group to seek external financing. Key financial partners included Afreximbank, Africa Finance Corporation, Zenith Bank, Access Bank, UBA, Standard Bank of South Africa, and Standard Chartered Bank of the UK.
He also disclosed that he sold his personal properties in the United States — two mansions — and a house in the United Kingdom to concentrate fully on his Nigerian businesses.
“When I decided to go into the industry, I sold all my properties in the US. I had two houses in the US, big mansions, and I had a house in the UK. I wanted to really sit in Nigeria and concentrate,” Dangote said. “Wherever I go, I use hotels; I pay. When I leave, nobody will call me and say I have a burst pipe or something is wrong. So I’m committed to what I do.”
Renowned energy economist Professor Wumi Iledare cautioned against overstating the end of fuel importation, noting that while the Dangote refinery has significantly improved domestic supply conditions and reduced Nigeria’s marginal reliance on imported petrol, neither the refinery nor petroleum marketers alone determine national supply outcomes.
The CEO of petroleumprice.ng, Jeremiah Olatide, however, described the growth in domestic refining capacity as a major milestone in Nigeria’s long-standing quest to reduce dependence on imported petroleum products.
The Dangote refinery also exported about 434 million litres of petrol in March 2026 alone, as the facility diversified its customer base after significantly outpacing domestic consumption, operating at an average capacity utilisation of 93.62 per cent.
