Africa’s richest man and founder of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has joked about viral social media posts by new Nigerian shareholders demanding a “board meeting” and confirmed plans to list the group’s fertiliser business in 2028.
Dangote made the remarks during an interview at the Qatar Economic Forum on Sunday while discussing the group’s ownership structure and plans to bring more investors into its businesses.
Dangote Reacts to Viral Shareholder Memes
Speaking about attracting more shareholders, Dangote said the group had traditionally operated without partners but was now opening up its businesses to more investors.
“No, we have actually everything we do by ourselves. We don’t have partners. But that’s why we are now looking for all these massive number of people to now become our partners,” he said.
He then joked about the reaction of Nigerians who recently bought shares in the Dangote Petroleum Refinery through its ongoing initial public offering.
“You must have seen that they’ve been calling me now for a board meeting,” Dangote said.
The comment comes amid a wave of memes and humorous posts from retail investors portraying themselves as co-owners and executives of the refinery.
Dangote Confirms Fertiliser IPO for 2028
Dangote also confirmed that the group plans to take its fertiliser business public.
Asked about the possibility of an IPO, he said, “Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, we will IPO it. It’s going to be the biggest fertilizer company on earth.”
When asked when the listing would happen, Dangote replied: “Yes, it will be 2028.”
Dangote Fertiliser operates a $2.5 billion fertiliser plant in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos, with an annual production capacity of about three million tonnes of urea.
The group has also outlined plans to expand its fertiliser production capacity to about 12 million tonnes annually by 2028, including expansion in Nigeria and a proposed plant in Ethiopia.
The planned fertiliser IPO comes as the Dangote Petroleum Refinery’s share offer continues to attract interest from Nigerian retail investors.
