President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has said the ongoing initial public offering of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery is not intended to raise money but to create wealth by allowing ordinary Nigerians to own stakes in the business.
Dangote also disclosed that all companies operated by the Dangote Group would eventually be listed on the stock market, while shareholders of the refinery would receive dividends in dollars.
He disclosed this in an Al Jazeera interview uploaded on Monday while speaking about the refinery IPO and the group’s plans for its other businesses.
Explaining the motivation behind the refinery IPO, Dangote said the offer was designed to give more people an opportunity to participate in the ownership of the business.
He said, “Okay, so let me tell you, the IPO we are doing is not that we want to raise money. It is purely we want the poor people, people like my driver, my cook, your driver, your cook, yourself, your wife, your kids to have piece of action. We want to see how do we create wealth.”
He explained that the model was similar to how businesses in developed economies invite members of the public to participate in their ownership after they had been successfully established.
He said, “The same way, what we are actually trying to do, we are trying to do exactly what’s going on in America and other parts of the Western world, where now you go, when you create a business, you incubate a business, you create it, it turned out to be a great business because you have a great idea.”
“And now, instead of you to keep that money alone to yourself, you are now inviting other people to come and now join you. And you grow together,” he added.
Dangote said the group planned to extend the public ownership model to all its businesses.
He said, “The whole thing is that the group is having different sorts of segments of the business. Like by 2028, we will be the biggest urea company in the world.”
He added, “Every single company now that we are operating will end up listing it to make sure that the society at large are part owners of all these investments, be it fertiliser, be it, you know, even smaller ones, we’ll list them.”
According to Dangote, the planned listings would also help strengthen corporate governance within the group.
He said, “It wasn’t like the way that we did things before. Right now, we’re building our own management ahead of building the businesses.”
Dangote said the planned listings would give people across Africa an opportunity to participate in the ownership of the businesses.
“It’s a milestone for Africa, not Nigerians. Africans, you’ll be surprised, everybody will participate,” he said.
On dividends from the refinery, Dangote said shareholders would be paid in dollars because the group earns its income in the currency.
He said, “And that’s why our dividend, because 100% of our income is in dollars. And that’s why we’ll pay people in dollars. You collect your dividend in dollars.”
Dangote said the development would take the Nigerian capital market to “a totally different level”.
He also disclosed that the refinery was expanding its petrochemical operations, including plans to produce linear alkyl benzene, a raw material used in detergent production.
Describing the refinery, Dangote said, “This is the most advanced refinery on earth. This is the lowest-cost refinery on earth.”
He also said the facility was expanding its petrochemical operations and would produce 400,000 tonnes of linear alkyl benzene.
On the refinery’s financial performance, Dangote said investors would see the company’s nine-month figures before the IPO closes on October 10.
He explained that the refinery carried out planned repairs in January and February, which affected its operations, but said the subsequent figures would show an improvement in performance.
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