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Afreximbank has underwritten $2.5 billion of a $4 billion syndicated term loan extended to Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals, taking the single largest share in a financing package that consolidates existing debt, optimises the refinery's capital structure and sets up Africa's biggest refinery complex for its next phase of growth.
The five-year facility was announced Tuesday in Cairo, where Afreximbank's board of directors met with the leadership of the Dangote Group. Access Bank was appointed as co-Mandated Lead Arranger alongside Afreximbank. The transaction attracted a consortium of African and international lenders, reflecting continued institutional confidence in the 650,000-barrel-per-day refinery that Aliko Dangote has built in Lagos.
Afreximbank President and Chairman of the Board Dr. George Elombi said the bank had now invested approximately $15 billion in the Dangote Group since 2015, describing it as one of the most significant long-term commitments any pan-African lender had made to a single private sector enterprise on the continent.
"We take immense pride in being the single largest provider of financing to the Dangote Group. We do so primarily because Dangote is African," Elombi said. "When we invest in ourselves, we do more than create jobs and wealth or expand government revenues; we build a secure and resilient future for our continent."
Aliko Dangote, president and chief executive of Dangote Industries Limited, said the loan marked an important step in strengthening the refinery's financial foundation and positioning the business for what he described as the next phase of its growth.
"We appreciate Afreximbank's continued support and confidence in our vision to build world-class industrial capacity that serves Nigeria, Africa and global markets," Dangote said.
The Dangote refinery began refining operations in February 2024, a milestone that came after years of construction delays and financing challenges that had tested investors' patience. Since then, the facility has emerged as a strategic asset for Nigeria's fuel supply and for broader African energy security. The refinery operates out of Nigeria's Lagos Free Zone and was designed to process 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day, making it the largest single-train refinery in the world by design capacity.
Afreximbank's role in the transaction goes beyond providing capital. The bank previously extended a $1 billion working capital facility to the refinery after operations commenced and served as financial adviser on the Naira-for-Crude initiative, a mechanism that allows the refinery to buy crude oil from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company and sell refined products in local currency, removing the dollar dependency that had made fuel pricing a persistent challenge in Nigeria.
The $4 billion syndicated facility is designed to consolidate that earlier financing structure and align the refinery's debt profile with its current operational status. By refinancing under a single coordinated syndicate, the refinery moves from construction-stage financing to a capital structure better suited to a fully operational industrial complex.
Elombi was direct about the stakes involved. He framed the transaction not just as a commercial deal but as a statement about what African capital can do when it is deployed into African enterprise at scale. The Dangote refinery, he said, stood as proof that African ambition, African capital and African execution could deliver at a global standard.
"Afreximbank and its Board of Directors stand ready to support the realisation of Dangote Group's aspirations because when we build our institutions and provide the requisite support to grow, we will no longer have to look elsewhere for benevolence or salvation in difficult times," he said.
The deal lands at a moment when Africa's energy security has become a more pressing topic than usual. The disruption of Middle East oil supplies following the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has pushed fuel prices higher across the continent, reinforcing the case for regional refining capacity that does not depend on global trade routes for its feedstock. Dangote's refinery, drawing on West African crude, is increasingly positioned as part of the answer to that vulnerability.
Afreximbank, which held total assets and contingencies of more than $40.1 billion at the end of 2024, has built its identity around exactly this kind of transaction, mobilising institutional capital to support industrialisation and intra-African trade at a scale that development finance institutions elsewhere might not reach. A $2.5 billion underwriting commitment in a single deal is a significant deployment even by the bank's own standards, and the fact that it is anchored in the continent's largest refinery gives the transaction a symbolic weight that goes beyond the balance sheet numbers.
