Africa's largest bank Standard Bank takes leading role in Dangote refinery IPO

Standard Bank Group, Africa's largest financial institution by assets, has committed to playing a leading role in the planned initial public offering of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and pledged balance sheet and advisory support for Dangote Industries Limited's broader expansion across the continent.

The commitment was made by Standard Bank Group Chief Executive Sim Tshabalala during a strategic visit to the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Dangote Fertiliser complex in Lagos alongside senior executives from the Johannesburg-headquartered bank.

"As Dangote lists, there is an IPO coming up and we are a leading player in that process," Tshabalala said after touring the facilities. "As the Group continues to expand in Nigeria and across Africa, there will be opportunities for financial advisory services and balance sheet support, and we stand ready to provide both."

Tshabalala described the refinery as a project with transformational implications for Nigeria and the continent, calling it "a wonder to behold" that is already delivering measurable economic impact through stronger foreign exchange earnings, improved balance-of-payments performance and enhanced energy security.

"We are here because the Dangote Group is a large and important global player and a significant force on the African continent," Tshabalala said. "Standard Bank is the largest financial institution in Africa and we have partnered with Dangote on a variety of initiatives. We are here to lend support, to see this magnificent refinery and to discuss Vision 2030 and how we can continue supporting the Group's growth ambitions."

The visit came at a significant operational moment for the refinery. David Bird, managing director and chief executive of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, disclosed that the facility has exceeded its original nameplate capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, completing performance test runs at 700,000 barrels per day.

"We have always believed there was engineering flexibility built into the design," Bird said. "Achieving sustained production of 700,000 barrels per day is a testament to the technical capability of our people and the strength of the systems we have built."

Bird described Standard Bank as one of the refinery's strongest institutional supporters since the construction phase, saying the visit gave the bank's leadership an opportunity to see directly what their backing had helped deliver.

"Standard Bank has been one of our strongest supporters throughout the history of the refinery and the broader Dangote Group," Bird said. "This visit was an opportunity to demonstrate what that support has enabled. Seeing is believing, and it allows our partners to appreciate the scale of what has been achieved."

Devakumar Edwin, group vice president for oil and gas at Dangote Industries, said the visit marked a milestone in a partnership that dates to the refinery's construction period and that both organisations are now exploring ways to deepen collaboration as Dangote extends its industrial operations across Africa.

"The bank visited us during construction and understood the scale of what we were building," Edwin said. "Today, the refinery is fully operational and they can see what their support has helped to create. It is like nurturing a tree and eventually seeing it bear fruit."

The Dangote Petroleum Refinery, built at a cost of approximately $20 billion on a 2,635-acre site in the Lekki Free Zone in Lagos, is the largest single-train refinery in the world by capacity. It began fuel deliveries to the Nigerian market in 2024 and has since become a central factor in the country's foreign exchange dynamics, reducing the dollar outflows previously consumed by fuel imports.

Aliko Dangote, Africa's richest person with a net worth of approximately $37 billion, has confirmed plans to list the refinery on the Nigerian Exchange and the London Stock Exchange. The IPO, when it proceeds, would be one of the largest equity offerings in African corporate history and the most significant listing on the Nigerian Exchange since Geregu Power in 2022. Standard Bank's public commitment to a leading role in that process gives the offering an institutional anchor from the continent's most capitalised banking group.

Standard Bank operates across 20 African markets and reported headline earnings of approximately $2.1 billion for fiscal year 2025. Its involvement in the Dangote IPO would represent one of the most prominent equity capital markets mandates in the bank's history on the continent.