Dangote rejects NNPC offer to increase stake in refinery

The President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has said the group rejected requests by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to increase its 7.25 per cent stake in the Dangote Petroleum Refinery.

Dangote stated this in an interview with the Chief Executive Officer of the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund, Nicolai Tangen. The interview was monitored by one of our correspondents on Wednesday.

This came as findings by The PUNCH showed that petrol supply from the $20bn Lekki-based refinery rose to 3.18 billion litres in the first quarter of 2026, while imports fell sharply to 965.52 million litres.

Further findings indicated that the average domestic ex-depot petrol price from the Dangote refinery across January to March 2026 was about ₦1,000 per litre. This implies that the multi-billion-dollar plant supplied over N3.2tn worth of petrol domestically during the review period.

Also, the war between the United States and Iran, and its resultant disruption of the oil sector and other sectors, has led to increased revenue for the Dangote refinery, as the plant has raised its refined petroleum products export.

According to Dangote during the interview, the NNPC’s offer to increase its 7.25 per cent stake in the refinery was rejected because the company is planning to go public and give other Nigerians the opportunity to own shares in the plant.

It was reported that in 2021, the NNPC acquired the 7.25 per cent stake in the refinery for $1bn, with an option to acquire the remaining 12.75 per cent stake by June 2024. But the national oil firm reneged on its decision.

During the interview with the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund CEO, Dangote revealed that the national oil company had made attempts to acquire more stakes in the refinery, but this was turned down.

Responding to questions about what could be the biggest risks to his businesses, Dangote mentioned civil war and government policy inconsistencies, saying, “Actually, if there are civil wars, which is not in the offing at all.

“The other biggest risk is government inconsistencies in policies, and we are addressing that one because if you look at our refinery, 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.”

Recall that the NNPC, under the former Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, reduced its stake in the refinery from 20 per cent to 7.25 per cent. Aliko Dangote made this public in 2024. He disclosed that the NNPC had only a 7.2 per cent stake in the refinery and 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. So NNPC owns only 7.2 per cent, not 20 per cent,” Dangote stated in 2024, to the surprise of many Nigerians.

Speaking further during the latest interview, the billionaire businessman said shareholders can get 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,” he said.

To raise funds for building the refinery, Dangote said he got a lot of support from various financial institutions, including Nigerian banks.

According to him, the initial plan was to fund most of the construction work “from our internally generated funds”, but because of naira devaluation, the group “had to rely on Afreximbank, Africa Finance Corporation, Zenith Bank, Access Bank, UBA and a couple of the local banks, but of course we also have a very good relationship with the Standard Bank of South Africa and, at the beginning, Standard Chartered Bank of the UK”.

He maintained that the company was lucky and what happened when the plant was completed “turned out to be much more than our own expectations”.

In the interview, Dangote disclosed how he sold his properties in the United States and the United Kingdom to settle in Nigeria.

“When I decided to go into the industry, you know what I did? 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.

“You know, sometimes when you own a holiday home anywhere, you have to create that time to go and use that property. So, now my life is very simple. 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, and I just don’t do things; I always create a vision.

“It’s just like now; we created a vision for 2030. So, I know I have a target to meet. I just don’t do business. All my businesses are targeted,” he said.

On how he decides which business to venture into, the business mogul replied, “I first of all look at what we need as a people? What is it that we are supposed to be producing, and we’re importing? So we do what you call ‘backward integration’. We produce what the people need, and we are now producing things that when you wake up as a human being every morning, you must use part of what we produce,” he said.

While defending why the NNPC reduced its planned stake in the Dangote refinery in 2024, the NNPC’s former spokesman, Olufemi Soneye, said it was to invest in compressed natural gas stations.

Petrol supply from local refineries rose to 3.18 billion litres in the first quarter of 2026, while imports fell sharply to 965.52 million litres, according to data from official documents of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority analysed by The PUNCH.

Although the NMDPRA documents did not directly name Dangote refinery in the first-quarter supply table, industry records show that it is the only refinery in Nigeria currently known to be producing Premium Motor Spirit on a commercial scale.

The agency’s fact sheet also listed Dangote among Nigeria’s active refineries and separately tracked its PMS performance. The figures 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, while imports contributed 23.3 per cent.

This marked a major shift from the first quarter of 2025, when domestic refineries supplied 1.99 billion litres, while oil marketers imported 2.43 billion litres. Total supply in Q1 2025 stood at 4.42 billion litres.