Business

Dangote Refinery to double workforce in expansion push

Published

2 weeks ago

September 18, 2026

Dangote Refinery 2 1024x831 1 e1778177983979.jpg

Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals FZE plans to double its labour force to meet its target of doubling its processing capacity by 2029.

“Well, within the refinery, the workforce will practically become double, except in the water treatment section, because there we already have substantial capacity,” Edwin Devakumar, vice president, oil & gas and fertiliser at Dangote Industries Limited, told journalists at the refinery in Lagos on Friday.

He observed that labour expansion in the transport segment might not be significant, except in the case of an increase in local consumption.

“Obviously, we don’t expect a substantial increase in the consumption of petrol and diesel within the country in the short term,” he added.

The oil processing plant is on a drive to raise N2.2 trillion ($1.6 billion) in equity capital from retail investors to finance a major expansion from 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 1.4 million bpd.

On Monday, when it opened its order book to the public, setting the capital raise programme in motion, overwhelming subscription traffic, which attracted billions of naira in demand to the offer in its first few minutes, triggered downtime across a couple of trading platforms across Nigeria.

Bamboo and Cowrywise, two of several fintech and digital application channels approved by Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission to facilitate transactions for the offer, reported outages on their social media posts, with Bamboo said to have seen a 1,000-fold jump in traffic compared to regular days.

The pan-African share sale, dubbed by Mr Dangote as “the people’s IPO,” is broadly tapping into Nigeria’s fintech infrastructure to drive inclusion across the continent’s most populous country, with a minimum subscription of 10 units, equivalent to N5,250.

Towards that end, the transaction is targeting investors as diverse as traders, cooks, drivers and managers, giving “every human being living on the continent to be part of this action,” Mr Dangote told attendees at the sign-off ceremony of the offer documents in Lagos last week.

The green shoe option in the offer gives Dangote Refinery the flexibility to allot 30 per cent of the excess shares if the IPO is oversubscribed.

Should that happen, it will make the IPO not just Africa’s biggest yet but also the largest-ever among frontier markets, Temi Popoola, the CEO of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX), said this week while responding to questions on CNN.

Compared to the first phase of the refinery project, which cost $20 billion and suffered construction delays, the expansion will cost less, Mr Devakumar said, because there won’t be a need to build most of the infrastructure used in the first stage, including a granite quarry and a port facility.

“The equipment, per se, will be the same because it’s a replica. But at the same time, we are trying to cut down on engineering and design costs because most of that will again be a replica. So we have told the design engineers, reduce your cost, and they have already agreed,” he said.

The current expansion plan at the fertiliser unit is expected to increase annual output from 3 million tons to 12 million tons.

READ ALSO: What Dangote IPO signals – NGX Chairman

Apart from Lagos, where it is pursuing a primary listing, the Dangote Refinery is also looking to float its shares on bourses in Africa, including Johannesburg and Nairobi. A cross-border listing outside Africa, most likely in the US, is under consideration and could happen in three to four years.

According to Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment Jumoke Oduwole, listing the refinery’s shares on the NGX could lift market capitalisation by $60 billion.

The company logged $1.8 billion in after-tax profit for the six months to June, when revenue topped $13 billion, according to the offer prospectus, riding on the soaring oil prices that followed the outbreak of the US war against Iran.

That compares to a net loss of $476 million recorded for last year.

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Business

Zenith, Fidson, NEM top stock pick this week

Published

8 hours ago

October 5, 2026

PlateauReports

Nigerian stocks slightly depreciated last week, sliding by 0.5 per cent as sell pressure on bank equities weighed on the main stock index.

All but the insurance index dropped out of the five sector indexes tracked by the Nigerian Exchange.

“Investor positioning ahead of Q3:2026 earnings should provide additional support, particularly as expectations build around the Tier-1 banks’ results,” analysts at Meristem Securities said in a note to investors ahead of the week.

“The ongoing impact of Nigeria’s FTSE Russell reclassification should also keep trading activity elevated and sustain interest in eligible large-cap stocks,” they added.

The release of companies’ Q3 earnings reports is expected to begin soon.

PREMIUM TIMES has assembled some stocks with sound fundamentals, adopting rigorous approaches to save you the risk of picking equities at random for investment.

The pick, a product of an analytical market watch, offers a guide to entering the market and taking strategic positions, with the expectation that selected stocks will record reasonable price appreciation with the passage of time.

This is not a buy, sell or hold recommendation but a stock investment guide. You may need to involve your financial advisor before taking investment decisions.

READ ALSO: DN Tyre & Rubber, Greif Nigeria delisted from Nigerian Exchange

Zenith Bank

Zenith tops this week’s list for its strong fundamentals and for trading below its intrinsic value. The net profit ratio (NPR) of the lender is 21.8, while the price-to-earnings (PE) ratio is 5.3x. Its 14-day relative strength index (RSI) is 68.

Fidson Healthcare

Fidson appears on the pick on the basis of its attractive fundamentals. The NPR of the pharmaceutical company is 7.8, while the PE ratio is 18.8x. The 14-day RSI is 51.2.

NEM Insurance

NEM makes the selection for its strong fundamentals and for trading below its intrinsic value. The insurer’s NPR is 15.7, while the PE ratio is 5.6x. Its 14-day RSI is 43.2.

Stanbic IBTC Holdings

Stanbic IBTC makes the cut for its sound fundamentals. The NPR of the banking group is 34.5, while PE ratio is 5.9x. The 14-day RSI is 69.5.

Aradel Holdings

Aradel makes the cut for its sound fundamentals. The NPR of the energy company is 28.4, while the PE ratio is 8.7x. The RSI is 50.8.

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Business

NAIPE 11th Annual Conference Moves to 12 Noon as 28 Stakeholders Back Event

Published

16 hours ago

October 5, 2026

PlateauReports

About 28 insurance and pension regulators and operators have backed the upcoming 11th edition of the Nigerian Association of Insurance and Pension Editors (NAIPE) Annual Conference, scheduled to hold in Lagos.

This is even as the timing of the event scheduled to hold on Thursday, October 8, 2026, at Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, has been shifted from 9:00am to 12:00pm same day.

This is to allow Insurance operators, who will be attending Insurers Committee meeting earlier that day, conclude their meeting and attend the conference.

The national conference with a focus on the emerging market dynamics in Nigeria’s insurance and pension sectors, follows the just concluded recapitalisation exercise in the insurance sector and ongoing exercise in the pension industry.

Themed: “Post-Recapitalisation and Market Dynamics in Insurance & Pension Sectors,” the Chief Executive Officer of United Capital Asset Management Limited, Dr. Odiri Oginni, will deliver the keynote address, focusing on the insurance perspective while Mr. Oguche Aguda,
Founder and Managing Partner of HRISP Partners, will equally deliver a paper on the theme, focusing on the pension perspective.

The Group Managing Director of Custodian Investment Plc, Mr. Wole Oshin, will chair the event.

According to NAIPE, the conference is coming at a critical period for the two sectors, as insurance operators have just concluded their recapitalisation exercise, while pension operators are expected to conclude theirs in 2027.

The high level discourse will therefore examine how funds raised through recapitalisation can be strategically invested and deployed to generate stronger returns, deepen market confidence and improve service delivery to shareholders and policyholders.

Expected dignitaries include the Commissioner for Insurance & Chief Executive Officer of the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), Mr. Olusegun Omosehin; Director-General of the National Pension Commission (PenCom), Ms. Omolola Oloworaran; chief executives of insurance companies, broking firms, investment and securities companies and Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs), as well as regulators, labour unions, students and other stakeholders.

Speaking ahead of the conference, Chairperson of NAIPE, Mrs. Ebere Nwoji said, the annual gathering provides a platform for insurance and pension journalists to contribute to the development of both sectors by promoting greater public understanding of insurance and pension as instruments for financial security and protection against old-age poverty.

Nwoji expressed appreciation to operators and regulators in the two sectors for their continued support for the conference, stressing that, the benefits derived from the annual event outweigh the resources committed to organising it.

She described this year’s theme as timely, given the significant structural changes taking place in the insurance and pension industries through recapitalisation.

She noted that, the insurance industry concluded its recapitalisation exercise on July 31, 2026, while the pension industry is currently undergoing a similar process expected to be completed next year.

The NAIPE chairperson, particularly, commended the leadership of NAICOM for successfully concluding the insurance industry’s recapitalisation exercise, describing it as a major achievement for Omosehin.

According to her, the Commissioner ‘took the bull by the horns’ in breaking what she described as the longstanding cycle of inconclusive recapitalisation exercises in the insurance industry.

She also expressed optimism that the pension industry, under the leadership of Ms. Omolola Oloworaran, would achieve a seamless and successful recapitalisation exercise.

“The conference would provide operators with an opportunity to gain insights into prudent and judicious investment of the capital raised through the recapitalisation process.

“I am confident that speakers at the event would provide practical perspectives on how insurance and pension operators can deploy their strengthened capital bases to deliver superior investment returns while enhancing value for investors, shareholders and policyholders” she affirmed.

Meanwhile, NAICOM, PenCom, SanlamAllianz, Veritas Kapital and 24 others have offered their support and partnership towards the conference.

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