Aliko Dangote has said he wants annual general meetings of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery to attract as many as 70,000 shareholders, declaring that the company’s ambition for mass ownership means its meetings could eventually move beyond traditional hotel venues to stadiums.
Speaking in an interview with ARISE News ahead of the refinery’s landmark public offer, Dangote said he envisaged an unusually large and active shareholder base that would directly hold management accountable for how the company is run.
“I think we are looking at now not having annual general meeting in the hotel like what we have been doing in other companies, no,” Dangote said.
“This one, we’ll be stadium. I’m sure 70,000 people will gather for that annual general meeting.”
Dangote said he did not simply want large numbers of shareholders on the company’s register but wanted investors to participate actively in overseeing the business.
“We’ll encourage them to come and tell us how good we are running their company,” he said.
“If we are not running it well, they should blast us and tell us what to do.”
The comments underline Dangote’s stated ambition to turn ownership of the refinery into a mass-participation investment, with the businessman targeting at least 10 million shareholders, particularly retail investors across Nigeria and Africa.
The refinery’s public offer opened on Monday, September 14, with 4.1 billion ordinary shares offered at ₦525 each, seeking to raise about ₦2.15 trillion.
The minimum subscription is 10 shares, costing ₦5,250.
Dangote has described the offer as a “People’s IPO”, saying he wants ownership of the refinery spread beyond himself and existing institutional investors.
In the ARISE News interview, he said he was prepared to dilute his own stake further if necessary to accommodate strong demand and bring more ordinary investors into the company.
“I don’t mind to be diluted as much as possible because I want people to actually be part of this good journey,” he said.
Dangote said his ambition was to see people across income levels participate in ownership of the refinery, including employees of his businesses.
“This is my main mission: to make sure that, yes, we democratise this share and give it to normal people,” he said.
His proposed shareholder structure would represent a significant expansion of retail participation in one of Africa’s largest industrial assets, with the low minimum subscription designed to make the offer accessible to smaller investors.
Dangote has also argued that investors should approach the refinery shares as a long-term investment rather than an asset to be bought and quickly resold.
For Dangote, however, expanding ownership would also bring greater scrutiny of the company and its management.
His vision of tens of thousands of shareholders gathering for an AGM, he suggested, means the refinery’s owners should be prepared to publicly challenge managers when performance falls short.
Dangote said such shareholder participation was part of his broader objective of ensuring that ordinary investors do not merely own shares in the refinery but have a voice in how the company is managed.
Demola Ojo
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