… South African Investors Eye Investment Opportunities
Yemisi Izuora
President/Chief Executive, Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has said the planned listing of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals on the Nigerian Exchange is designed to democratise wealth creation and give Africans direct access to participate in the continent’s industrial transformation.
Dangote spoke during the visit of the leadership of South Africa’s Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF), alongside the Public Investment Corporation and Alterra Capital Partners, to the Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals and Dangote Fertiliser Limited in Lagos. The South African delegation included Chairperson of GEPF, Frans Baleni; Principal Executive Officer of GEPF, Musa Mabesa; Deputy Chairperson of PIC, Mongwena Maluleke; Chief Executive Officer of PIC, Patrick Dlamini; and Managing Partner of Alterra Capital Partners, Genevieve Sangudi.
The visit comes amid rising investor interest in Africa-led industrialisation and long-term infrastructure investments. GEPF is Africa’s largest defined benefit pension fund, managing the retirement and associated benefits of more than 1.8 million public sector workers in South Africa, while PIC is the continent’s largest asset manager.
Speaking on the planned refinery listing, Dangote said Africa’s next phase of economic growth must be anchored on large-scale industrial projects capable of creating jobs, strengthening domestic production capacity and generating broad-based prosperity.
“We are opening the doors for investors to participate directly in Africa’s industrial future and the prosperity it will create,” Dangote said.
According to him, the refinery project reflects the scale of untapped opportunities within Africa’s energy market, particularly as most African countries remain dependent on imported refined petroleum products despite growing industrial demand and rising consumption.
Dangote said the Group’s long-term investment strategy is driven by Africa’s expanding energy needs and the urgent requirement for regional refining capacity capable of serving multiple markets across the continent.
The billionaire industrialist noted that demand for products such as polypropylene, aviation fuel and refined petroleum products has exceeded earlier projections, reinforcing the commercial viability of the refinery and shaping future expansion plans.
“We thought about Nigeria first and then exports, but even with our current production, we are practically living hand to mouth because the market demand is extremely high,” he said.
Speaking after the tour of the Dangote facilities in Ibeju-Lekki, the Chairperson of GEPF, Frans Baleni, said that the refinery stands as evidence that Africa can execute transformational infrastructure projects when backed by visionary leadership, long-term investment and strong technical expertise.
“If it can be done anywhere else in the world, it can be done in Africa,” he said. “This project has shown that the continent is capable of achieving world-class industrialisation at scale.”
Baleni added that the significance of the project extends well beyond Nigeria’s borders. “What has been built here is reshaping how the world should think about African industrial capability — and it should reshape how Africa thinks about itself. For too long, projects of this magnitude have been associated with other parts of the world. The Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals Complex is a powerful demonstration that, with visionary leadership and long-term capital, that perception no longer holds. This is the kind of African-led industrial scale that institutional investors on this continent should be backing.”
On his part, Chief Executive Officer of PIC, Patrick Dlamini, described the refinery as one of the most transformative industrial projects undertaken on the continent, saying it is reshaping global perceptions about Africa’s industrial capabilities and economic potential.
Quoting former South African President Nelson Mandela, Dlamini said: “It always looks impossible until it’s done. This project is redefining the story of Africa and the possibilities of Africa.”
He said PIC, which manages about $230 billion in assets largely on behalf of South Africa’s Government Employees Pension Fund, is actively seeking long-term partnerships aligned with infrastructure development, industrialisation and economic transformation across Africa.
“PIC’s mandate is to deploy long-term, patient capital in service of industrialisation, infrastructure and economic transformation across Africa,” Dlamini said. “What we have seen today reinforces our conviction that the next chapter of African prosperity will be written through partnership between African institutional capital and African industrial champions. There is real strategic alignment between Dangote’s industrial agenda and how we are positioning our portfolio, and we look forward to exploring meaningful avenues for collaboration.”
According to him, poverty, unemployment and economic exclusion remain major drivers of instability across Africa, making industrialisation and large-scale job creation critical to the continent’s long-term development.