South Africa’s leading pension and investment institutions are exploring potential investment opportunities in the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals, signalling growing continental confidence in Africa-led industrial projects and Nigeria’s expanding refining landscape.
The development follows a high-level visit by officials from the South African Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF), the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) and Alterra Capital Partners to the Dangote Refinery and Dangote Fertiliser complex in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos.
The delegation’s visit comes as African institutional investors increasingly seek long-term investments aligned with infrastructure growth, industrialisation and economic transformation across the continent.
Speaking during the visit, GEPF Chairperson, Frans Baleni, described the refinery as a landmark industrial achievement that demonstrates Africa’s capacity to deliver world-class projects at scale.
“If it can be done anywhere else in the world, it can be done in Africa. This project has shown that the continent is capable of achieving world-class industrialisation at scale,” Baleni said.
According to him, the significance of the refinery extends beyond Nigeria, challenging long-standing assumptions about Africa’s industrial capability and redefining what is possible for African economies.
“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,” he added.
PIC Chief Executive Officer, Patrick Dlamini, also described the refinery as one of the most transformative industrial investments undertaken on the continent.
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 noted that PIC, which manages about $230 billion in assets, is actively pursuing long-term partnerships that support infrastructure development and industrial growth across Africa.
“PIC’s mandate is to deploy long-term, patient capital in the service of industrialisation, infrastructure, and economic transformation across Africa. 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,” Dlamini stated.
President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, said the planned listing of the refinery on the Nigerian Exchange is aimed at widening access to investment opportunities and allowing more Africans to participate in the continent’s industrial growth.
“We are opening the doors for investors to participate directly in Africa’s industrial future and the prosperity it will create,” Dangote said.
He stressed that Africa’s next phase of economic development must be anchored on large-scale industrial projects capable of creating jobs, strengthening local production and driving broad-based prosperity.
Dangote added that demand for products including aviation fuel, polypropylene and refined petroleum products has exceeded earlier expectations, reinforcing the refinery’s long-term commercial outlook.
“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.
The growing interest from major South African investment institutions comes as the Dangote Refinery continues to position itself not only as a strategic energy asset for Nigeria but also as a broader African industrial platform attracting regional capital and long-term investor attention.