Nigeria’s refining revolution has a monopoly problem

On September 14, 2026, Nigeria marked an economic milestone with the opening of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery's initial public offering, the largest IPO in African history. Located in the Lekki Free Zone in Lagos, the refinery has a crude-processing capacity of 700,000 barrels per day and cost approximately $20 billion to build. In contrast, Nigeria's state-owned refineries continue to struggle with corruption and weak operational capacity, leading to a reliance on imports for petroleum products.