Major South African pension and investment organisations are considering investment opportunities in the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals after a senior delegation visited the facility in Lagos.
The Dangote Group disclosed in a statement on Tuesday that officials from the South African Government Employees Pension Fund, the Public Investment Corporation, and Alterra Capital Partners toured the Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals as well as Dangote Fertiliser Limited located in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos.
According to the statement, the GEPF is the largest defined-benefit pension fund in Africa, overseeing retirement savings for over 1.8 million South African public servants, while the PIC remains the continent’s biggest asset manager.
Speaking during the visit, Chairperson of the GEPF, Frans Baleni, described the refinery project as proof that Africa possesses the capacity to deliver industrial projects on a global 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,” he said.
Baleni said the impact of the refinery stretches beyond Nigeria, adding that it challenges long-held assumptions about Africa’s industrial capabilities.
“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 said.
The Chief Executive Officer of the PIC, Patrick Dlamini, also hailed the refinery as one of Africa’s most significant industrial developments.
Referencing 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 explained that the PIC, which manages roughly $230bn in assets mainly for the Government Employees Pension Fund of South Africa, is looking to deepen long-term investments tied to industrialisation, infrastructure growth and economic expansion across the continent.
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“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 noted.
President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, said plans to list the refinery on the Nigerian Exchange are aimed at broadening ownership opportunities and allowing Africans to directly benefit from the continent’s industrial growth.
Dangote stressed that sustainable economic development in Africa must be driven by large industrial ventures capable of creating jobs, boosting local production and expanding prosperity across the region.
“We are opening the doors for investors to participate directly in Africa’s industrial future and the prosperity it will create,” Dangote said.
He further stated that the refinery demonstrates the enormous opportunities available within Africa’s energy sector, especially as many countries on the continent still depend heavily on imported refined petroleum products despite rising demand and industrial growth.
According to Dangote, the company’s long-term strategy is built around Africa’s increasing energy consumption and the need for stronger regional refining capacity that can supply several African markets.
The businessman added that demand for products including aviation fuel, polypropylene and refined petroleum products has surpassed earlier expectations, strengthening confidence in the project’s profitability and 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.