After months spent applying for visas, and paying agents, and selling out everything you own on Instagram stories, it’s finally time for you to japa. You wake early the morning of your flight, pack your bags (and gently remove the crayfish your mother packed in your suitcase because you are worried about airport security thinking it’s something else).
You haggle with a taxi driver on the phone for minutes because your house is far from the airport. He wants to charge an arm and leg for the trip. When he eventually (begrudgingly) arrives, you shove your suitcases into his boot, fight back tears in the airport lounge as your parents and friends cry, and get to the ticket line with a stern officer looking down at you, only to discover that you did not book a ticket.
Sounds nightmarish, right?
Well, that is how many of us are meeting this Dangote Refinery IPO offer.
For weeks, we may have expressed enthusiasm and concern to our friends, while engaging in conversations about “fundamentals” and “bottom lines” and other words that show our investment savvy. But when it comes down to it, many of us are unsure of what the process to buy into this IPO will be. The steps we need to take to prepare.
So that’s why I’m writing this piece. I want you to know seven things you need to do before an IPO so that you can make the best decision possible for yourself. If you feel a bit squirmish, read the whole piece first before you make a decision. Ok? Ok.
A brief introduction
Now in an earlier article, we already talked about what the Dangote Refinery IPO was all about. You can read it all, and come back here, but I’m feeling a bit generous so here’s a quick refresher:
- It’s a refinery in the Lekki Free Trade Zone, and it is enormous. Commissioned in 2023 after nearly a decade of building and around $20 billion spent in construction, it processes crude into diesel, jet fuel and petrochemicals, and it is the largest single-train refinery in the world and the money being raised from the IPO is going into making it bigger.
- The offer is ₦525 a share, and the smallest order is 10 shares. So ₦5,250 gets you in, and you buy in tens after that. Dangote is selling 4.1 billion shares in total, which comes to roughly ₦2.15 trillion if it is fully taken up — reportedly the largest IPO Africa has ever run.
- You have from 14 September to 13 October. One month, then the window shuts. Allotment will be announced after that, and the shares will be listed on the NGX later in the year.
- There are two sweeteners, and they are not equally certain. Dangote has said investors will subscribe in naira but be paid dividends in dollars, which is still subject to regulatory approval. The prospectus also sets out extra shares for retail investors who hold their shares for a specified period of time.
- This one was built for people like you, deliberately. It is being run as Nigeria’s first fully digital retail offer, aimed at reaching millions of retail investors. Previous Nigerian offers have counted subscribers in the low hundreds of thousands. This one wants to reach as many people as possible. It’s why it’s quite affordable and has been tagged “the IPO of the people.” It’s also why you’re reading this piece.
Now something you should know: Getting into an IPO is not the same as saving, it’s an investment. This means that you are not locking money away to get it back with interest on a date of your choosing, like you would with SafeLock, for instance. Instead, you are handing money over to Dangote for a small share of the company, and what happens next depends on external factors like crude prices, refining margins, the naira’s performance and a hundred other decisions made by people you will never meet. This can go very well (if you don’t believe me, ask MTN subscribers) and it can also go not so well. That’s just how investments work.
But wait, why is Piggyvest even in this conversation?
For ten years, Piggyvest has been where you keep your money. Save it, lock it, hide it from yourself before a weekend, and watch it grow with fixed returns. Investify opened a door to real estate and fixed-income deals, but not stocks. Not until now.
At the Piggyvest at 10 Anniversary Dinner, Odun Eweniyi, our COO, said something that explains the shift well: the next decade is about building real pathways for users to put their money to work, “not just save it, but own a piece of the economy they live in.”
This is that, in practice. We want you to have more avenues to create and participate in our economy. For this deal, Piggyvest is a distribution channel, not the issuer. The offer is being run by a syndicate of about 26 issuing houses led by Vetiva, and Chapel Hill Denham Advisory sits among them as the licensed route your application for the IPO will travel through. Our job here is to make the applying part as seamless as possible, using a product you are already very familiar with.
What is being offered?
As we stated above, Dangote is offering ₦525 a share in this IPO. Minimum order is 10 shares, so ₦5,250 gets you in, and you can buy in multiples of ten after that. In total, 4.1 billion shares are being offered, which comes to roughly ₦2.15 trillion if the whole thing is bought by the audience.
The window opens 14 September 2026 and is scheduled to close 13 October, though this might change. Money for the shares is paid in full at application.
If you want the mechanics of how an offer like this actually works (book-building, allotment, why the price is set where it is), we wrote a full explainer on IPOs, and an introduction to this specific one.
Now, the seven things.
1. Read the Prospectus
The Prospectus is really long and not written to be enjoyed, but it is the clearest document that explains what the IPO is offering and whether it is a good investment choice for you.
Pro tip: You do not have to read all of it, but read the risk factors once it’s out. It covers things like crude price swings, refining margins, the naira against the dollar, energy transition, regulation. Read the use of proceeds — the money will be going into expansion: equipment, utilities and infrastructure and construction. Read the financials.
Ten minutes with the prospectus could possibly teach you more about the company than you will learn on twitter. This is because it is the place where the company is legally mandated to be truthful and honest with you.
2. Finish your KYC before you need it
If you already have a Piggyvest account where your KYC is set, updated, and active, then you can skip to the next item on the list. If you don’t, keep reading.
KYC (Know your customer) is a mandatory process many financial institutions use to verify the identity of their customers. It helps us build security and trust with our users and regulates, and protects your finances from bad actors.
To register for the IPO, you need to ensure your KYC is completed and updated. We typically ask for a valid government ID — your NIN slip, driver’s licence or international passport.
Ensure that your ID matches the name on your records. The best time to fix mismatches is now, before you forget. The IPO offer closes on 13 October, so be sure to do it as fast as you can.
3. Link your BVN
Related to the previous step, your BVN ties your IPO application to a real, verifiable you.
Dangote’s subscription process is built directly on the BVN system — which is how they intend to reach up to 10 million subscribers digitally. Without a BVN, there is no easy way to take advantage of this offer.
In case you forgot, the OTP for BVN verification goes straight to the phone number you registered your BVN with. If that is an old MTN line in a drawer somewhere, you have a problem to solve this week.
(If you cannot remember your BVN, here are four ways to check it from anywhere.)
Shares in Nigeria sit electronically in the Central Securities Clearing System, and every investor has a CHN — a Clearing House Number. You cannot simply walk up to CSCS and ask for one yourself. A licensed platform registers you, using your BVN, and the account is created and linked to your profile. It usually takes a few working days which is the real reason why “get your KYC sorted early” is sound advice.
To buy shares you need two things: a CSCS account and CHN. If you’ve invested before, you may already have them somewhere. Worth checking so you’re not starting over. Have a CSCS account but no CHN? We’ll use your KYC details to create one. Have neither? We will create both.
4. Keep the money in Flex Naira, or SafeLock for a couple of days
You need the cash ready and liquid on the day you are ready apply. Sitting in your regular bank account does nothing for you and is also a bad Friday away from being spent.
Flex Naira holds it, earns interest (12% per annum) while you wait, and stays withdrawable, which matters because you want to move when you’re ready. Fund it early, too. Not the morning you plan to apply, so you can rack up some weeks worth of interest.
If your impulse control is not great, then SafeLock takes the decision out of your hands. It pays more than Flex, depending on how long you lock for, and you can decide whether interest comes to you right now or at the point of maturity.
Two things to note: If you decide to SafeLock, the minimum lock is 10 days, not two or three. Since you cannot break it early, your maturity date needs to land comfortably before 13 October.
5. Decide your number before the noise gets loud
Everyone is approaching the IPO from a different angle. We interviewed five people a couple of weeks ago, and it was made evidently clear.
This means it might be a good idea to make a decision on how or whether to invest, pick the amount you want to invest, and write it down somewhere.
Because in week three of a heavily marketed offer, when your colleague says he put in ₦400,000 and a stranger on X is calling this IPO the key to generational wealth, the number you chose will be your anchor and guide.
A useful test: if this money were locked away for two years and came back the same size, would you feel heartbroken? If yes, then you should probably think about it a little longer.
6. Face the risks head on
Some of what is being said about this offer is confirmed and some of it is not.
The dollar dividend, for instance. Dangote has spoken publicly about investors subscribing in naira and being paid dividends in dollars, funded by export earnings. It is an appealing idea in an economy like ours. But the prospectus does not set out a formal dividend policy, and the mechanics are highly dependent on regulatory approval. So it’s worth treating as a desire, rather than a term you will be buying into.
The bonus shares that will be given if you hold are more tangible. The prospectus describes a scheme where retail investors who hold at least the minimum, continuously, through a qualifying period, will get an extra share. This is a reward for patience, and only works if you were not planning to sell quickly anyway.
There are other risks involved in a business like this one. Its debt load, per the prospectus, stood in the billions of dollars as of mid-2026. Refining margins are set by a global market that does not care about where you live. And a small float against heavy demand means allocation of shares can get squeezed, so you may not get every share you apply for.
None of this is a reason not to invest. You just have to consider them well.
7. Know what happens after you tap subscribe
Subscribing to the offer begins a waiting period that may last longer than many of us expect.
Applications close 13 October and allotment is expected to be announced later in the year, although this may change. If the offer is oversubscribed, you may get fewer shares than you asked for and the balance is refunded.
After the allotment, shares will begin trading on the NGX’s secondary market.
Just like you won’t find yourself overseas without booking a flight, you also cannot reap the benefits of sound investments without doing the due diligence required of you. Follow the seven steps outlined in the article above, and wait for the IPO’s release. If you would like other fantastic waiting room articles, check out the invest section of our blog.
This is general information, not personalised advice. Read the Prospectus to make an informed decision.
