What Africa’s biggest IPO can do for its stock markets

ALIKO DANGOTE is the big man of African business. He is the continent’s wealthiest tycoon, worth give or take $30bn. He has built its largest oil-refining complex, roughly half the size of Manhattan, on the outskirts of Lagos. And on September 14th he launched Africa’s biggest ever initial public offering (IPO) for Dangote Petroleum Refinery, to give the mega-project its official name, hoping to raise $1.6bn at a valuation of nearly $50bn. If it reaches this market capitalisation when its shares begin trading on the Nigerian Exchange in November, it could instantly become one of Africa’s most valuable listed firms.The 69-year-old Mr Dangote is giddy at the prospect; “My own driver, my mother, everybody will now come and have a stake,” he tells The Economist. So is the bourse, which has enabled retail investors in rural areas to buy the stock on mini point-of-sales terminals.