Chairman of Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), Aliko Dangote, has disclosed that the initial public offering (IPO) of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery failed to meet its target of attracting 10 million investors.

Dangote disclosed this during the 25th annual conference of the Women in Management, Business and Public Service (WIMBIZ) in Lagos.

Dangote, however, said the public offer recorded significant participation, attracting millions of investors despite not reaching the projected figure.

According to him, the company is yet to establish the official number of investors who participated in the offer, as the necessary reports are still being compiled.

“We cannot tell the figure right away because we have not reported to this, but we’ve gotten an amazing demand from various people,” Dangote said.

The Jigawa State Government investment tracker has confirmed that the Dangote Rice Mill in Hadin is operational with a processing capacity of 32 tonnes per hour, equivalent to roughly 280,000 tonnes annually.

The commencement of the rice mill is trending on a video shared on X.

The footage comes 12 years after Aliko Dangote committed $1 billion to commercial rice farming and processing across Nigeria

The facility is linked to commercial cultivation schemes around Hadejia and Kafin Hausa.

Dangote Group signed a memorandum of understanding with the Federal Government in August 2014 to invest $1 billion in integrated rice farming and milling across Jigawa, Kebbi, Niger, Kwara and Edo states. Two years later, the company launched an 8,000-hectare rice outgrower scheme in Hadejia, Jigawa State. Participating farmers received improved seeds, fertilisers and technical support, and the company committed to buying their harvested paddy for processing.By February 2017, the outgrower scheme had expanded to 25,000 hectares across 14 states. Dangote set a target of 225,000 metric tonnes of milled rice by the end of that year, with an ambition of reaching one million tonnes annually. Construction announcements followed over several years without matching production results.

Dangote laid the foundation for a processing plant in Hadin, Kaugama Local Government Area of Jigawa State, in March 2018.

The facility was initially designed to handle 16 tonnes of paddy per hour.In July 2025, Dangote said Niger State had joined Jigawa, Sokoto, Kebbi, Kano and Nasarawa as locations with rice mills under construction.

By November 2025, the group outlined plans for mills across five states with a combined annual processing capacity of 1.5 million tonnes.

To secure raw materials, Dangote Rice Limited signed a N1.8 trillion paddy rice supply agreement with Niger Foods Security Systems and Logistics Company in July 2025.

The 10-year deal requires Niger State to develop 25,000 hectares of commercial rice farms and support 50,000 local farmers.

In May 2026, Dangote confirmed the company had committed to purchasing one million metric tonnes of paddy rice from Niger Foods over the life of that agreement.

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