The president/chief executive of Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, has declared that all companies operated by the Dangote Group will eventually be opened to public ownership.

He stated that the ongoing Dangote Petroleum Refinery public offer is not about raising cash but about democratising wealth for Africans.

Dangote made the declaration in Nairobi at the "Dangote Petroleum Refinery IPO High Level Investor Engagement" organised by the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), yesterday, ahead of the groundbreaking of the Dangote East Africa Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals in Lamu, Kenya.

Speaking during a fireside chat with the chief executive officer of the NSE, Frank Mwiti, Dangote said the Group was prepared to progressively release additional equity in its businesses as investor demand grows.

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"It is not because we need the money. No. It is because we want to share this prosperity with everybody. The real purpose is for us to democratise wealth making," he said.

He went further to declare that all operating businesses under the Group would ultimately be owned by the people.

"I have said that all the companies that we operate from today, eventually all of them will be owned by the people," Dangote said.

He disclosed that a new shipping business being developed by the Group would eventually be taken to the capital market, while its expanding fertiliser operations would also be opened to public participation.

Dangote said the ambition was to create millions of African shareholders who would benefit not only from dividends but also from capital appreciation as the underlying businesses grow.

He declared that when the Lamu refinery matures for public ownership, it should be listed in Kenya rather than automatically taken to the Nigerian market.

"If tomorrow we are going to have the refinery here in Lamu to be listed, we don't have to list it in Nigeria. We shouldn't list it in Nigeria. We should list it here," he said.

The proposal reinforced calls at the engagement for deeper integration of African capital markets to enable savings generated in one part of the continent to finance productive assets elsewhere.

Chairman of Kenya's Capital Markets Authority, Ugas Mohammed, disclosed that Kenyan investors had already demonstrated significant appetite for the Dangote Petroleum Refinery IPO, with the regulator receiving enquiries daily since the offer opened on September 14.

He said the interest showed growing demand among Kenyan and East African investors for opportunities beyond their domestic markets and strengthened the case for mechanisms allowing investors to access securities issued elsewhere on the continent.

He disclosed that Kenya's CMA, Nigeria's Securities and Exchange Commission, and other African regulators had signed a Memorandum of Understanding to facilitate greater cross-border investment and trading.

The chairman of the NSE, Tom Muluwa, described the refinery offer as evidence that Africa could move from the margins of the global economy to competing on a global scale.