Dangote Industries has appointed the chief executive of MTN Group Limited, Mr Ralph Mupita, to the board of its fertilizer business as it prepares to expand and list the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited.
The chief executive of Dangote Fertiliser Limited, Mr Vishwajit Sinha, confirmed this development on Wednesday ahead of the company’s initial public offering (IPO) on NGX this year.
Mr Mupita spearheaded the listing of MTN Nigeria’s on the Nigerian bourse in 2019, making it the second most valued company on NGX after BUA Foods Limited.
The South African engineer has headed Africa’s largest telco for more than five years after joining the group in 2017 as chief financial officer (CFO). Before that, he held senior positions at South African financial services group Old Mutual Limited.
Dangote Fertiliser produces about 3 million tons of granulated urea annually and plans to be the largest maker globally by 2028. To do this, it needs to expand its $2.5 billion complex in Lagos, and will start building a facility in Ethiopia this year.
Last year, the owner of the organisation, Mr Aliko Dangote, assured that the fertiliser business would list its shares on the local bourse like its sister companies, Dangote Cement, Dangote Sugar, and NASCON Allied Industries.
“In the next 40 months, our fertiliser business should generate $20 million in revenue per day. We are pushing hard. We expect to reach over $70 billion in revenue and possibly pay dividends of $3 to $4 billion. Our philosophy is to always think big,” he said when he welcomed some stakeholders in the Nigerian capital market to his $20 billion Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals in Lagos in June 2025.
Expanding regional trade could see agriculture grow to beyond $1 trillion by 2030, according to the African Development Bank (AfDB) and this creates a huge market for fertilizer firms on the continent, although the majority of farmers still struggle with limited access to finance, infrastructure and markets.