Bamboo, Cowrywise Down As Dangote Refinery IPO Triggers Traffic Surge

Two Nigerian investment platforms, Bamboo and Cowrywise, experienced service disruptions on Monday as a surge in traffic from investors seeking to subscribe to the Dangote Refinery initial public offering (IPO) overwhelmed their platforms.

The investment platforms confirmed the disruptions in separate posts on X, attributing the difficulties to unusually high traffic as investors moved to participate in the Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals FZE share offer.

The Dangote Refinery IPO commenced on Monday, with 4.1 billion ordinary shares being offered at N525 per share.

The offer, which closes on October 13, is expected to raise about N2.15 trillion for the refinery.

Bamboo said the unusually high volume of users attempting to access the platform was affecting some customers’ ability to log into its app.

“Hey everyone, we’re getting much higher than expected traffic trying to get into the Dangote IPO and it’s making it difficult for some users to log into the Bamboo app. We’re working on a fix and it will be up and running shortly,” the investment platform said.

Similarly, Cowrywise acknowledged that its platform was experiencing an unusually high volume of traffic and assured customers that its team was working to restore normal service.

“We’re currently seeing more traffic than usual on the Cowrywise app. Our team is already on it and working to get things back to normal. Thanks for your patience, everyone,” the investment platform said.

The disruptions came on the first day of the Dangote Refinery IPO, which is seeking to raise approximately N2.15 trillion through the sale of 4.1 billion shares at N525 each.

The minimum subscription is 10 shares, valued at N5,250.

The offer also includes a greenshoe option, which allows the underwriters to sell an additional 30 per cent of the shares on offer if the IPO is oversubscribed.

The Group Chairman of Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, had said the refinery was targeting an additional 10 million African retail investors through the share offer.

Speaking at the signing of the offer documents in Lagos last week, Dangote said the initiative was aimed at promoting greater inclusiveness by bringing people from different walks of life, including cooks, drivers, traders and managers, into the refinery’s shareholder base.

The Dangote Refinery currently has a processing capacity of 700,000 barrels per day and plans to double its capacity by 2030.

The company said proceeds from the IPO would be used to support the refinery’s expansion plans.