Why Dangote Foundation is giving refinery shares to vulnerable women
Gombe released ₦149.2m to help 28,284 vulnerable women buy Dangote Refinery shares, with each receiving 20 shares through a state and foundation partnership.
The Aliko Dangote Foundation, the philanthropic arm linked to billionaire industrialist Aliko Dangote, has run several large-scale social intervention programmes in Nigeria over the years, including cash transfers, nutrition support and education grants targeted at low-income households. This latest initiative ties that welfare approach to ownership of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, which began operations in Lagos and has been positioned as a flagship asset in Nigeria's push for local refining capacity and reduced dependence on imported fuel.
Coverage so far shows the rollout is being coordinated with state governments, with Gombe State's disbursement of funds to tens of thousands of women offering an early example of how the share allocation works in practice. Premium Times' reporting points to a much larger national ambition — reaching hundreds of thousands of women across 15 states as part of a two-million-beneficiary target spanning all 36 states and the FCT — though details on the total cost, funding source, and timeline for completing the nationwide rollout have not yet been fully spelt out across the reports.