A massive rush of retail investors into the Dangote Refinery IPO has overwhelmed Nigeria’s fintech trading platforms, leaving thousands of first-time buyers unable to access their accounts during peak market hours.
The offer, priced at ₦525 per share with a minimum entry point of ₦5,250 for 10 shares, is targeting as many as 10 million retail investors nationwide. The scale of demand quickly proved too much for some platforms to handle.
Cowrywise became the most visible casualty, with users reporting failed transactions and unreflected deposits. One investor posting on X as Mo Kane wrote: “I made a deposit, it was successful but it didn’t reflect on the cowrywise app. What’s going on???”
Another user, Classic Blogger, directed a plea at the company: “The real truth is I’m not even trying to buy shares I just want to see my money @cowrywise.”
Fintech specialist May Codegidi, quoted by Business Day, drew a sharp distinction between newer platforms and established banks. “It’s at times like this you get to know the difference between fintechs and battle hardened banks. Dangote IPO is live and basically every fintech offering is unable to handle the traffic, whereas, for the banks, just feels like another Monday.”
The outage wasn’t limited to Cowrywise — Bamboo also reportedly crashed under the surge, with the incident captured in widely circulated images credited to Reuters.
Cowrywise responded with an official statement across its social media channels, acknowledging the unusual traffic spike. “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 chaos underscores both the enormous appetite for the Dangote Refinery listing — more than $7 million reportedly flowed in within the first hour — and the infrastructure strain that comes with democratising access to Nigeria’s capital markets.
