Nigerians trying to buy a piece of Dangote Petroleum Refinery through their phones ran into an unexpected problem: they could not get into the apps selling the shares.
Cowrywise and Bamboo, two of Nigeria’s major investment fintechs, struggled to handle a surge in traffic as investors rushed to subscribe to Dangote Refinery’s ₦2.15 trillion initial public offering (IPO).
Users took to social media to complain about login problems, slow-loading apps, error messages, and failed attempts to access the IPO. Both Bamboo and Cowrywise acknowledged the issues on X and said their teams were working to restore normal service.
The disruption came after weeks of marketing that positioned the IPO as a chance for ordinary Nigerians to own a stake in one of the country’s biggest businesses. The fintechs approved to distribute the offer had spent months encouraging their customers to invest through their platforms.
But when the offer finally opened, the demand was strong enough to put some of those platforms under pressure.
The scale of the rush was particularly clear on Bamboo.
In the week before the IPO opened, more than 236,000 new accounts were created on the platform. About 64% of them, or 152,000 accounts, were funded and trading within the same week, according to data Bamboo shared with TechCabal.
That was more than the startup’s previous record for monthly signups. In May, its strongest month before the IPO, Bamboo recorded 172,000 new accounts.
Bamboo said it had spent the past two to three months preparing its infrastructure for increased demand. It also recorded a 350% increase in new users ahead of the IPO.
Still, the preparation was not enough to prevent Monday’s disruption.
“We’re genuinely disappointed and sad that we aren’t giving our community the user experience that we’re known for,” a Bamboo spokesperson told TechCabal.
“Our engineering team is fixing the platform as we speak. We anticipated a large wave of demand and prepared our systems accordingly over the last 2–3 months, but ultimately that did not happen, and we’re making sure this never happens again.”
Cowrywise also said it had prepared for increased traffic but was hit by a larger-than-expected volume of requests when the offer opened.
The company said its app experienced slower response times for about an hour before service was fully restored.
“As anticipated, the IPO launch generated a significant surge in traffic today, which resulted in some slower-than-usual response times for about an hour, after which full service was restored,” a Cowrywise spokesperson told TechCabal.
The company said customers who experienced problems could now retry their subscriptions through the app.
For investors who were unable to subscribe on Monday, the disruption does not mean they have missed out.
The Dangote Refinery IPO opened on September 14 and will remain open until October 13. About 4.1 billion shares are being offered at ₦525 per share, with a minimum subscription of 10 shares, costing ₦5,250.
The offer is also not being allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
If demand exceeds the number of shares available, investors will receive shares on a pro-rata basis. In simple terms, someone who applies for more shares may receive only a portion of what they requested, depending on total demand.
Investors who are allocated fewer shares than they paid for will receive a refund for the unallocated portion.
Bamboo said investors therefore do not need to rush to subscribe on the first day.
“We don’t expect that everyone will want to buy IPO shares today,” the company said. “We expect many investors to buy at the end of the month when they receive salary as well as the end of the IPO on October 13.”
The Dangote Refinery IPO has been marketed as a way for everyday Nigerians to invest in the refinery through familiar digital platforms.
Dangote Petroleum Refinery announced in September that Nigerians could participate through a wide network of approved fintechs, banks and mobile-money operators, including Bamboo, Cowrywise, Flutterwave, Moniepoint, Paga and PiggyVest.
The relatively low minimum investment also lowered the barrier for first-time investors.
The refinery plans to use the funds raised to support its expansion and increase its crude-processing capacity from about 700,000 barrels per day to 1.4 million barrels per day.
That combination—one of Africa’s biggest companies, a heavily promoted public offer and an entry point of just ₦5,250—created a wave of interest among Nigerians.
And on Monday, that interest moved from social media hype to real traffic hitting investment platforms.
The disruptions have now raised a bigger question: were the fintechs prepared for the scale of demand created by an IPO they had spent weeks encouraging Nigerians to buy?
Bamboo acknowledged that its preparations fell short despite using previous surges in NGX activity as a benchmark.
“We were optimistic about giving our users a reliable experience based on how our systems handled a surge in new NGX users in the past,” the company said. “But ultimately that did not happen, and we’re making sure this never happens again.”
Cowrywise, meanwhile, said it would continue increasing its capacity as demand grows during the offer period.
“We will continue to increase capacity as may be required,” the company said. “We’re confident in our capacity to support continued demand through the remainder of the offer period.”
For now, the IPO remains open for another month, giving investors more time to subscribe—and giving Bamboo, Cowrywise and the other approved platforms more time to prepare for the next wave.
