A Zimbabwean investor can buy into Africa's biggest-ever initial public offering (IPO), but the journey begins with paperwork, approvals and a bank transfer rather than a tap on an app.

Bard Santner Investors (BSI), a Zimbabwean asset management firm, is facilitating the country's participation in Dangote Refinery's $1.6 billion IPO—operator of Africa's largest oil refinery—giving local investors access to a share sale that opened to investors across Africa on September 14. The process also highlights how much of cross-border investing remains manual even as fintech platforms make domestic investing increasingly digital.

The offering is testing Africa's investment infrastructure from two directions. In Nigeria, investment apps struggled to cope with a surge in retail demand, while in Zimbabwe, investors depend on BSI to navigate foreign-exchange controls, custody and cross-border settlement.

"So far, because of the time, we couldn't do online applications. We are doing it more manually," Ngoni Chikowore, head of asset management at Bard Santner, told TechCabal in an interview on Tuesday.

The manual process does not mean Zimbabweans are sitting out one of the continent's largest investment opportunities. Instead, BSI has built a route for local investors to take in the Nigerian offer.

"Because we are all outside Nigeria, the application is treated as an offshore or foreign investment in Nigeria," Chikowore said. In Zimbabwe, the investment is likewise treated as an offshore transaction, which requires exchange-control approval.

BSI, which is regulated as an asset manager in Zimbabwe, secures the required approvals before moving clients' funds through Ecobank Zimbabwe, the country's digital banking pioneer, to Ecobank Nigeria—a corridor that exists because Ecobank operates in both countries. On the Nigerian side, Ecobank's nominee structure holds the assets and submits the IPO application on BSI's behalf.

"When we then do a subscription from this side, they will then upload a completed form on behalf of us and submit it for the IPO," Chikowore said.

He said the $20,000 threshold is intended to meet the minimum requirement for eligible African investors participating through BSI, while leaving room for adjustments to the final share allocation.

Dangote has marketed the IPO as a broad retail opportunity. According to the prospectus, the offer comprises 4.1 billion shares priced at ₦525 (40 cents) each, targeting about $1.6 billion. The minimum Nigerian subscription is 10 shares, or ₦5,250 ($3.96), allowing much smaller domestic investors to participate. The BSI route, by contrast, carries a far higher entry point at the $20,000 threshold, putting Zimbabwean participation closer to the affluent end of the retail spectrum—yet it still offers a way into the same deal despite the added regulatory and settlement requirements.

The timeline is tight. The prospectus says the offer closes on October 13, with listing expected in November, leaving BSI a narrow window to complete approvals, funding and applications for participating Zimbabwean clients before the deadline. The next checkpoints are the October 13 close and the expected November listing, which will show how readily cross-border subscriptions like BSI's convert into allotments in a sale already doubling as a stress test of the continent's investment plumbing.

The infrastructure was tested from another direction after the IPO opened, when Nigerian digital investment platforms came under pressure. On September 14, TechCabal reported outages at Bamboo and Cowrywise. Although BSI is Zimbabwean, the disruption in Nigeria threatened to interrupt IPO applications and payments from Zimbabwean and other African investors.

Chikowore said the outages did not ultimately derail the process because client funds move through the banking system, while BSI retains records confirming investors' participationn
"The only risk is if maybe before allotment," he stated. "When we transfer the funds, we are transferring them through the banking sector through Ecobank Zimbabwe to Ecobank Nigeria, so we have evidence or a claim to say we have participated."

The investment material ties the Dangote opportunity to businesses spanning mining, cement and fertiliser manufacturing, power generation and fuel transportation, including a 2,000-kilometre petroleum pipeline running from Namibia's Walvis Bay through Botswana to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second-largest city.

For now, BSI's cross-border route relies on manual steps, but that is set to change.

"What we are working towards is automating our process," Chikowore said. The eventual goal is to let clients access their investment accounts through internet banking—closing the gap with the app-based experience Nigerian retail investors already have.