By Habeeb Ibrahim
Nigerians looking to buy into the much-anticipated Dangote Refinery IPO through investment platform Bamboo were met with login and network errors on Monday morning, as the public offer opened and investors rushed to secure shares.
Bamboo acknowledged the disruption, saying it was experiencing “a much higher than expected traffic” from users trying to access the Dangote IPO.
The platform said the traffic surge was making it difficult for some users to log into the app and that its team was working on a fix.
“We’re working on a fix and it will be up and running shortly,” Bamboo said.
The disruption quickly triggered frustration among users on social media, with some saying they were unable to access their accounts or proceed with their investment plans.
One user said his NGX account had remained pending activation for five days, while another complained that he was unable to access his account after being logged out because his session had expired.
A screenshot shared by users also showed an error message on the Bamboo app reading: “We have encountered an unexpected error and are working to fix it.”
The timing of the disruption was particularly notable because Bamboo had been promoting its platform as a route for Nigerians to participate in the Dangote Refinery IPO.
The Dangote Refinery public offer opened on Monday and is scheduled to close on October 13. The company is offering 4.1 billion shares at ₦525 each, seeking to raise about ₦2.15 trillion.
Bamboo is among the approved channels through which investors can subscribe to the offer.
As users struggled to get through, some took to social media to question why the platform was not prepared for the expected traffic.
“Why today of all days?” one user asked.
Another wrote that he was worried about missing the IPO opportunity, while some threatened to stop using Bamboo altogether.
Bamboo later apologised to affected users and said it was “working tirelessly” to resolve the issue.
The disruption left some investors waiting for the platform to come back online as interest in the Dangote Refinery IPO continued to drive traffic to investment platforms.
