Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, has an ambitious vision for the continent’s most populous nation, but hurdles stand in his way.
By Dionne Searcey reported from Ibeju-Lekki and Lagos, Nigeria.
Feb. 27, 2026
The richest man in Africa works from a construction trailer in a dusty parking lot.
The billionaire, Aliko Dangote, said he once had multiple homes in several countries, a nightlife of fancy parties, a Rolls-Royce and a Ferrari. Then, roughly two decades ago, he got serious about industrialization, he said.
Mr. Dangote, now 68, said he sold the cars and the homes abroad and built sugar refineries. He bought a majority stake in a salt-refining company.
He built cement factories, first across Nigeria, then in Senegal, Ethiopia, Tanzania and beyond. Then came fertilizer and polyurethane factories.
This work of proving the continent is capable of large-scale industrialization done by one of its own was much more important to him than the life of luxury.
“Some of us,” he said, “need to rescue the country.”
Now, Mr. Dangote’s latest achievement is finally up and running: a sprawling new refinery in Nigeria, a nation that for decades has exported the vast majority of its crude oil.
Long criticized as a monopolist in the industries he focuses on, the man whose grandfather made his fortune in peanut trading doesn’t want to stop with oil, or even with Nigeria.
Mr. Dangote wants to break into the steel industry, to spread electricity to more people, to build more ports — to industrialize all of Africa.
His role model for future expansion is the Indian multinational conglomerate, Tata Group, which produces things like black tea and semiconductors.
Source: nytimes.com
