CEO, Dangote Group
A British Passport Holder Moves Freer in Africa Than Me In Africa | Aliko Dangote
Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote, delivered a powerful and historic speech at the recent African Caucus 2025 in Banjul, The ...
About Aliko Dangote
Aliko Dangote, chairman and CEO of the Dangote Group, has recently addressed multiple regional and continental forums, including the 69th ECOWAS mid-year summit and the 2026 African Caucus in Banjul, The Gambia. At these events, he announced the "Dangote Vision 2030," a plan to invest $46 billion across Africa over the next four years, and stated that the group plans to launch a 700,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Lamu, East Africa. Dangote argued that no country has achieved high-income status without industrialization and called for an "African Industrialization Compact 2035" with measurable commitments from governments, the IMF, and the World Bank. He also said that Africa must move beyond exporting raw materials and that economic growth is not the same as economic transformation. Dangote has repeatedly criticized barriers to intra-African trade and movement, stating that a holder of a British passport can move more freely in Africa than an African passport holder, and he called for the full implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area. He said that domestic investment is indispensable and that African pension funds and savings should be mobilized for continental development. Dangote also said that corruption does not stop business but is more pronounced in Africa due to weak institutions, and he argued that local investors must lead before foreign investors will follow.
Transcript (15 segments)
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Aliko Dangote0:00
How do we develop our continent? We are busy not implementing the AfCFTA which is free movement of goods, services and people. Why? Now if I hold a British passport, I will move freer in Africa than an African. This must stop. It must actually stop because the issue is that if we don't allow to trade among ourselves, we will remain divided and a divided house does not stand. So please let's have a rethink since we have all the big guys here. We should champion our continent's growth. It is possible. We can do it.
Today we have what you call Dangote Vision 2030. Dangote Vision 2030 is in the next four years. We have $46 billion to invest across Africa. Which we are doing quite a lot. We started going to other countries. By the grace of God this year either September or October we are going to launch another 700,000 barrels per day refinery in East Africa in Lamu.
No country in modern economic history has achieved a high income status without industrialization. Not one. Every economy that has escaped poverty at scale, whether Britain, Germany, the United States, Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam or more recently Bangladesh, did so through a deliberate process of industrial transformation. Between 1965 and 1990, manufacturing employment in the Republic of South Korea increased nearly fivefold. China's industrial expansion lifted more than 800 million out of poverty over four decades. Vietnam increased manufacturing exports from approximately $5 billion in 2000 to more than $300 billion today. As a matter of fact, this year of 2000, it was there that I first visited and also the last year I went to Vietnam. I had the opportunity to go with my president Obasanjo and I can tell you for nothing when we went there I couldn't sleep that night because mosquitoes were busy harassing me but you can see how they have actually transformed so nothing is impossible we should not look ourselves as if we cannot make it we can. I keep telling people. It cost me more money to take goods to Ghana from Nigeria which is a day and a half journey than bringing goods from Spain. So you can see what is happening is that there are a lot of different set of mafia that actually cornered a lot of all these areas just to stop the growth of Africa. We need to be careful.
The Dangote Group itself offers one illustration. From a trading company for 20 years established several decades ago, it has actually evolved into Africa's largest industrial conglomerate. Its investments span cement, fertilizers, petrochemicals, sugar, seasoning, salt, agriculture and energy. In Dangote alone, we actually run 18,000 trucks and this is just to move 60% of our own goods. The refinery alone and petrochemical complex in Lekki which is Lagos represents one of the largest single industrial investment ever undertaken on the African continent at the cost of $20 billion. Its significance extends beyond refining of crude. It demonstrates that African capital, African entrepreneurship and African engineering capabilities can execute global projects at a globally competitive scale.
And let me also explain to you the EPC contractor to this huge complex is not a foreign company. It is Dangote Industries ourselves that we built it from scratch to the end. So this has actually shown that yes we Africans can do whatever any human being can do because I mean they don't have two heads like what I keep saying they have only one head like us and most of them we did.
So when you look at now it's actually the entrepreneurship we need to encourage everybody that we should be investing in our continent. If we don't invest in our continent nobody can come and actually help us to establish a sustainable growth or industrialization in Africa. So Africans must lead no matter what.
The refinery actually has the potentials to save billions of dollars previously spent importing refined petroleum products estimated at 40% of total foreign exchange inflows, strengthen the regional energy security and support downstream manufacturing with a projected total of 1.4 million barrels per day capacity by 2029 first quarter. Similarly, the fertilizer business contributes to agricultural productivity enhancement across several African countries with an expansion projection of 12 million metric tons by 2029. And I'll tell you a little story. The issue why we decided to go head on on fertilizers was when I watched on TV during the Ukraine and Russian war at the beginning of it, African countries delegated the chairman of the African Union then it was President Macky Sall to go and be begging for fertilizer for African countries and I said no this is not done. We cannot sit as Africans and be begging. Today we have 9 million tons under construction and we have 3 million tons that have been producing for the last 3 years and we are opening up mines in potash and phosphate in Congo and Brazil and we are doing DAP and we are doing a lot, was apprising banks to make sure that financing for countries in Africa. It means that farmers will be getting fertilizers when it is due or when they are supposed to get those things. So it means that agriculture will actually propel to the next level by the grace of God by 2030.
The cement business has substantially reduced dependence on imports while stimulating construction and infrastructural development. With expansion of our capacity, we have just about 55 million tons today in operation. By this year, we'll be at about 62. By 2030, we'll be at 100 million tons of capacity of cement. These experiences illustrate an important lesson that industrialization requires patient capital. It requires long-term vision. It requires supportive public policies including state protection against foreign dumping, substandard products, uncompetitive practices. And above all, it requires confidence that Africa can produce not merely consume but even the excess it can actually export to the rest of the world.
How do we develop our continent? We are busy not implementing the AfCFTA which is free movement of goods, services and people. Why? Now if I hold a British passport, I will move freer in Africa than an African. This must stop. It must actually stop because the issue is that if we don't allow to trade among ourselves, we will remain divided. And a divided house does not stand. So please let's have a rethink. Since we have all the big guys here, we should champion our continent's growth. It is possible. We can do it.
I want to say just a few words. What is the job that we are supposed to do and I realize that yes there are two things why in Africa we have not been able to attract a lot of people to come and invest and let me tell you here based on my experience nobody will come on their own to invest in Africa unless we Africans lead. We must derisk that investment in Africa. When we derisk it, when they see Africans investing, they will come. It's like what I was just saying at the waiting room. I was asking the minister of finance of the Gambia and I said, you know, when you have a restaurant, have you ever seen an advert of a restaurant? Restaurants don't advertise. Somebody will go and eat, he will enjoy the food, then he will tell you that come there and eat. So in reality we can actually make it. It's not a very difficult thing to do. And the entrepreneurs to all should also wake up. We should stop taking our money abroad. Those money that we take abroad, a lot of our families don't know about it. So when we die, the money dies with us.
Well, that's the truth. Because if you now go now, if I go now, I've hidden 10 billion dollars, I will not share that information with my wife and my children because their demands will go high. So what I'm trying to do, African entrepreneurs must come with a big heart and do big things. You know what are we doing? We in Dangote Group are trying to show the African people that come this thing is possible. It is possible we can do it. Why are we shying away? I mean if you look at it today we have a lot of musicians of which a lot of you know in Nigeria. Most of these guys they actually grew on their own with no help from government and they are top rated as top 10 in the world. Burna Boy, any one of these guys when they go on a plane you will not find a seat in a stadium. So in the entrepreneurship we should try and do our jobs. The job of government should be that yes when you make money you also make sure that you are socially responsible, you pay your taxes so that government can do what they supposed to be doing and to also show Africans that it can be done. We alone as a company we have the vision 2030. What is the vision 2030? What are we trying to achieve? We are trying to achieve one thing: to encourage Africans to come here and invest. It's not really about money. It's about legacy and we must make sure that we save our continent by doing what is right.
Today we are saying that yes by 2030 where do we want to be? We want to be among the top 120 companies in the world by having a revenue of over hundred billion dollars. And it is possible. We've done the numbers. It is not a vision of the head. No, no, no. It's a vision that's being tracked on a monthly basis and it can be done. Why are we not doing it? So please African entrepreneurs stop taking your money abroad. Invest in your continent and that will bring prosperity.
You know if you remember the economies, a couple of years back they say Africa rising right? That Africa rising is today, there is a lot of capital that wants to really come to Africa. I was telling the honorable minister we did a couple of events in June and July. Our fertilizer company did for the first time we have never done bonds but we did a bond at 7.75% for 5 years unrated also unsecured at that rate of $750 million. Three weeks later, our refinery also did a bond which is even lower than the federal government of Nigeria's rating at 7.5% for 5 years unsecured and rated. So we also rolled out to do a private placement for our refinery and we said to anybody interested, not anybody because private placement you invite few selected people to come and invest, and we got a demand of $4.7 billion but we couldn't take that much. We took about $2.5 billion which we haven't even really confirmed whether it's $2.5 but we have cash in our accounts of more than $2.8 billion. So what this means is that yes there's a lot of appetite, a lot of appetite of investment in Africa. What we need, we must lead as Africans and once we do that you see that within few years there will be a lot of prosperity but we must make sure we allow free movement of goods services and people.
For this Banjul Caucus meeting I'm proposing as one of the major takeaways an African industrialization compact 2035 where IMF, World Bank Group, governors, alternate governors, governments, private sector players and diplomats make measurable commitment to its actualization. I don't want to hear anything about potentials of Africa. The potentials are there. Let's get it out of the way. Thank you.
I'm a king. Yes, I'm a king. I'm a king.