Greetings to all Africans and friends of Africa around the world. Today is Sunday, May 10th, 2026, and you are welcome to the United States of Africa TV. My name is Akosua Prempeh, and I am broadcasting from the United States of Africa. In today's important report, we examine the powerful message delivered by African billionaire industrialist Aliko Dangote, as he challenged the Western narrative surrounding Africa's so-called potential and called for real economic transformation across the continent. Speaking during a major discussion at the International Finance Corporation, Dangote explained that Africa must move beyond words and promises and begin building industries, infrastructure, and opportunities that can transform the lives of millions of Africans. He highlighted the urgent need for African unity, free movement across the continent, industrialization, investment in agriculture, and economic independence. Dangote also spoke about the success of the multi-billion-dollar Dangote Refinery in Nigeria, a project many international corporations believed Africans could never complete. Today, the refinery stands as one of the largest in the world, proving that Africa has the ability to build world-class industries when Africans believe in themselves and invest in their own continent. This discussion is not only about business and economics. It is also about Africa's future, African pride, job creation, infrastructure development, and the importance of Africans working together to build a stronger and more prosperous continent. Before we continue, please subscribe to the United States of Africa TV, like this video, leave your comments, and share this report on WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook, and all social media platforms to help connect Africans across the world and promote unity throughout the continent. Your support helps us continue to bring important African stories to the global audience.
Aliko, this is a huge pleasure to have you here at IFC. I don't need to introduce Aliko Dangote, who is the largest investor in the continent, but not only in the continent, but one of the largest investors in the world, and has been a transformative industrialist in the continent. We have been working with Aliko Dangote Group, but I want just today to have a conversation about your vision of Africa. Last year, you set up a group called African Renaissance. Tell us, why did you put this group together?
Thank you very much, Mukhisa. I must really thank you for doing a great job. My own vision of Africa, because I sat down one day and I said, "Okay, fine. Everything is about potential, potential, potential. How do we get this potential into reality? How do we really, you know, make sure we transit from potential to real economic growth?" And I said, "I know, maybe it's better to let me get all the big guys in Africa who really care much about Africa, like minds, and see how do we really sit down together and craft a vision for Africa?" Because when you look at it, every single thing, you know, is like people are just putting roadblock for Africa not to escape our own cage, where we are. So, we set up this group, which I'm very happy that you accepted to be a member. You know, to see okay, fine. You look at Africa today, you know, if somebody like myself, I need 38 visas to move around. How do I now invest if I'm not able to move around? I mean, 38 visas doesn't make sense. Nobody has time to go and apply for a visa, take your passport, and whatever. And most of them, they don't do visa on arrival. So, we look at that one, free movement of people. Free movement of goods and services. These are critical areas. Without this, there's no way we are going to have a very prosperous Africa. You know, because with this, I cannot move my goods from Nigeria, from Lagos to Republic of Benin. And when you try to cross the border, you can be there for a week if you are lucky. If you are not lucky, you don't know anybody, you're going to be there for 2 weeks. There's no way you can do a trade with your neighbors like this. Then, we look at the sector of transportation. When you look at it, most of the people who own ships that move goods around, they are owned by other nationalities, not Africans. And it cost us, for example, to go from Lagos port to Accra more than coming from Spain to Lagos. Then, you talk about aviation. When you talk about aviation from Lomé to Accra, somebody will charge you 600 dollars. How do you move around? People cannot afford this kind of, you know, I mean, $600 is a lot of money.
Yeah, but Aliko, you are as usual, you are not taking a lot of credit for what you did. Let me push you a little bit on something. Yes, a lot of people have been talking about these ideas, and they make it a diagnostic. But the difference that you're making is that you're making it happen. Okay? That's true. It's a different story. We all in our professional careers saw that a lot of discussion, diagnostics, a lot of problems. Yeah. But when you come to crossing the line and making it a reality, it's becoming more clearer. You go and did something which is quite amazing. Say Nigeria now is in need to reduce more value addition on something that he has in abundance, which is oil. That's right. And you built a refinery and spent more than $20 billion. Yes. So, how did you see this big idea came to you? And what were the steps? Because it's the first time you say that people say, you know, Aliko is just a dreaming. It's not possible to do that. You're right. But you were persistent and did it. Why did you do it?
Okay, you see, first of all, when you look at in Nigeria, you're right. We have a lot of oil. At one point, we're exporting 2.4 million barrels per day. And not processing one barrel. Every single, you know, product that we use, whether it's gas oil, gasoline, jet fuel, everything is imported. You know, Mukhisa, to tell you the truth, Dangote Refinery was always on the agenda of discussion. Always. And when you hear 650,000 barrels, all the trading companies, all the big corporations, they always tell people openly, this refinery will never happen. You know, at the end of the day, fast forward, Mukhisa, we as an African company will be able to deliver. But let me tell you what will surprise you more. Because, I mean, I must thank you for IFC taking also a risk on us. Because you are part of our pool of funding. And to tell you the truth, at the time when I started this refinery, Mukhisa, I've never ever seen crude oil in my life. Never. Yes. Never. I always avoid crude oil because for us in Nigeria, once you say that you are in oil, it's a dirty business. And I wanted to do a clean business, so I left the oil. It is just because I've seen my country suffering. I've seen that when I look at it, all African countries, apart from Algeria and Libya at that time when we started, everybody was importing. Nobody had sufficiency in petroleum products. And I said, "No, no, this cannot continue." You know, we had to establish a company where we did the EPC, which is engineering, procurement, and construction. Every single nut and bolt we bought, we shipped. Ordering of the equipments we did. We put every single thing together to now achieve that. And it has seen the benefit of it. Today, the refinery we have tested the refinery up to 661,000 barrels per day. But we have been now stable for the last 2 months at 650,000 barrels per day. And every single department is working. So, you can see that's what we have actually done. And when we look at it, Mukhisa, we say that, "Okay, fine. You know, this thing now has removed fears in us." And we are seeing that, you know, for Africa to develop, some of us we must take that risk in terms of opening up Africa. How do we open up Africa? We will open Africa by demonstrating that we believe in Africa, by investing our money in Africa. Because if I don't invest my own money, I can never go to any conference and convince people that Africa is a good place to come and invest. But right now, I have a voice. Right now, I have a mouth to say, "Hey, come and invest in Africa because I have demonstrated that look, these things they are possible."
I see that you have been very deliberately supporting African countries. You told me, "For me, this is very important in what I'm doing."
You know, I feel much more satisfied as a human being to now take my continent out of trouble. How do I take my continent out of trouble? Because we cannot continue every day we import food, we import whatever that we consume. Okay, so we decided that look, the best thing for us to do is to look at what are the needs of Africa. And the needs of Africa is petroleum products, fertilizers. You know, today actually we're going to be about 2 and 1/2 years we'll be the largest fertilizer company in the world. We're putting up 12 million tons of urea. We're opening up mines of potash and phosphate in Congo-Brazzaville. We are now going into power 20,000 megawatts. We're building the biggest deep sea port of 18 m draft. We're doing LNG. So, why? Because we have now actually freed up our assets and we can actually raise more money. Our cash flow now is very, very strong. But what do you want to do with all this money? What we are trying to do is to now say, "Okay, fine. How can African countries and Africans, most especially, benefit from this?" Our own mission in Dangote is to look at critical needs of Africa and make sure that yes, we make those critical areas a reality. Because if you don't do that, it's just like you look at it. How come we in Africa be exporting 80% of the cocoa of the world? Every single cocoa is being shipped in beans. Simple, you process it. How much would it cost? And if you keep waiting for foreign investors, foreign investors are very smart, they are not going to come. They will only come when they see our own commitment. So, that's why for us now, we have also changed because if you look at it, most of our companies will own super majority. Mhm. 89%, 90%, 92%, some 100%, and we are saying that no, for us to grow up at scale, we need to make sure that we have partnership. We should also collectively get Africans to buy shares. Like now, the refinery we are going to list. When we list, we are going to ask Africans to do I want to do risk also their own capital. So, when we are paying dividend, all our dividends will be in dollars. And you can choose whether you want naira or you want dollars or you want South African rand. Whatever that you need, we'll pay, but it is going to be calculated and paid for in dollars.
This point is very important for me, Aliko, because there is often, you know, some sayings that all this private savings of a middle class is taken out of the continent, and put in an apartment in Europe or the United States. That's part of the story, which is recognized in it. That's a true thing, you know. But there is another part of the story that people don't talk about a lot. Is that when they have assets which are interesting and good quality assets in the continent, people are investing in it. If you take the West African stock exchange, a company like Sonatel and so forth, whenever they issuing on the stock exchange, people are over subscribing. Yes, we do. So, like you, I strongly believe that if you have quality assets on the continent where people can guarantee a return with a lot of stability, they will be investing in our assets. Okay. What is your view about it?
It is a great idea, Mukhisa. Let me give you an idea. You know, let's say now today we have a projection that company, based on the investments that we're going to make, will end up having 100 billion dollars of revenue. Mhm. And a bidder will be minimum 30 to 35 billion dollars. Let's say that, you know, the way that we always give dividend, you know, at the company operational level, we have been giving very very high dividend. Sometimes we even give 90%. Yes, but the parent company, which is Dangote Industries, we have never ever given dividend. I've never taken dividend one time out of the company since when we started. Everything has been reinvested back into the business. That's why we're able to grow. So, when you look at it, Mukhisa, if we are now saying that at the end of the day, worst case scenario, we're going to give dividend of 20 billion dollars. Can you imagine if we have so let's say we will sell 25%. If you sell that 25% of this 20 25 billion, you are actually going to inject billions of dollars into the hands of all these Africans. Do you know what that can do? It's a life-changing event. And that is why really we are now working with Central Bank of Nigeria. We are working with the stock exchange of Nigeria. We are working with the Securities and Exchange Commission and we are now trying to now make all these things happen. Well, we know Kenya, we put up like a vehicle and all investment will be done there and now they will take the money into our company. When they want to sell down, you can always sell down because there's a certificate that you have. You can take your capital out at any time that you want. A majority of them too. This is something that we would really love to with you. I mean you have more experience than us, so I'm sure this one IFC will definitely help to lead in this. You see because Mukhisa, if we open up something like this, I am telling you we'll end up paying maybe 20 25 billion of dividend to Africans. That is a lot of money. It's a lot of money. It's a lot of money. So, that is what we, you know, so what even for my own legacy, really honestly, this one is a self-satisfying event for me.
Another thing that you have been doing and you came here and gave the keynote address on the water.
