Updated November 13, 2026 (ET).
Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, has raised his group’s planned investment across the continent to about $70 billion and said he is considering a 10,000-megawatt power program, according to a statement issued by Dangote Industries Limited. “We initially planned to invest $50 billion. We are now looking at increasing that to about $70 billion in Africa,” he said, ThisDay, Arise News, and BusinessDay reported, quoting the group’s corporate communications arm.
The figure has moved quickly. The group had planned about $50 billion of African investment under its Vision 2030 strategy. On November 4, 2026, at the launch of a fuel-storage and pipeline project near Walvis Bay, Namibia, he raised that target to $60 billion, Bloomberg and Billionaires.Africa reported. The remarks published this week go further, to about $70 billion, without restating the $60 billion intermediate figure; his quoted comparison was to the original $50 billion plan.
The same statement said the group was considering a 10,000-megawatt power program across Africa, potentially including Nigeria, separate from the electricity it generates for its own plants. “Across the group, we currently have almost 1,500 megawatts. By the time we complete Vision 2030, that could rise to between 4,500 and 5,000 megawatts. That is captive power—electricity for our own operations. Separately, part of the vision is to intervene in power generation with 10,000 megawatts across Africa, potentially including Nigeria,” he said, according to those reports. He did not, in the published remarks, say where those plants would be built, how they would be financed, or when they would start.
Dangote, 69, is the founder and president and chief executive of the Dangote Group, which his official biography calls the largest conglomerate in West Africa. Forbes, whose profile was opened on November 13, 2026, lists him as Africa’s richest person, age 69, and No. 34 in the world on its real-time ranking as of that date.
Aliko Dangote: Quick facts
Full name: Aliko Dangote, according to his official group biography. Encyclopaedia Britannica gives his date of birth as April 10, 1957, in Kano, Nigeria.
Age: 69, according to Forbes, as of November 13, 2026.
Known for: Founder and president and chief executive of the Dangote Group; chairman of Dangote Cement, which Forbes describes as the continent’s largest cement producer; builder of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in the Lekki Free Zone in Lagos.
Education: A graduate of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, according to his official biography. Forbes lists a bachelor’s degree from Al-Azhar.
Latest news: In a group statement reported on November 13, 2026, he said the group was looking at increasing its Africa investment plan to about $70 billion and considering a 10,000-megawatt power program.
How did Aliko Dangote build the cement business?
His official biography says he began his business career in 1978, trading in rice, sugar, and cement, before moving into full-scale manufacturing. The group later expanded across those staples and into fertilizer, logistics, and oil refining. It says the group now has a presence in 17 African countries and is a market leader in cement on the continent, and that Dangote Cement Plc is the largest listed company in West Africa.
Forbes, in a profile last updated on March 10, 2026, says he founded and chairs Dangote Cement, “the continent’s largest cement producer,” owns 85% of the publicly traded company through a holding company, and that the business has the capacity to produce 48.6 million metric tons a year and operations in 10 countries across Africa. Those cement-specific figures are from that March profile; the group’s own site describes a wider 17-country presence for the group as a whole.
What is the Dangote refinery, and what is happening with its share sale?
The official Dangote Petroleum Refinery site describes the plant as a refining and petrochemicals facility in the Lekki Free Zone, Lagos, with a current crude-distillation-unit capacity of 700,000 barrels a day and an expansion pathway to 1.4 million barrels a day. It calls the plant the largest single-train refinery in the world. Forbes’s March 2026 profile said construction began in 2016 and that refining operations began in early 2024.
The refinery has also been the subject of a public share sale. Punch, citing Bloomberg and people familiar with the transaction, reported on November 12 that the offering had attracted share applications of about ₦5.85 trillion, or $4.1 billion, nearly three times the amount initially targeted, and close to four million unique subscription applications. Bloomberg described the deal as Africa’s largest public share sale to date, Punch reported. Those figures had not been confirmed in a formal allotment announcement at the time they were published, and they should be read as reported, not as a final official tally.
The Namibia project that accompanied the November 4 target increase is, according to Billionaires.Africa, a $2.5 billion plan for a tank farm near Walvis Bay and a regional pipeline, with storage for hundreds of millions of liters of fuel and completion of the storage hub expected in no more than 18 months. That account is from a single secondary report and is included here only as context for the earlier $60 billion target.
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Frequently asked questions about Aliko Dangote
Who is Aliko Dangote?
He is the founder and president and chief executive of the Dangote Group, a West African conglomerate with businesses in cement, food, fertilizer, and oil refining. Forbes lists him as Africa’s richest person. Encyclopaedia Britannica says he was born on April 10, 1957, in Kano, Nigeria.
How much does Aliko Dangote now plan to invest in Africa?
In a group statement reported on November 13, 2026, he said, “We initially planned to invest $50 billion. We are now looking at increasing that to about $70 billion in Africa.” On November 4, at the launch of a fuel project in Namibia, he had already raised the target from $50 billion to $60 billion, according to Bloomberg and Billionaires.Africa. The new figure is a target, not a sum already spent.
What is the 10,000-megawatt power plan?
He said the group was considering a 10,000-megawatt power program across Africa, potentially including Nigeria, separate from the captive power it generates for its own operations, which he put at almost 1,500 megawatts now and 4,500 to 5,000 megawatts by the end of Vision 2030. The published remarks did not include sites, financing, or a start date.
How large is the Dangote refinery?
The official refinery site lists a current crude-distillation-unit capacity of 700,000 barrels a day at the Lekki Free Zone plant in Lagos, with a pathway to 1.4 million barrels a day. Some earlier coverage still referred to a 650,000-barrel design capacity; the company’s current figure is 700,000.
Further reading
Arise News: Dangote raises Africa investment target to $70 billion (November 13, 2026)
Billionaires.Africa: Dangote raises Africa investment target to $70 billion (November 13, 2026)
Bloomberg: Dangote boosts Africa plan to $60 billion as he starts new build (November 4, 2026)
Punch, citing Bloomberg: Refinery IPO attracts ₦5.85 trillion in subscriptions (November 12, 2026)
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