Dangote: power and patient capital will industrialise Africa
Africa's richest industrialist told the FT Africa Summit in London what the continent needs most to turn its resources into factories.
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London — Africa can become a global manufacturing powerhouse, Aliko Dangote told the Financial Times Africa Summit in London, but it needs three things first: strong financial institutions of its own, reliable electricity, and policies that reward making things at home.
Dangote, president and chief executive of Dangote Industries, has set out a $50 billion investment programme for 2026 to 2030.
"What we need the most today is power"
Speaking with the FT's Africa editor David Pilling, Dangote said the continent must build strong financial institutions, along with clear agricultural and industrial policy. Of all the infrastructure gaps, he singled out electricity.
Mining shows why, he said: companies often cite unreliable power as the main reason they cannot process minerals near the mines, so countries export raw ore instead of capturing the value of processing it.
Building a refinery without project finance
He drew on the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lagos. Conventional project finance was so hard to secure that the group paid for the refinery from its own balance sheet. During construction the naira moved from about ₦136 to as much as ₦1,800 to the dollar, while about 90% of the group's revenue was in naira.
Long financing talks, he warned, delay projects, raise costs and expose investors to changing conditions.
The legacy
The $50 billion plan, he said, is partly meant to show other Africans the opportunities on their own continent. In his words, the legacy is "how do we industrialise our continent?"
Source: Vanguard via AllAfrica, 26 October 2026.
