The president/chief executive of Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote has said Africa’s ambition to become a global industrial powerhouse hinges on its ability to mobilize long-term financing, deliver reliable electricity and adopt policies that turn its vast natural resources into manufactured products.
Dangote, who has outlined a $50 billion investment programme for 2026 to 2030, said the continent must build stronger financial institutions capable of funding large-scale industrial projects, expand electricity infrastructure and establish policies that encourage domestic manufacturing, value addition and economic diversification.
Speaking in London at the 2026 Financial Times Africa Summit during a conversation with David Pilling, the Africa Editor for the newspaper, the industrialist maintained that Africa possessed the natural resources, population and investment opportunities required to become a global manufacturing powerhouse, but needed stronger institutions and infrastructure to translate those advantages into sustainable economic prosperity.
“I think the number one thing that the continent has to concentrate on doing is having very strong financial institutions, their own financial institutions, and also to have very strong agricultural policy, and also industrial policy,” Dangote said.
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He maintained that infrastructure development was equally important but singled out electricity as perhaps the most urgent requirement for unlocking Africa’s industrial potential.
Dangote explained that inadequate electricity supply continued to undermine Africa’s ability to process its mineral resources locally, forcing countries to export raw materials rather than capture greater economic value.
According to him, approximately 650 million Africans remain without access to electricity, a deficit he described as fundamentally incompatible with the continent’s industrial ambitions.
The industrialist also drew on his experience developing the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lagos to illustrate how Africa’s financing environment could frustrate even commercially promising projects.
He disclosed that the Group was compelled to finance the refinery against its own balance sheet rather than depend on conventional project financing, which he described as extremely difficult to secure.
He said the exchange rate moved from approximately N136 to the dollar to as high as N1,800 during the refinery’s development, while about 90 per cent of the Group’s revenue was denominated in naira.
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Dangote said the Group’s proposed $50 billion investment programme was designed partly to encourage other Africans to recognise opportunities across the continent, stating that “the legacy we are trying to set up is how do we industrialise our continent?”
He also challenged African governments to reconsider their approach to industrial protection, warning that allowing cheap imported products to undermine domestic manufacturing could permanently weaken the continent’s productive capacity, while advocating free trade among African countries under the African Continental Free Trade Area.