President and Chief Executive of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has urged African entrepreneurs to make investing within the continent their top priority.
Dangote made the call while speaking at the ‘Imo State Economic Summit 2025’ on Thursday, emphasizing that domestic investments are crucial to attracting foreign capital. He noted that without local investors leading the way, foreign investors may not see the need to come to Africa.
“I want to first of all thank President Bola Tinubu for his bold policies, which are already yielding results. He really took some bold economic steps, one of which was the removal of fuel subsidy, and those of us who have scratched the surface of the business environment in Nigeria are now benefiting from our decisions.
“But one thing I want to advise our entrepreneurs is that we should invest at home. What attracted some of us was the good governance, rule of law, and the good policies that the government has put on the ground. And you can see that nothing is impossible. So, our own job is to keep investing at home.
“If we don’t invest at home, there is nobody on earth who will come and invest here. What attracts foreign investors is the domestic investments, and that’s what we are doing.
“Yesterday, while I was being interviewed by CNN, they asked why I decided to double the capacity of my refinery to make it the largest in the world, from 650,000 barrels per day.
“I told them that; well, I don’t have anywhere else to go and invest but at home.
“When I say at home, I mean in Nigeria and Africa. There are so many potential and mineral resources in Africa. Africa has about 30 per cent of the world’s minerals, and there are lots of people fighting to have these minerals. If we don’t lead the way by putting down investment, who do we expect to come and invest in our continent? And we at Dangote Group have taken up that leadership in making sure that people come here to invest heavily.”
Dangote also highlighted the importance of reliable power supply for economic growth, congratulating Imo State Governor Hope Uzodinma for the 375-megawatt electricity initiative.
He further announced plans for major investments in the state, including the Dangote Group’s goal to become the largest fertilizer producer in Nigeria by 2028, increasing urea production from 3 million to 12 million tons.
As part of the refinery expansion, Dangote revealed that the Dangote Refinery would process about 1.4 million barrels per day, surpassing the current global leader, Reliance, which refines 1.25 million barrels daily.