How Africa can become global industrial powerhouse — Dangote – Daily Trust

President/Chief Executive, Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, says Africa’s ambition to become a global industrial powerhouse hinges on its potential to mobilize long-term financing, ship dependable electrical energy and undertake insurance policies that flip its huge pure assets into manufactured merchandise.

Dangote, who has outlined a $50 billion funding programme for 2026 to 2030, mentioned the continent should construct stronger monetary establishments able to funding large-scale industrial initiatives, broaden electrical energy infrastructure and set up insurance policies that encourage home manufacturing, worth addition and financial diversification.

Speaking in London on the 2026 Financial Times Africa Summit throughout a dialog with David Pilling the Africa Editor for the famend newspaper, the industrialist maintained that Africa possessed the pure assets, inhabitants and funding alternatives required to become a global manufacturing powerhouse, however wanted stronger establishments and infrastructure to translate these benefits into sustainable financial prosperity. 

Responding to a query on why Africa had produced comparatively few industrial enterprises of global scale regardless of its huge financial potential, Dangote confused the necessity for deliberate insurance policies and establishments able to supporting long-term industrial funding.

The Africa Summit by the FT is a prestigious platform for Africa’s most influential leaders and this yr’s Summit lived as much as its billing convening main policymakers, enterprise leaders, financiers and visionaries to discover how Africa can contribute meaningfully to form the subsequent period of global growth. 

Dangote mentioned: “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”.

He maintained that infrastructure growth was equally vital however singled out electrical energy as maybe probably the most pressing requirement for unlocking Africa’s industrial potential, including; “For Africa, what we need the most today is actually power,” he declared.

Dangote defined that insufficient electrical energy provide continued to undermine Africa’s potential to course of its mineral assets domestically, forcing nations to export uncooked supplies quite than seize the better financial worth related to manufacturing and processing. 

He cited the mining business as a very placing instance, noting that firms continuously recognized unreliable electrical energy provide as a serious cause for his or her incapability to ascertain processing services near extraction websites.

According to him, roughly 650 million Africans stay with out entry to electrical energy, a deficit he described as essentially incompatible with the continent’s industrial ambitions. He argued that resolving the facility disaster would remodel Africa’s manufacturing prospects, encourage funding in mineral processing and create substantial employment alternatives.

The industrialist additionally drew on his expertise creating the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lagos as an example how Africa’s financing surroundings may frustrate even commercially promising initiatives. 

He disclosed that the Group had been compelled to finance the refinery in opposition to its personal steadiness sheet quite than depend upon standard undertaking financing, which he described as extraordinarily troublesome to safe for main African industrial investments. 

He defined that extended financing negotiations may undermine the viability of industrial initiatives by delaying execution, growing prices and exposing traders to altering financial situations.

For the Dangote Group, the choice to proceed with the refinery with out standard undertaking finance concerned extraordinary monetary dangers, compounded by extreme forex depreciation and the big price of creating supporting infrastructure. Dangote mentioned the change charge moved from roughly ₦136 to the greenback to as excessive as ₦1,800 throughout the refinery’s growth, whereas about 90 per cent of the Group’s income was denominated in naira.

Dangote mentioned the Group’s proposed $50 billion funding programme was designed partly to encourage different Africans to recognise the alternatives accessible throughout the continent.

“The legacy we are trying to set up is how do we industrialise our continent?” he mentioned.

He defined that the Group supposed to broaden its investments between 2026 and 2030 to reveal that African companies may execute large-scale initiatives and encourage different traders to take part in creating the continent. The ambition, he confused, prolonged past the expansion of 1 conglomerate to making a wider industrial ecosystem able to supporting companies, producing employment and retaining extra financial worth inside Africa.

Dangote additionally challenged African governments to rethink their strategy to industrial safety, warning that permitting low-cost imported merchandise to undermine home manufacturing may completely weaken the continent’s productive capability. He argued that rising African industries required acceptable coverage assist to compete in opposition to established worldwide producers, significantly the place imported merchandise have been bought at costs that discouraged funding in native factories.

He, nevertheless, distinguished industrial safety from restrictions on commerce between African nations, advocating a regional strategy that will strengthen manufacturing whereas preserving the goals of the African Continental Free Trade Area.

He maintained that African economies ought to commerce extra freely amongst themselves whereas establishing a typical framework to guard their industries in opposition to unfair exterior competitors.