President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has once again restated his call on African entrepreneurs to think of bringing their investments home.
Dangote, who spoke at the Imo State Economic Summit 2025 on Thursday, argued that domestic investments attract foreign investments.
“One advice that I have is that most of our own entrepreneurs please invest at home,” Dangote stated.
“So our 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 a domestic investor, and that’s what we are doing.”
He said what attracts him and some other investors is “good governance, rule of law, good policies that the government has actually put in place.”
The Africa’s richest man commended the ongoing reforms of the President Bola Tinubu administration in Nigeria, including subsidy removal and foreign exchange system overhaul, noting that the policies are providing an enabling environment for economic activities to thrive.
He said there is so much potential in Africa, adding that the continent has about 30 per cent of the world’s mineral resources, making it an attractive honey pot for a lot of foreign investors fighting to get these minerals.
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Dangote said if African entrepreneurs don’t lead the way in putting up sustainable investments in the continent, no foreigner will come and do so.
He stressed that the Dangote Group has been focused on investing in various African countries as part of its contribution towards the industrial development of the continent.
“If we don’t really lead the way in putting up this investment. Who do we expect to go and invest? We can never, ever, really convince anybody to come and invest in our continent. We must be the ones who will lead. And we are doing that. We’re taking that leadership to make sure that people do come here and invest heavily to create prosperity; we must do that.”
He thanked the Imo State governor, Hope Uzodinma, for his focus on investing in power infrastructure, noting that there can never be meaningful growth without adequate electricity supply.
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Speaking about investments of the Dangote Group so far, he said the company is currently investing heavily in fertilizer and wants to become the number one fertilizer plant in the world by 2028, adding that they are moving from producing 3 million tons of urea to 12 million tons of urea.
He reiterated his company’s commitment to expanding the Dangote Petroleum Refinery from the current 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) capacity to 1.4 million bpd, thereby becoming the world’s largest refinery.
The billionaire industrialist ended his remarks by assuring the Imo State governor of his readiness to invest in any critical area the governor wants him to invest in the state.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist, scholar and analyst of socioeconomic issues in Nigeria and Africa. He is skilled in energy reporting, business and economy, and holds a master's degree in Mass Communication. He can be reached via @VICTOREZEJA on X
