Do we like Aliko Dangote?
Our score: 6 out of 10. Big, documented giving and no harmful words found, held back by land complaints in Kenya, public feuds and no record on LGBTQ+ views.
Dangote started in 1977 as a commodities trader in Kano, on a loan from his uncle, and built that into cement, sugar, flour and fertiliser. He comes from a family of merchants, and trading was in his blood. He turned 69 this April and is Africa's richest man.
The big turning point came around 2000, when he moved from importing cement to making it. Dangote Cement became the base of the fortune, and in 2023 he opened a refinery near Lagos that can process 650,000 barrels a day. The Economist reports he now operates in 16 other African countries, with plans for fertiliser, mining and cocoa.
The knock on him is power, not prejudice. Critics told The Economist that his cement margins reflect tax breaks and import bans, which he puts down to efficiency. Nigeria's oil regulator accused him in 2024 of trying to monopolise refining, and he has denied that, saying the opportunity was open to everyone.
The latest stoush is in Kenya, where 133 Lamu residents sued over alleged forceful eviction and damage to property for his $16bn refinery. Dangote said “we don't care, we are ready for them”, which is not the kind of line that wins hearts. A judge lifted the pause on 14 October after finding the petitioners had cited the wrong land parcel, so the real fight is still ahead.
He also takes on regulators in public. In December 2025 he demanded an investigation of the head of Nigeria's downstream regulator, with allegations the article called unverified, and the official could not be reached for comment. He said he was not calling for the man's removal, so read it as a hard-nosed businessman playing hardball with a regulator.
On the harm test, we found nothing nasty from him about LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or public health. That is partly a gap: Nigeria criminalises same-sex marriage and he has not, as far as we found, said anything on it either way. The real questions are the refinery's footprint and the way the Kenyan residents say they were treated, and both are claims, not findings.