In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen - HIGHLIGHTS: Aliko Dangote - Founder and CEO of the Dangote Group

Episode Date: May 15, 2026

We've curated a special 10-minute version of the podcast for those in a hurry.   Here you can listen to the full episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/no/podcast/aliko-dangote-building-africas-industrial-future-from/id1614211565?i=1000767507108&l=nbNicolai Tangen sits down with Aliko Dangote, Founder and CEO of the Dangote Group, Africa's largest industrial conglomerate, to explore his journey from a small Lagos trading firm to a sprawling empire spanning cement, fertiliser, petrochemicals, and the world's largest single-train oil refinery. They discuss overcoming fierce opposition, Africa's infrastructure challenges, and why its booming youth population signals enormous opportunity. Dangote's mission? Pioneering the industrialisation of an entire continent. Tune in for an insightful conversation!In Good Company is hosted by Nicolai Tangen, CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management. New full episodes every Wednesday, and don't miss our Highlight episodes every Friday.  The production team for this episode includes Isabelle Karlsson and PLAN-B's Niklas Figenschau Johansen, Sebastian Langvik-Hansen and Pål Huuse. Background research was conducted by Karoline Woie. Watch the episode on YouTube: Norges Bank Investment Management - YouTubeWant to learn more about the fund? The fund | Norges Bank Investment Management (nbim.no)Follow Nicolai Tangen on LinkedIn: Nicolai Tangen | LinkedInFollow NBIM on LinkedIn: Norges Bank Investment Management: Administrator for bedriftsside | LinkedInFollow NBIM on Instagram: Explore Norges Bank Investment Management on Instagram Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi everybody, tune in to this short version of the podcast, which we do every Friday for the long version. Tune in on Wednesdays. Hi everybody, I'm Nicola Tangan, the CEO of the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, and today I have a real pressure sitting down with Aliko Dengote. Aliko is the founder and the CEO of the Dengote Group, Africa's largest industrial conglomerate. Nearly 50 years ago, he started with a small trading firm in Nigeria, and today, his empire stretches across the continent. he has built what many said was impossible, a large scale African industry from scratch. Warm welcome.

Thank you very much, Dr. It's a pleasure having you. It's a great to be here. How did it all start? Well, I started as a trading company in 1978. And what kind of things did you trade? Cement. At that time, I started first with cement.

I was getting four or five trucks and trading them there in Lagos. And then later on, I got into fish, into rice, into sugar. And, you know, we started, we continue to expand. My first import of sugar was actually in 1980. Wow. You know, and everything was under import license.

So I got a license. So then you decide, I'll make a refinery. I decided that I'm going to make a refinery. And let's make the biggest... The biggest ever. In the world? In the world. Ever.

In the world. percent more than the biggest 20 billion dollars 20 billion dollars of investment tell me about it so we started with that we launched the project in 2013 we have had issues of the land for five years one land three and a half years the other land one and a half years that we have not been able to get even access to it all these will be blocked by what you call the mafia in oil business to make sure that we don't come and address these issues But we were not deterred at all.

We were actually focused. We knew what we were doing. And, Nicola, when we started, right? The exchange rate of NERRA was 156. We even got up to 1,900. But we still went ahead. We had to build our port because there was no port in the country that could take those heavy equipment.

One piece was 3,000 tons. We have another, which is the regenerator. Then we have another piece which is the crude distillation unit. That is 2,700 tons. So we have almost about 30 of these equipment. And we build the refinery importing most of these preheaters, I'll call in modular forms. So you have to build a harbor. You had to build roads.

We have to do water. Water is 440 million liters of water, you know, which is treated water. So our water department alone is more than, let me say in hectare, inside is more than 30 hectares. How many people worked on this? 67,000 people worked on the building of the refinery and it took us. This is a size, that's the size of the town where I grew up. Well, you know, but I mean, that is how we had to actually now, because we have been, building something. And luckily, let me tell you what we don't know, likely for us, we didn't

know what we are building. Because if you knew, I was faced with the plan and the drawings all at once, right? I wouldn't have built this refinery. I would have actually chicken out. What is it that foreign investors don't understand with when it comes to doing business in Africa? What they don't really understand, there is one thing that really, that is baffling them, fine. If we, what we are saying is good, how come we Africans are not investing in our own economies? Because the mistakes that would be making in the past is that we are looking for foreign investors. But foreign investors are only attracted by domestic investors. So, and that's what we are doing today, Nicola, because if you look at it, we're investing heavily. I mean,

we don't even take money out of the business. So majority of companies, companies today, I can just mention a few, like adnock, were in a very big discussion with them, and we want to have a very serious partnership in fertilizer, in the oil business, and in any other businesses like infrastructure. People are looking at infrastructure. That's why we're building the biggest, deepest port in Africa, just about 60 kilometers away from Lagos. So these are the sort of things that we are doing

which I believe now the government also themselves They realize that look For me to deliver on my electorate promises I have to work with the private sector So that has actually given us an insurance Because if the government disrupts any of our business They will be the first ones to suffer before us Who is helping Africa with business now

Can you just reflect a bit on China versus the US versus Europe? Honestly, nuclear, you want me to be very open. Totally. Yeah, so it's China. China really have dominated business in Africa. And how do you... Because of the absence of the others. Yeah.

How do you see that? Well, they are making money. They are dominating the landscape. And obviously, you know, Africans, you know, even our own governments, they don't joke with China because China, they put their balance sheet on the table. So some examples of how China has helped you. Okay, let me, some of the projects like in cement, like some of the things that we do purchase of their equipment and cool, they give you a suppliers credit backed by their insurance company, called Sino Show. Sino Show has invested to talk about $1.2 trillion in supporting their companies to go abroad and sell their technology, sell their equipment, and giving you a credit

of four, five years. Okay. But if you are now going to now, if I now go to Italy, for example, and they are asking me to write a check of a power plant of $500 million that I want to you know, build. And I have one which is also good, might not be even as good as Italy, okay, but the Chinese are saying that, no, no, no, no, just give me 20%. The rest, I will give you five years, you know, financing.

Which on are you going to take if you are in my shoes? Obviously, you take the Chinese one because the Chinese one, it means that I can do more. What do you think is driving you now? I mean, you're already the wealthiest guy in Africa. What is driving me is legacy, actually. It's not about being, you know, richest because, I mean, I don't have too much of needs. You know, I mean, that's why, I mean, today, okay, I have, I'm restricted.

I cannot just do the giving pledge where I now. I pledge all my worth to this, you know, in my religion, Islam. It does not allow for that unless. if the inheritors agree with you. But I have given now one third of my wealth to the foundation. If anything happens to me, now one third will automatically go to my, you know, foundation. But what is driving me the most is that we have a lot of needs in Africa. And for people like us, for cooperation like us,

we are the ones that are supposed to provide that leadership in terms of transforming the economies of Africa. If we don't, we'll not be able to get support from anywhere. We have been waiting for long for foreign investors to come and invest and actually, you know, show what are the potentials of Africa. But today, we are the ones that will end up showing people that these are the potentials. And I personally believe that by doing so, a lot of corporations will join us in funding this massive infrastructure that will make Africa, you know, to be at the next level.

What do you hope your legacy will be? My legacy will be that I'm one of the ones that actually pioneered, you know, the industrialization of Africa. That's my focus. To make sure that Africa produce what you consume. This is my main focus. And for us to keep pushing, to make sure that we have one common market. I have a group which is called the African Renaissance and they are quite a lot of any big guy in Africa.

54 of us were in this group which we meet physically once in a year in Rwanda, which is Kigali. And we've been supported by a lot of presidents. And I think the more they understand what we are trying to do, the more that we'll achieve. because nobody can transform our continent, but us, we Africans.