Billionaire Dangote family office set for 2027 expansion as investment hub

The family office of Africa’s richest person, Aliko Dangote, is preparing for a major expansion in 2027 as it takes shape as an investment and wealth-management hub for his sprawling business empire.

Halima Dangote, one of the billionaire’s daughters overseeing the initiative, said the family office is expected to become more visible from the first quarter of next year, with a mandate spanning governance, capital management and philanthropy.

The move comes as the Dangote Group, founded by Dangote about 45 years ago, enters a new phase of expansion. What began as a commodities trading business has grown into a conglomerate with interests spanning cement, sugar, salt, fertilizer, oil and gas.

What they are saying

“By the first quarter of next year, you will start to see the presence of the family office,” Halima said in a Bloomberg TV interview.

The Dubai-based office is being structured with a long-term succession strategy in mind. According to Halima, the objective is to ensure the family business survives for eight to 10 generations, extending the legacy of the conglomerate beyond its founder.

Halima said the family office will have ambitions beyond managing the family’s wealth. It is intended to connect Africa with investment opportunities across the Middle East, Asia and Europe, while also pursuing Sharia-compliant investments.

The office will also align its investments with the broader objective of supporting industrialisation across Africa, suggesting a role that could extend beyond traditional family wealth preservation.

Although Halima is leading the initiative, she said the process involves the wider family and professional advisers.

• “My sisters, my dad, the lawyers, all of us are involved,” she said.

The family office is expected to provide an additional layer of oversight as the group works toward its Vision 2030 strategy, which includes plans to strengthen governance and increase annual revenue fivefold to $100 billion.

Get up to speed

Dangote’s plan to establish a family office in Dubai was first reported in 2024, when the billionaire was preparing to create a dedicated structure for managing family wealth and investments.

• The move came as Dubai strengthened its position as a global wealth-management centre. By 2024, family offices operating from the Dubai International Financial Centre were managing more than $1 trillion in assets, according to the centre.
• The structure also places greater emphasis on the next generation of the Dangote family. In February, an internal memo elevated Halima and her two sisters to senior positions across the group.
• Mariya Dangote, the eldest, oversees operations in the food businesses and commercial strategy at the cement unit, while Fatima Dangote, the youngest, is responsible for sales across the refinery and fertilizer businesses.

The Dangote family office joins a growing number of wealth-management structures being established by wealthy African families. Such offices are increasingly being used to formalise succession planning, manage investments and preserve family wealth across generations.

What you should know

For Dangote, the structure comes as the group prepares for an era in which ownership, governance and investment decisions will increasingly need to operate beyond its founder. The family office could become a key mechanism for managing that transition while preserving the ambitions of one of Africa’s largest business empires.

• Earlier, Dangote offered East African countries a combined 30% stake in the planned refinery. Kenya has proposed taking 10%, while Ethiopia and Rwanda have also expressed interest. The combined regional investment could be worth about $1.5 billion.

The move came as Dangote also seeks to raise capital for the expansion of his Nigerian refining operations. The Dangote Petroleum Refinery currently has a capacity of 700,000 barrels per day, with plans to increase this to 1.4 million barrels per day.