Aliko Dangote, the Chairman of the Aliko Dangote Foundation and President/Chief Executive of Dangote Industries Limited, has been named in the inaugural 2025 TIME100 Philanthropy list.
The list recognised the 100 most influential leaders shaping the future of philanthropy across the world.
TIME Magazine’s latest list features Aliko Dangote, whose foundation spends an average of $35m a year on programmes across the continent, alongside other global figures in charitable work like Michael Bloomberg, Oprah Winfrey, Warren Buffett, and Melinda Gates.
Reacting, a press statement by the Dangote Group confirmed that the businessman is the only Nigerian on the list, and it was a well-deserved celebration because Aliko’s philanthropic efforts are definitely worthy of recognition.
The group revealed that Dangote will keep giving back to the continent that has played such a key role in his success, so his initiatives across Nigeria and Africa will keep growing from strength to strength.
“A total of 100 influential individuals from 28 countries have been honoured for their philanthropic efforts in four categories: Titans, Leaders, Trailblazers, and Innovators, with Dangote emerging as one of the 23 Titans.
TIME highlighted Dangote’s remarkable rise to wealth, having built a fortune of $23.9bn through ventures in cement, agriculture, and oil refining in Nigeria. However, his philanthropic efforts are equally noteworthy.
In 2014, he endowed the Aliko Dangote Foundation with $1.25bn, with the aim of giving back to the continent that played such a key role in his success. The foundation spends an average of $35m each year on various initiatives across Nigeria and Africa,” it read.
Among the foundation’s ongoing efforts to give back to Africans is a $100m multi-year initiative to combat severe childhood malnutrition. According to the group, education is another area where Dangote is making a significant impact, citing his latest $10m donation to the Aliko Dangote University of Science and Technology as proof.
“Furthermore, an earlier vaccine programme in Nigeria, developed in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and others, contributed to the World Health Organisation’s 2020 declaration that polio had been eradicated from Africa, Nigeria being the most populous country in Africa and the last country to eradicate the disease.
Education is another area where Dangote is making a significant impact. He recently announced a $10m donation to the Aliko Dangote University of Science and Technology, based in Kano State. The conglomerate has provided a wealth of infrastructural support to the country’s tertiary institutions.
In 2019, the Federal Government revealed that the N1.2bn hostel donated by the Aliko Dangote Foundation to Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, was the largest donation ever made by an individual to a university in Nigeria’s history at that time.
As a member of the Global Business Coalition for Education, the Aliko Dangote Foundation has also focused on early childhood education. Through the Mu Shuka Iri (Let’s Plant a Seed) programme, local women – affectionately known as ‘Aunties’ – are trained in Montessori-style education to become community educators in Kano,” it added.
