Aliko Dangote, Nigeria’s most influential industrialist and Africa’s richest man, has been named among the world’s 100 most influential philanthropic leaders by TIME magazine.
The 2025 TIME100 Philanthropy list recognises individuals driving transformative impact through their giving, and Dangote was among 23 global Titans featured.
For more than a decade, the Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF) has maintained a resilient footprint across Africa, tackling deep-seated issues with strategic funding and sustained partnerships.
Since 2014, when Dangote endowed the foundation with $1.25 billion, it has spent an average of $35 million annually. The priorities include health, education, economic empowerment, nutrition, and humanitarian relief.
Dangote, who amassed a $23.9 billion fortune through cement production, agriculture, and refining, has often said wealth means little if it’s not deployed to solve society’s biggest challenges. “Health, education, economic empowerment, disaster relief, and food—these are the five main things that any African nation needs,” he said, asserting the foundation’s agenda.
Right now, the foundation is executing a $100 million multi-year programme targeting severe malnutrition in children. It’s also distributing over a million bags of rice across Nigeria this year, a repeat of an earlier intervention that provided relief to communities grappling with food insecurity.
But philanthropy for Dangote is not about optics, it’s structural. In Kano State, he recently donated $10 million to his namesake university, Aliko Dangote University of Science and Technology, a project that adds to years of educational investments.
ADF’s educational reach extends from building school complexes to funding vocational training and fellowships through the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders programme.
His foundation has also broken records, further strengthening the place of Dangote in the 2025 Time100 Philanthropy list. In 2019, it funded a N1.2 billion hostel project at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, the largest individual donation to any Nigerian university at the time. It wasn’t a publicity stunt. It was part of a deliberate focus on infrastructure that improves learning environments at the tertiary level.
One of ADF’s lesser-known yet deeply effective initiatives is the Mu Shuka Iri programme in Kano. Here, local women, called “Aunties”, receive training in Montessori-based teaching methods to provide early childhood education in their communities. It’s a grassroots intervention that aligns education with local realities.
In public health, Dangote’s role in Nigeria’s fight against polio cannot be overlooked. Working alongside the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other partners, ADF’s vaccine campaign efforts contributed to the World Health Organisation’s 2020 declaration of Nigeria and Africa, as polio-free.
That outcome was hard-earned, considering Nigeria was the last country on the continent to achieve this.
Reflecting on his journey, Dangote has spoken about the values that shaped his mission. “My mother instilled in me the ethos of giving back, which inspired my philanthropy 30 years ago. I trust my three daughters will continue this legacy, just as they will continue to grow our business and impact. I want to be known not just as Africa’s richest person but also as its biggest philanthropist,” he said.
He’s already on that path. The inclusion of Dangote in the TIME100 Philanthropy list, alongside names like Oprah Winfrey, Warren Buffett, Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales, asserts what many on the continent have long recognised, that his legacy may ultimately be defined by the lives he has changed, not just by his wealth.
