The family office of Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest person, is set to ramp up operations in 2027 as it prepares to become an investment and governance hub for his businesses, according to his daughter Halima Dangote, who has been overseeing its development after years of planning.

“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. She said the office will focus on governance, capital management and philanthropy, with the broader aim of ensuring the family’s businesses and wealth remain intact for eight to 10 generations.

Dangote, 69, has built one of Africa’s largest business groups over the past four decades. Forbes puts his fortune at $30.6 billion, making him the world’s richest Black person. He founded Dangote Group about 45 years ago as a commodities trading business before expanding into cement, sugar, salt, fertilizer, oil and gas.

Dangote family office targets global investments

The family office forms part of the group’s Vision 2030 plan, which calls for stronger governance and a fivefold increase in annual revenue to $100 billion. Halima is leading the family office, but said its creation has involved the wider family and their advisers. “My sisters, my dad, the lawyers, all of us are involved,” she said.

Based in Dubai, the office will oversee the family’s investments and help manage its interests outside the day-to-day operations of Dangote Group. It also puts the Dangote family among a small but growing number of wealthy Nigerian families establishing dedicated offices to manage investments, succession and philanthropy.

Other examples include the UK-based family office of Theophilus Danjuma, the retired general who built his fortune in oil and shipping, and Tengen Family Office, founded by Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede and his late business partner Herbert Wigwe. Wigwe and Aig-Imoukhuede built Access Bank into one of Africa’s major lenders before Wigwe died in a helicopter crash in 2024 at age 57.

The move comes months after an internal memo in February elevated Halima and her two sisters to senior positions across Dangote 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 at the refinery and fertilizer businesses.

The family office will look beyond the group’s main markets in Africa. Halima said it aims to connect the family’s investments with opportunities in the Middle East, Asia and Europe. It will also pursue Sharia-compliant investments and support the family’s broader interest in industrial development across Africa.

Dangote plans East Africa plant expansion

Meanwhile, Dangote Group is expanding its industrial operations around its giant refinery outside Lagos. The refinery, which currently has crude-processing capacity of 700,000 barrels a day, is preparing to add a second crude distillation unit with capacity of 750,000 barrels a day by 2028. If completed, the expansion would take total capacity to about 1.45 million barrels a day.

The group is also preparing for an initial public offering of the refinery on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX), targeted for October subject to regulatory approval. The refinery has secured a $1 billion underwriting package comprising a fully funded $600 million private placement and a $400 million underwriting commitment.

Dangote plans to use about $5 billion from the IPO to expand its Lagos operations and develop a second plant in East Africa. In July, Dangote Industries confirmed plans to build a $17 billion integrated petrochemical complex in Lamu, Kenya, ending months of uncertainty over whether the project would be located in Kenya or Tanzania.

The proposed Lamu complex is expected to produce refined fuels, chemicals, fertilizer and other industrial inputs. David Ndii, head of Kenyan President William Ruto’s Council of Economic Advisers, has said the project would support the country’s effort to expand industrial production and help Africa become a net exporter of refined energy.

For Dangote, the family office and the group’s new investments are being built around the same long-term question: how to manage a sprawling business empire while preparing the next generation to take a larger role in it. Halima’s involvement puts that transition closer to the center of the group’s plans as Dangote pushes ahead with investments that could reshape the scale of his businesses over the next decade.