The family office of Africa’s richest person, Aliko Dangote, is set to become more prominent from the first quarter of 2027 as it develops into a strategic hub for wealth management, investment and succession planning for the Dangote family.
Halima Dangote, one of the billionaire’s daughters leading the initiative, disclosed this in a Bloomberg TV interview, saying the Dubai-based family office will have a broad mandate covering governance, capital management and philanthropy. “By the first quarter of next year, you will start to see the presence of the family office,” Halima said.
The development comes as the Dangote Group enters a new phase of growth after about four decades of expansion. Founded as a commodities trading business, the group has evolved into one of Africa’s largest conglomerates, with interests spanning cement, sugar, salt, fertiliser, oil and gas.
The family office is being designed with long-term succession at its core, with the family seeking to create a structure capable of preserving the business and wealth across eight to 10 generations.
Beyond managing family wealth, the office is expected to pursue investment opportunities across Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Europe. It will also explore Sharia-compliant investments and opportunities aligned with the broader goal of supporting industrialisation across Africa.
Halima said the initiative involves members of the Dangote family as well as professional advisers. “My sisters, my dad, the lawyers, all of us are involved,” she said.
The family office is also expected to strengthen oversight as the Dangote Group works towards its Vision 2030 strategy, which includes plans to improve governance and increase annual revenue fivefold to $100 billion.
Plans for the family office were first reported in 2024, when Dangote began preparations to establish a dedicated structure for managing family wealth and investments in Dubai.
The choice of Dubai places the family office within one of the world’s growing wealth-management centres. Family offices based in the Dubai International Financial Centre were managing more than $1 trillion in assets as of 2024, according to the centre.
The structure also reflects a greater focus on the next generation of the Dangote family. In February, Halima and her sisters were elevated to senior positions across the business.
Mariya Dangote oversees operations in the group’s food businesses and commercial strategy at its cement business, while Fatima Dangote is responsible for sales across the refinery and fertiliser businesses.
The family office is expected to play an increasingly important role as the Dangote business transitions from being closely identified with its founder to a more institutionalised family enterprise.
It could serve as a central mechanism for succession planning, investment management, governance and wealth preservation while providing the family with greater flexibility to pursue opportunities beyond the group’s existing businesses.
The development comes as Dangote continues to pursue major investments in Africa’s industrial and energy sectors.
The Dangote Petroleum Refinery currently has a capacity of 700,000 barrels per day, with plans to increase capacity to 1.4 million barrels per day.
The billionaire has also offered East African countries a combined 30 per cent stake in a planned $17 billion refinery expansion, with Kenya, Ethiopia and Rwanda expressing interest.
The emergence of the family office signals a broader shift in the Dangote empire: from building businesses around its founder to creating an institutional structure designed to preserve, grow and deploy family capital for generations to come.
