Why wealthy Nigerians should invest in Nigeria despite corruption —Dangote

President and Chief Executive of Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, has called on Nigeria’s affluent citizens to prioritise domestic investment, asserting that true national development is impossible without it, regardless of corruption challenges.

Speaking to journalists, Dangote stressed that channelling wealth into the Nigerian economy is the only sustainable way to secure the country’s future and address its structural issues.

“There is no two ways about itreal growth and development cannot happen in any nation without significant investments,” he said. “The only way to build this nation is to invest in it.”

He criticised the widespread practice of exporting African wealth and depositing it in foreign accounts, urging entrepreneurs and high-net-worth individuals to redirect their focus inward.

“It is only through such commitment that we can drive true development,” he noted.

Dangote acknowledged the presence of corruption but pointed out that the difference in other nations is that illicit funds are often still reinvested domestically, thereby contributing to their economies.

“There is hardly any country without corruption,” he said. “But in those places, they invest the stolen funds back into their own countries, growing the economy, rather than keeping it in foreign banks where it does no good to anyone here.”

He appealed to Nigeria’s wealthy elite to consider the long-term impact of their choices. “I appeal to all wealthy Nigerians to look inward and invest here, in Nigeria, for the future of our unborn kids,” he said.

Dangote argued that what Africa truly needs are bold, transformative projects to tackle long-standing socio-economic issues, especially the urgent challenge of job creation.

Reflecting on the Dangote Group’s $20 billion oil refinery, he explained that his decision to embark on the project was driven by a desire to help Nigeria attain energy self-sufficiency and inspire similar industrial ventures across Africa.

He said that despite Nigeria’s crude oil wealth, it remained reliant on imported refined petroleum, like most other African countries apart from Algeria and Libya.

“Virtually every other African country is an importer,” he said, adding that the continent had become a dumping ground for substandard petroleum products due to this overreliance.

Africa, he noted, has around 125 billion barrels in proven oil reserves, with Nigeria, Algeria, Angola, Egypt, and Libya among the top 30 oil-producing countries globally.

Dangote disclosed that many doubted the feasibility of the refinery project, even advising him to abandon it given the failure of several national governments to complete similar infrastructure.

“People think building a refinery is like building a house,” he remarked. “But, as I always say, if I had known the scale of challenges we would face, I wouldn’t have started at all. We were fortunate as a group because we didn’t fully grasp what we were getting into, but we believed that nothing is impossible.”

He recounted a turning point during the project when the company had to choose between halting progress and absorbing losses or continuing with determination. “We had to keep pushing to ensure delivery,” he said.

Dangote expressed hope that the refinery would serve as a model for other African nations to develop their own refining capacity and focus on processing natural resources locally rather than exporting them in raw form.

He argued that genuine independence requires more than political sovereignty; it demands economic empowerment and financial autonomy for citizens.

“As long as we continue to rely on imports, we will never be truly free,” he warned. “We must invest in ourselves if we want to break the cycle of poverty.”