Aliko Dangote, Chairman of the Aliko Dangote Foundation and President of Dangote Industries Limited, has been named among the 100 most influential global philanthropists in the 2025 TIME100 Philanthropy list.
The list, published by TIME Magazine on Tuesday, celebrates people around the world who are changing lives through charity. Dangote is the only Nigerian recognised and was listed among 23 others in the “Titans” category. He appears alongside notable figures like Michael Bloomberg, Oprah Winfrey, Warren Buffett, and Melinda Gates.
According to a statement from Dangote Group, “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 noted that Dangote’s fortune of $23.9 billion, built through cement, agriculture, and oil refining in Nigeria, has helped him give back in powerful ways. In 2014, he donated $1.25 billion to his foundation, which now spends an average of $35 million every year on charity projects across Africa.
Speaking on his mission, Dangote said, “Investing in nutrition, health, education, and economic empowerment is our contribution to setting Africans up for success.”
One of the foundation’s major works is a $100 million multi-year plan to fight severe childhood malnutrition. It has also played a key role in health programmes, including an earlier vaccine effort developed with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and others. That programme helped Nigeria become the last African country to wipe out polio, leading to the World Health Organisation’s 2020 declaration that Africa was free of the disease.
In education, Dangote recently gave $10 million to the Aliko Dangote University of Science and Technology in Kano State. He has also supported many Nigerian universities with buildings and infrastructure.
“In 2019, the Federal Government revealed that the N1.2 billion 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,” the statement said.
The foundation also supports early childhood education. Through its Mu Shuka Iri (Let’s Plant a Seed) programme, it trains local women in Montessori teaching methods to become educators in their communities.
Dangote added, “We need to create the next generation of African leaders. 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.”
