Aliko Dangote takes centre stage at Mining Indaba 2027 for a conversation on building Africa’s next generation of industrial institutions
Aliko Dangote, President & CEO of Dangote Group, will bring his continental vision to Investing in African Mining Indaba 2027, headlining the high-level programme as it turns its attention to the businesses, institutions and capital required to build globally competitive African industries.
Over several decades, Dangote Group has built businesses across African markets and progressively expanded the scale and complexity of the industrial projects it is able to undertake.
Most recently, on 30 September 2026, Mr Dangote broke ground alongside President William Ruto on the US$16 billion, 700,000 barrels-per-day Dangote East
Africa Petroleum Refinery in Lamu, Kenya, targeted for completion by 2030. It builds on the US$20 billion Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lagos, the world’s largest single-train refinery at 700,000 barrels per day, with expansion to approximately 1.4 million barrels per day planned by 2029.
That journey speaks to a wider question increasingly relevant to Africa’s economic ambitions: what does it take to build institutions and businesses capable of undertaking projects that once seemed impossible?
Africa’s mineral endowment provides the foundations for industries spanning infrastructure, energy, manufacturing and agriculture. Converting that resource base into sustained economic value depends on the capabilities built around it: businesses able to execute at scale, capital able to invest over long time horizons, infrastructure that connects production to markets, and institutions able to carry increasingly complex projects through to delivery.
As businesses accumulate experience, capital and operating capability, the range of opportunities they are able to pursue expands. Stronger African businesses and financial institutions also increase the continent’s ability to determine where it invests, which industries it develops and how value is created from its resources.
Mr Dangote’s participation will bring the perspective of an African industrialist who has spent decades building at scale across the continent, and whose businesses span sectors closely connected to Africa’s wider industrial development. His businesses are among the continent’s largest users of mined and extracted resources, from limestone for cement to the oil and gas that feed refining, petrochemicals and fertiliser.
Mining Indaba 2027 will take place under the theme Stronger Together: Partnerships in Practice, continuing the event’s growing focus on the relationship between mining, infrastructure, capital and industrial development.
Mining sits upstream of much of Africa’s economic ambition. Its outputs become the materials used to build cities, transport networks, energy systems, manufacturing industries and food systems. The economic impact of those resources is therefore shaped by the businesses and institutions capable of developing industries around them.
Mr Dangote will contribute to Mining Indaba’s exploration of nation-building through institution-building: how businesses develop the scale and resilience to take on increasingly ambitious projects, how African capital can support that growth, and what becomes possible when strong institutions are able to work across sectors and borders.
Aliko Dangote said:
“No nation has achieved lasting prosperity by exporting raw materials and importing finished goods. Africa must process what it extracts and build the industries that turn its mineral wealth into jobs, infrastructure and manufacturing at home. That requires businesses with the scale to execute, and long-term African capital prepared
to stay the course. We look forward to deepening our partnership with leading African institutions that are fully aligned on Africa’s industrialisation.
When African industry and African capital build together, projects that once appeared beyond reach become achievable. That is the conversation I look forward to leading at Mining Indaba.”
Zeinab El-Sayed, Director of Government & Institutional Partnerships said:
“We spend a lot of time talking about the projects Africa needs. We spend less time talking about the institutions capable of delivering them. Aliko Dangote has spent decades building one of those institutions.
His experience gives us an opportunity to look at what sits behind projects of enormous scale: the capability built over time, the capital required to take long-term decisions, and the confidence to pursue opportunities that can initially appear beyond reach. That is a particularly important conversation for mining.
If Africa wants its resources to support broader industrial development, we need businesses and institutions with the capacity to build around them.”
Mining Indaba 2027 will bring together leaders from governments, mining companies, investors, financial institutions and industries across the mining value chain in Cape Town from 8–11 February 2027.
