After refining fuel, Dangote sets sights on Nigeria’s power crisis

After shaking up Nigeria’s fuel market with the launch of Africa’s largest refinery, billionaire industrialist Aliko Dangote is now targeting another chronic national problem: electricity.

Dangote announced plans to move aggressively into power generation, unveiling ambitions to build up to 20,000 megawatts of electricity capacity—an amount that would dwarf Nigeria’s current average power generation of roughly 4,000 to 4,500MW.

“We are now going into power — 20,000 megawatts,” Dangote said during an interview with Makhtar Diop, managing director of the International Finance Corporation.

The move marks the latest expansion by Dangote Group into sectors long plagued by state inefficiency and infrastructure failures. The conglomerate previously moved into cement manufacturing, fertilizer production, and more recently oil refining—areas where Nigeria struggled with shortages, imports, or weak industrial capacity.

Its multibillion-dollar refinery in Lagos has already begun reshaping the country’s downstream oil market, helping reduce dependence on imported petroleum products after years of failed state-run refinery rehabilitation efforts.

Now, Dangote appears to be positioning the group as a major private-sector solution to Nigeria’s electricity crisis, one of the country’s biggest constraints to industrial growth and investment.

Nigeria has an installed electricity generation capacity of more than 13,000MW, but actual output routinely falls far below that due to gas shortages, transmission bottlenecks, and aging infrastructure.

Dangote framed the new power push as part of a broader effort to demonstrate confidence in African economies and attract investment into the continent.

“How do we open up Africa? We will open Africa by demonstrating that we believe in Africa, by investing our money in Africa,” he said.

“Because if I don’t invest my own money, I can never go to any conference and convince people that Africa is a good place to come and invest.”

Fresh Dollar Bond Sales

The power expansion plans come as Dangote Group also seeks fresh financing to support its growing industrial ambitions.

According to Bloomberg News, the conglomerate is considering additional dollar-denominated bond sales after the successful private placement by Dangote Fertilizer, which recently raised about $750 million from investors.

Group Chief Financial Officer Murat Erden said the company is exploring global bond markets to fund projects across its fertilizer and energy businesses while diversifying financing sources.

Analysts say the move reflects growing investor confidence in Dangote’s large-scale industrial projects, particularly after the refinery began operations. The group is also reportedly considering future equity offerings, including a possible public listing tied to refinery operations.

Beyond power, Dangote said the conglomerate plans to expand fertilizer production capacity to 12 million tonnes annually, a scale he said could make the company the world’s largest fertilizer producer within the next few years.

The expansion strategy underscores how Nigeria’s largest conglomerate is increasingly moving into sectors traditionally dominated—or unsuccessfully managed—by the state.

Whether in cement, fertilizer, refining or now electricity, Dangote’s approach has largely followed the same pattern: entering industries where chronic supply shortages have constrained economic growth and betting that large-scale private investment can succeed where public systems struggled.