Aliko Dangote, Chairman of the Dangote Group, has announced that his foundation will invest $700 million in education initiatives across Nigeria over the next ten years. The commitment was revealed during the 2025 Doha Forum held in Doha, Qatar.

The investment aims to support more than 155,000 Nigerians drawn from secondary schools and universities, strengthening access to education and skills development across the country.

Education, Innovation and Partnership

Speaking during a panel session alongside Bill Dates and Sheikha Al Mayassa, Dangote discussed how innovation, philanthropy and cultural investment are reshaping opportunities across Africa and beyond. He explained that the education fund is designed to reduce the number of children who are out of school in Nigeria while increasing the availability of skilled manpower with the technical capacity to drive economic growth.

“In Africa, we have a population of about 1.4 billion people, so partnership is important.”

Aliko Dangote, Chairman of the Dangote Group

Collaboration for Sustainable Impact

Dangote emphasised the importance of collaboration in addressing Africa’s development challenges, referencing previous partnerships focused on public health.

“Partnership also matters, that is why we partnered with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to eradicate polio in Nigeria. We have a lot of children that are out of school so what we are going to launch next week is a $700 million fund to fund education. We will run it for ten years then we review. We are doing that because we have a lot of challenges in Africa, one of which is training.”

Aliko Dangote, Chairman of the Dangote Group

Building Technical Capacity for Industry

Dangote also highlighted the role of skills development in supporting Nigeria’s industrial growth. He noted that Dangote Petrochemical has trained more than 50,000 Nigerians to support the operation of its 160,000-barrel-per-day refinery.

He explained that the skilled workforce will be redeployed as part of the refinery’s ongoing expansion, while the education fund is expected to further strengthen Nigeria’s talent pipeline and support industries across the country.