Build, Finance, Own Your Future, FG, Dangote, Others Urge Africa

The president/chief executive of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, and other prominent African leaders have challenged a new generation of leaders to take control of the continent’s narrative, mobilise its resources and build institutions and enterprises capable of transforming Africa’s position in the global economy.

The call was made at the closing of the 2026 Aliko Dangote Foundation Africa Diaspora Leadership Programme Young Global Leaders Convening in Lagos.

Speakers argued that the continent must move beyond being defined by challenges and natural resources to becoming a producer of globally competitive goods, services and ideas.

Their message brought into sharp focus the objective of the four-day Lagos learning journey, which was designed around the theme ‘Building Africa at Scale’ and exposed participants to Nigeria’s industrial, financial, technological and creative ecosystems.

The deputy secretary general of the United Nations, Amina Mohammed, said Africa’s struggle for influence was increasingly a contest over power and institutions.

She urged Africans to stop seeking only representation at global tables and instead fight for the power to shape decisions.

“We can no longer be the people that are profited from. You have to own what it is that is your power,” Mohammed said.

She cited Artificial Intelligence as another arena where Africa could not afford to lag behind.

Former president and chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank, Prof Benedict Oramah, said one of the greatest contributions of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery was psychological.

“The greatest thing that the Dangote Refinery has done and will do for us is our ability to take back our minds,” Oramah said.

He noted the project was helping consign to the ‘rear view mirror’ the notion that Africa lacked capacity for world-scale industrial ventures.

He warned that Africa’s future required more than exceptional examples, stating “unless we manufacture, unless we produce, Africa would struggle to transform its position in the global economy.”

Oramah also called on African commercial banks to embrace developmental commercial banking to support long-term productive investment.

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, yeah, I want religion, will also put this level of pressure. Taiwo Oyedele said governments must create conditions that make it easier for more African entrepreneurs to build at the scale demonstrated by Dangote.

Describing Dangote as ‘a fighter’, Oyedele said, “working closely with the industrialist had changed his understanding of what it takes to execute major investments in Nigeria.

“Until I got close to him, I saw that he was stressed more than the rest of us. But he would never give up.”

Oyedele said. “What if we create the right conditions so that he will be less stressed, so that other people will be encouraged to do the same thing?”

He said the job of government was to provide a policy and regulatory environment where private capital could drive innovation, create jobs and deliver viable infrastructure.

Minister of Art, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa noted that changing Africa’s narrative could not be separated from developing the continent’s creative economy, which she described as a major source of jobs, economic value and global influence.

She urged Africans to take control of their stories and recognise culture as both an economic asset and a means of defining how Africa is understood globally.

The chief executive officer, Rwanda Development Board, Jean Guy Afrika emphasized that the Dangote Refinery demonstrated what exceptional entrepreneurial leadership could accomplish.

He warned that Africa could not build its future around extraordinary individuals being forced to overcome dysfunctional systems.

Afrika identified policy predictability, sanctity of contracts, institutional accountability and preparation of investable assets as essential conditions for building at scale.

The president and chief executive of Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, challenged participants to translate the Lagos experience into action.

“What you have seen in Lagos is that Africa’s challenge is not a shortage of ideas or ambition. It is turning ambition into institutions, productive capacity and lasting value,” Dangote said.

He urged the Young Global Leaders to ask not simply what Africa could become, but what personal role they would play in building what he described as the ‘New Africa’.

The managing director and chief executive officer of the Aliko Dangote Foundation, Zouera Youssoufou, said the Foundation had supported African members of the Forum of Young Global Leaders for the past 15 years as part of a deliberate effort to expand the continent’s representation and influence within global leadership networks.

She said the Foundation specifically funds African Young Global Leaders to participate fully in the programme and its learning journeys, giving promising leaders access to global knowledge, networks and experiences that can strengthen their capacity to make impact on the continent.