Aliko Dangote Has Pledged 25% of His Wealth to Africa’s Future

On December 11, 2025, in the grand ballroom of the Eko Hotel in Lagos, Aliko Dangote did something no African billionaire has done before. He didn't just announce a donation; he pledged 25% of his personal wealth to the Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF). The cornerstone of this pledge is a ₦1 trillion ($688 million) Education Fund designed to span the next decade.

Context: A National Education Emergency

In mid-2025, data revealed a sobering reality for Nigeria:

• The Out-of-School Crisis: Nigeria continues to host nearly 20% of the world’s out-of-school children, with roughly 18.3 million children currently missing from the classroom.
• The Academic Gap: Results from the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) showed that 78% of students scored below the 200-mark threshold, signaling a systemic failure in foundational learning.

The timing of his pledge is no accident. “We cannot allow financial hardship to silence the dreams of our young people,” Dangote remarked during his announcement. “This is a strategic investment in Nigeria’s future. Every scholar we empower becomes a future contributor to national development.”

The Four Pillars of the ₦1 Trillion Fund

Over the next decade, the program will scale to support 1.33 million students across all 774 local government areas through four distinct channels:

STEM Scholars: This pillar focuses on undergraduate science and technology, with an impact goal of supporting 30,000 students annually.

MHF Girls' Fund: Named after Dangote’s daughters, this pillar focuses on secondary education for girls and aims to support 20,000 students.

Technical & Vocational: This focus area addresses industrial skills and trades, with an impact goal of 5,000 trainees per year.

Teacher Development: This pillar focuses on STEM educator training, with a goal to train 10,000 teachers over a decade

To ensure transparency, the foundation is deploying a fully digital verification system in partnership with various government agencies.

Legacy in the Making

While the education pledge is the latest headline, along with Dangote named to the inaugural TIME100 Philanthropy list, the Aliko Dangote Foundation has been the "invisible hand" behind many significant health and nutrition wins since its incorporation in 1994, including:

Polio Eradication: Through a decade-long partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Dangote Foundation was instrumental in Nigeria being declared Wild Polio-Free in 2020.

The COVID-19 Shield: During the pandemic, Dangote spearheaded CACOVID, a private-sector coalition that raised over ₦38 billion to support testing, isolation centers, and food palliatives for 1.7 million households.

Nutrition: The Foundation’s Integrated Nutrition (ADFIN) project remains a primary bulwark against childhood stunting in Northern Nigeria, with billions of naira committed to nutrition programs.

But what makes the 25% pledge unique is its legal finality. Dangote revealed that his mother and his three daughters – Mariya, Halima, and Fatima – have formally endorsed the inheritance agreement. This ensures that even after his passing, a quarter of the Dangote Group’s dividends will permanently flow into social impact projects.

This move aligns Dangote with the global "Giving Pledge" elite, but with a distinctly African flavor. In a year defined by economic volatility, his pledge serves as a call to action for the continent’s growing class of ultra-high-net-worth individuals.