Aliko Dangote, Chairman of Aliko Dangote Foundation and President/Chief Executive of Dangote Industries Limited, has been named in the inaugural 2025 TIME100 Philanthropy list.
This list recognises the 100 most influential leaders shaping the future of philanthropy worldwide. Dangote is the only Nigerian on the distinguished list.
The prestigious list, published by TIME Magazine yesterday, features Aliko Dangote, whose Foundation spends an average of $35 million a year on programmes across Africa, alongside other global figures in charitable work, such as Michael Bloomberg, Oprah Winfrey, Warren Buffett, and Melinda Gates, all of whom are recognised as Titans.
Other prominent names on the list include David Beckham; Dolly Parton; Lisa Yang; Michael Dell and Susan Dell; Tsitsi and Strive Masiyiwa; Jack Ma; Alex Soros, Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales, among others.
A total of 100 influential individuals from 28 countries have been honoured for their philanthropic efforts in four categories: Titans, Leaders, Trailblazers, and Innovators, with Dangote emerging as one of the 23 Titans.
TIME highlighted Dangote’s remarkable rise to wealth, having built a fortune of $23.9 billion through ventures in cement, agriculture, and oil refining in Nigeria. However, his philanthropic efforts are equally noteworthy.
In 2014, he endowed the Aliko Dangote Foundation with $1.25 billion, with the aim of giving back to the continent that played such a key role in his success.
The foundation spends on average of $35 million each year on various initiatives across Nigeria and Africa. “Investing in nutrition, health, education, and economic empowerment is our contribution to setting Africans up for success” – Dangote remarked, reflecting the foundation’s core priorities. Among the foundation’s ongoing efforts is a $100 million multiyear initiative to combat severe childhood malnutrition.
Furthermore, an earlier vaccine programme in Nigeria, developed in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and others, contributed to the World Health Organisation’s 2020 declaration that polio had been eradicated from Africa, Nigeria being the most populous country in Africa and the last country to eradicate the disease.
