Diversification: Dangote targets 65,000 staff strength

Dangote Group has projected to boost its total employment to about 65,000 with its ambition to expand into steel production, electricity generation and port development. Currently, the conglomerate spans across cement, sugar, salt, fertiliser, and petrochemicals with about 30,000 workers, approximately 80 per cent of them Nigerians employed at the refinery. Speaking in a recent […]

Dangote Group has projected to boost its total employment to about 65,000 with its ambition to expand into steel production, electricity generation and port development.

Currently, the conglomerate spans across cement, sugar, salt, fertiliser, and petrochemicals with about 30,000 workers, approximately 80 per cent of them Nigerians employed at the refinery.

Speaking in a recent interview with The New York Times, the firm’s President Aliko Dangote unveiled plans to expand into those sectors, describing it as part of a broader ambition to accelerate industrialisation across Africa.

“Expansion across new sectors is expected to raise total employment within the group to about 65,000,” he said.

He reiterated his long-term goal targeted at deepening Africa’s manufacturing base beyond oil refining and positioning the continent as a global industrial force.

Citing his latest flagship project, the Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals, he said it is now operational and producing about 650,000 barrels of refined products daily.

He stressed that output is expected to double within the next three years as expansion plans progress.

However, he indicated that refining is only one phase of a larger vision.

“We have to industrialise Africa,” he said.

Dangote cited India’s Tata Group as a model for diversified industrial expansion, describing the conglomerate’s multi-sector footprint as an example of how large scale manufacturing can transform emerging economies.

Beyond expansion, Dangote said job creation remains central to his strategy.

With Nigeria projected to require between 40 and 50 million new jobs by 2030, he argued that large scale industrial projects are essential to absorbing the country’s growing youth population.

Dangote also disclosed plans to list shares in the refinery on the Nigerian stock market, saying it is a move that would broaden local participation in the asset.

Despite progress, he acknowledged that infrastructure gaps and crude supply challenges remain obstacles.

He has previously raised concerns about logistics bottlenecks and inefficiencies in the oil value chain that complicate feedstock supply to the refinery.

Nevertheless, Dangote said the group would continue to invest aggressively in sectors that reduce import dependence and retain economic value within Africa.

“Nobody dared to do it, so we did it,” he said, reiterating his belief that large-scale private investment is key to transforming Nigeria’s industrial landscape.

 

With cement plants operating across multiple African countries and a refinery that has reshaped Nigeria’s dlarge-scale outlook, Dangote’s next push into steel, electricity and port infrastructure signals a new phase in his ambition to industrialise the continent.