Aliko Dangote has secured his family’s backing to dedicate a third of his estate to philanthropy, his daughter says

Halima Dangote, executive director at Dangote Industries Limited and a trustee of the Aliko Dangote Foundation, says her father, Aliko Dangote, has committed 33 per cent of his wealth to philanthropic causes as part of efforts to ensure his charitable work continues across generations.

She disclosed this in an interview with Bloomberg published on Tuesday. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Dangote’s net worth is estimated at $35.1 billion, meaning one-third of his current fortune would amount to about $11.7 billion if maintained at that level.

Why Dangote is giving 33% of his wealth to charity

Halima said Dangote had already donated 25 per cent of his wealth to the Aliko Dangote Foundation, and had separately committed about 33 per cent of his inheritance to charity in line with Islamic principles.

“He sort of put all the structure in place whereby we focus a lot on health and education. He actually donated 25 percent to the foundation,” she said.

“If you look at it, it is what we call in Sharia Code in Islam; it means he has donated 33 percent of his whole inheritance to his foundation.”

Halima said the decision reflected her father’s belief that philanthropy should remain a long-term commitment rather than a one-off intervention. “Philanthropy needs to be in existence generation after generation. So giving back is part and parcel of what we do,” she said.

How the family formalised the 33% pledge

She added that her father viewed philanthropy as central to the success of his business empire and had asked members of his family to support the arrangement.

“We believe we’re here, that our business is successful because of the giving back and because of the philanthropic aspect. That is why the 33 percent is important,” Halima said.

“He asked myself, my two sisters and his mother to sign under that will that he is able to give that 33 percent to humanity.”

Back in 2019, the billionaire said he wanted to be like Bill Gates and donate a good portion of his wealth to charity in a few years. In December 2025, he confirmed that 25 per cent of his wealth would go to charity.

“This program, which I hope will keep going for generations of the Dangote family, is secured by my official promise to give 25 percent of my wealth to my foundation, which my family has already formalised,” he said.

“I’ve already got an agreement drafted to make sure that my inheritors, my three kids, my mom, they’ve all signed off. If anything happens to me, 25% of my wealth will go straight to the foundation.”

The Aliko Dangote Foundation, established in 1994, was endowed with $1.25 billion about a decade ago and has since received an additional $700 million in funding. Halima said roughly 70 per cent of the foundation’s spending goes to projects in Nigeria, 20 per cent supports initiatives across Africa, and the remainder funds programmes in other parts of the world, spanning health, education, nutrition and humanitarian relief.

In March 2025, Dangote was named among the world’s most influential philanthropists in TIME Magazine’s inaugural TIME100 Philanthropy list, the only Nigerian on the list.