President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has described Nigeria’s persistent electricity generation output of 4,500 to 5,000 megawatts (MW) as unacceptable, stating that the current national capacity falls significantly below the energy requirements of a modern economy.
Speaking during a facility tour of the Dangote Refinery in Lagos, Dangote emphasised the need for aggressive private sector participation in power generation and called for an urgent scale-up of national electricity output to at least 50,000 to 60,000MW.
Dangote disclosed that his conglomerate currently generates over 1,500MW for internal operations across its group entities, highlighting the capacity of private industry to deliver large-scale infrastructure projects without relying solely on government intervention.
“We as a company alone are producing, group-wide for our own consumption, over 1,500 megawatts,” he said. “So, Nigeria should not be doing just three times what we are producing. The country should be at about 50,000 to 60,000 megawatts.”
The industrialist stated that the successful delivery of the Dangote Refinery, Africa’s largest single-train facility, proves that private entities can execute large and complex projects in Nigeria.
“What we have done here just shows that there’s nothing impossible,” he said. “All this can be replicated in our power sector. There’s no reason why Nigeria should be doing 5,000 megawatts.”
Dangote noted that scaling Nigeria’s power infrastructure to 30,000MW would be less complex than building the refinery, adding that the challenge lies more in commitment and investment than technical capacity.
He reiterated that the power sector had already been privatised and called on the Nigerian private sector to take full ownership of the industry’s transformation.
He urged wealthy Nigerians to stop transferring capital abroad and redirect investments toward domestic industrial development.
“We have already asked the government to leave the sector. It’s supposed to be privatised. They have privatised it,” Dangote stated. “We, the private sector, Nigerians, most especially us, should stop taking our money abroad and invest the money here.”
He argued that capital flight remains one of Nigeria’s biggest economic challenges, stating that the diversion of funds out of the country limits domestic investment and stifles growth.
According to him, stolen or idle capital hidden abroad contributes no value to the local economy or the individuals who move it.
“I keep saying this: there’s nowhere that you will say there’s no corruption. There are lots of countries that have more corruption than we do, but they are growing,” he said. “Our biggest problem and challenge is that people who have stolen money have taken the money abroad. So the money has no use to them and no use to their family because they cannot show their family that they have stolen money.”
Dangote called for increased investor confidence in Nigeria’s economy and leadership, noting that only strong domestic investment will attract sustainable foreign capital inflows.
In addition to his advocacy for power sector reform, Dangote also disclosed plans to become the largest fertiliser producer in the world within the next 40 months by expanding production capacity to 12 million tonnes.
