Aliko Dangote, President and Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Group, will headline Investing in African Mining Indaba 2027 to lead discussions on retaining Africa’s mineral wealth through accelerated continental industrialisation.
The high-level gathering directly addresses the urgent imperative for sovereign resource-rich nations to retain greater economic value within their borders by moving away from raw material exports toward localized refining, smelting, and manufacturing ecosystems.
The flagship gathering will bring together global mining executives, sovereign wealth funds, and policymakers to align long-term capital with critical mineral processing infrastructure across the continent.
“Africa must process what it extracts and build the industries that turn its mineral wealth into jobs, infrastructure and manufacturing at home,” Dangote said. “Achieving this would require businesses with the capacity to execute large projects and African capital willing to support long-term investments.”
Aliko Dangote
Building on his track record including the US$20 billion Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lagos, Nigeria, currently operating at 700,000 barrels per day with plans to scale to 1.4 million barrels per day by 2029, alongside a new US$16 billion, 700,000-barrel-per-day refinery project broke ground on September 30, 2026, in Lamu with Kenyan President William Ruto for targeted 2030 completion Dangote’s participation highlights the exact operational scale required to anchor downstream resource retention across African markets.
Escalating the Imperative for Domestic Value Addition
For decades, African resource-rich nations have faced persistent structural trade deficits by exporting unrefined mineral ores only to import expensive finished products at a premium.
Retaining mineral wealth through domestic value addition stems from the pressing need to bridge regional infrastructure deficits, strengthen local energy networks, and supply raw inputs to power domestic manufacturing and agricultural sectors.
Without localized refining and processing facilities, the major economic rents generated from global mineral demand continue to flee the continent.
Institutional alignment remains pivotal to transforming raw geological deposits into lasting national wealth. As Zeinab El-Sayed, Director of Government and Institutional Partnerships at Mining Indaba, noted, Dangote’s experience provides a clear opportunity to examine the business capabilities, long-term capital models, and institutional frameworks required to execute complex megaprojects continent-wide.
Bridging Capital and Technical Capabilities Across Value Chains
Extractive value retention demands steady long-term capital deployment and technical engineering capabilities capable of handling massive industrial assets.
Mobilizing African commercial equity, pension funds, and sovereign development banks into processing infrastructure guarantees that resource revenues directly finance regional transportation corridors, health networks, and clean power grids.
Integrating mineral extractions into local industrial production chains creates resilient secondary markets that cushion domestic economies against international commodity price swings.
Furthermore, cross-border corporate partnerships and unified regulatory standards under regional trading blocs lower risk barriers for mega-industrial setups across multiple jurisdictions.
When African capital underwrites downstream processing projects, domestic industries gain total structural control over their supply networks, driving continuous job growth and technical skill acquisition for a rapidly expanding workforce.
Convening Global Stakeholders Under a Unified Blueprint
Scheduled for Cape Town, South Africa, from February 8 to 11, 2027, under the theme “Stronger Together: Partnerships in Practice,” the summit will unite government ministers, mining houses, institutional investors, and value-chain leaders.
Discussions will focus on building actionable investment frameworks that convert raw mineral extractions into downstream manufacturing hubs.
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