Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote could get $10 billion from Afreximbank, bank chief says

The African Export-Import Bank would have no difficulty lending Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote $10 billion, the bank's president said, describing Africa's richest person as a borrower whose projects get built and whose loans get repaid.

George Elombi, president and chairman of Afreximbank, made the remarks in Walvis Bay, Namibia, at the launch of the Dangote Group's $2.5 billion fuel storage and pipeline project, with Namibian President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah in attendance.

"We have no difficulty putting $10 billion on the table for him because the money would not be lost," Elombi said. "We know the projects would be done, and with time, as an institution, we would be repaid."

He said the bank's relationship with Dangote rests on trust, execution and conviction. Addressing Nandi-Ndaitwah, he described Dangote as one of the clients "whom you give the money to, Your Excellency, and you go to sleep so that you can take care of the other clients."

"You don't need a recovery unit," Elombi said. "Trust is everything. For us as bankers, trust is at the core of it."

A $2.5 billion loan in March

Afreximbank is already one of Dangote's biggest lenders. In March, the Cairo-based bank underwrote $2.5 billion of a $4 billion, five-year syndicated term loan to Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals FZE, the company that runs his refinery near Lagos. Elombi, a Cameroonian lawyer who has spent most of his career at the bank, took over as president in October 2025.

Elombi said Dangote could have retired on the wealth his businesses had produced, but had kept investing in large industrial projects because he believes Africa must build its own productive capacity. "The conviction is about what we want, how we want to be seen as Africans, and about preserving the dignity of Africans," he said.

He told Nandi-Ndaitwah that Afreximbank would offer the same kind of backing to other African investors her government considered credible. "Here in Namibia, on that basis, we would accompany the Dangote Group, and we would accompany such other promoters that you think are worthy of the trust," he said. "The money is there. We don't have the expertise, but the Dangote Group has the expertise."

Namibia wants more

Namibia's government called Dangote an ambassador for investment in the country. Kaire Mbuende, director-general of the National Planning Commission, said the project would draw other African companies to Namibia.

"By so doing, you have become an ambassador for investment promotion in Namibia," Mbuende said. "Many more businesses will follow because of the confidence that you have demonstrated in our country."

Dangote had described the Namibia project as a first course in a wider investment relationship. "As you said, Mr Dangote, this is just the first course, and we are waiting for the main course," Mbuende said.

The project includes a tank farm at Walvis Bay that will store about 600 million liters of petrol and diesel, and a planned regional pipeline network of about 1,700 kilometers. The pipeline would run from Walvis Bay toward Otjiwarongo, with links toward Rundu, Ghanzi and Francistown in Botswana, and would supply Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and southern parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Most of those countries are landlocked and rely on fuel trucked in from distant ports.

Mbuende said the investment would improve energy security, create jobs and strengthen Walvis Bay's position as a regional energy hub. He also urged faster implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area and the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System, so that African companies can borrow from continental lenders in local currencies.

Dangote used the launch to raise his group's investment target across Africa to $60 billion by 2030, from $50 billion. The group is expanding its Lagos refinery and broke ground in September on a second plant at Lamu, on Kenya's coast. It also bought 24.76% of Kenya Pipeline Co. in October.

Dangote, 69, is Africa's richest person, with a net worth of $55.4 billion, according to Forbes. He built the Dangote Group from a Lagos trading business into the continent's largest industrial conglomerate, with interests in cement, sugar, fertilizer and oil refining.