In SHIFTER’s Best of 2025, our journalist roundtable has named Nigerian businessman Aliko Dangote as SHIFTER’s Entrepreneur of the Year.
Our process included a first round where our participating journalists completed a form where they could nominate the potential nominees. From the nomination form, a final voting form was created where our participating journalists voted on the winners from the list of nominees. The journalists completed the forms individually and were not able to see the other journalists’ answers.
Finalists: Aliko Dangote (Dangote Group), David Zaslav (Warner Bros. Discovery), Jensen Huang (NVIDIA), Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters (Netflix), Sam Altman (CEO of OpenAI)
With all the media and tech activity making headlines in North America, there were a lot of candidate for Entrepreneur of the Year. So much so, that our winner may have very well flown under the radar.
Nigerian businessman Aliko Dangote has made a name for himself as the President and CEO of his namesake Dangote Group, the largest conglomerate in West Africa and one of the largest on the continent which employs a whooping 30,000 people. In the process, he’s been crowned the 91st richest person, the richest African, and the richest Black person in the world. If you thought that was enough, he accomplished even more in 2025.
New net worth milestone
His net worth reached $30 billion in 2025 according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index making him the first African to reach that milestone. The Dangote Refinery also became operational in 2025 as he looks to become an even bigger player in the global energy market.
Philanthropy
Dangote was recognized for his foundation’s work in health, nutrition, and education by being including on the inaugural 2025 TIME100 Philanthropy list. Now, he’s partnering with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to build up Africa’s domestic pharmaceutical industry in order to reduce the amount of medicines being imported from abroad.
“We can actually turn Africa into a heaven in just 5 years” -Aliko Dangote
Expanded business operations
Energy
Dangote Group is now has the capacity to process 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day and meet 100% of Nigeria’s demand for gasoline and diesel while still having enough to export to international markets. Then in October, Dangote announced he would be doubling his refinery’s capacity to 1.4 million barrels per day making it the largest refinery in the world.
Cement
Through his company Dangote Cement he launched a new $160 million plant in Côte d’Ivoire capable of producing three-million tonnes of cement-per year.
Tourism
In May 2025, Africa Travel Investments, of which he is an investor, acquired the Kenya-based tourism company Pollman’s Tours and Safaris.
Stock Listing
Finally, Dangote announced that Dangote Fertiliser and Dangote Refinery would be listing on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX).
All of this makes Aliko Dangote SHIFTER’s Best of 2025: Entrepreneur of the Year.
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