Vice President Kashim Shettima has paid tribute to Africa’s richest man and Founder of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, describing him as the “greatest black man in the past 300 years”.
Shettima stated this while speaking at the Taraba International Investment Summit, tagged ‘Taravest,’ in Jalingo, the Taraba State capital, on Wednesday.
Dangote was on Tuesday named on TIME Magazine’s inaugural TIME100 Philanthropy list, recognising the world’s most influential individuals shaping the future of charitable giving.
He is the only Nigerian featured on the prestigious 2025 list, which honours 100 philanthropists from 28 countries under four categories—Titans, Leaders, Trailblazers, and Innovators.
The Vice President, said, “I want to celebrate the greatest black man in the last 300 years, who single-handedly established the largest single train refinery in the world with the capacity to refine 650,000 barrels of oil per day, 67 percent of Nigeria’s refining capacity, occupying 2,635 hectares, larger that Victoria Island, employing 135,000 Nigerians and training 900 engineers abroad.”
Shettima also commended the businessman for demonstrating patriotism by establishing the refinery.
“He started this project in 2007,2008. If he had invested the $19 billion that it took him to set up the Dangote Refinery in Microsoft, in Amazon, in Google, he is going to be worth $120 billion now.
“But he decided to invest in his own country. Alhaji Aliko Dangote, we are mightily proud of you,” he added.