Africa’s richest billionaire plans to donate one-third of his wealth

Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, plans to donate one-third of his wealth to charity as part of his succession plan. Halima Dangote, his daughter and trustee of the Aliko Dangote Foundation, disclosed the plan in a Bloomberg interview published on Tuesday. The billionaire plans to dedicate 33 per cent of his estate to philanthropy.The billionaire’s fortune is valued at about $36.5 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index. One-third of his wealth amounts to more than $12 billion, and this is one of the largest charity commitments ever made by an African billionaire.According to Halima, her father considers philanthropy central to his legacy and has embedded it into the family’s long-term succession plans. “He sort of put all the structure in place whereby we focus a lot on health and education. He actually donated 25 per cent to the foundation. If you look at it, it is what we call in Sharia code in Islam; it means he has donated 33 per cent of his whole inheritance to his foundation,” Halima Dangote told the publication.“That is how important it is to him because philanthropy needs to exist generation after generation. So giving back is part and parcel of what we do....