David Akachukwu
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Aliko Dangote, Chairman of the Dangote Group, has urged Nigerians to end their reliance on medical treatment abroad and focus on developing local pharmaceutical production.
He made this appeal while participating in a panel session at the Gates Foundation’s Goalkeepers event, which took place in Lagos on Wednesday.
Dangote emphasized that all Nigerians including the wealthy should be able to receive adequate medical care within the country. He noted that achieving this goal would require collaboration with Bill Gates and the Gates Foundation.
“What we need to do is to make sure we stop this health tourism and we should now get in to start producing our own drugs.
“We should now make sure that when we are sick, we don’t have to travel abroad, all of us, but we need to do a partnership with Bill (Gates),” he said.
Reflecting on past successes, Dangote pointed out that his foundation’s collaboration with the Gates Foundation played a crucial role in eradicating polio in Nigeria and significantly improving public nutrition.
From a business standpoint, he stated that his companies have successfully reversed Nigeria’s dependence on imports in several industries. At one point, he said, Nigeria was the world’s second-largest importer of cement. Today, it exports more cement than any other nation on the continent.
He also spoke about the transformation in agriculture, explaining how local farmers previously struggled to obtain fertilizers. In response, he built one of the world’s largest fertilizer plants from scratch.
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“So, Nigeria now, not only export, we actually export 37% of our fertilizer to the United States of America,” he said.
Turning to the oil sector, Dangote said he accomplished something unprecedented by constructing a 650,000-barrel-per-day oil refinery. In May 2025 alone, the Dangote Refinery exported 400,000 metric tons of petrol.
He added that this development has eliminated the country’s reliance on imported fuel, marking a significant milestone in energy independence.
The Goalkeepers event, organized by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and hosted in Lagos for the first time, brought together influential figures from around the world to evaluate progress on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Notable attendees at the gathering included Bill Gates; Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu; and Gombe State Governor, Inuwa Yahaya, among others.
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Jonathan Nwokpor
