About Aliko Dangote’s $5m ‘Gift’ At Dubai Auction

FUNSHO AROGUNDADE

Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote once confessed that as an accomplished figure, he exists based on a creed passed to him by his grandfather: “The soul of business is not making money but making people happy. It’s the people that make the difference, not the balance sheet.” Dangote, in his actions and deeds, has obviously been living by this credo. 

For some decades now, the billionaire mogul talks less —about his multi-billion dollar philanthropic activities at home and abroad— but does more for humanity. Dangote obviously is no longer keen about how much money he has accumulated but how much goodwill he has accumulated. He has become renowned for his generosity as his existence is all about impacting positively on the lives of the people.

Last weekend, the Kano-born magnate took his good deeds a notch higher as he showed up at a Ramadan Charity Auction in Dubai, United Arab Emirates where he wrote a $5 million (Dh 18 million) check for hungry children. At the ‘Most Noble Number Charity’ auction organised by the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives, Dangote joined other global wealthiest citizens at the Armani Hotel inside the Burj Khalifa, Dubai, to support the campaign’s mission of combating childhood hunger and malnutrition across the world.

During the Suhoor event, Dangote was not the biggest donor in the room, but the most significant one among individual philanthropists and this sits within a much larger pattern.

The Africa’s industrial icon’s $5 million personally-signed cheque was widely applauded as it swelled almost $25 million raised that single evening. The target is at least Dh1 billion (about $270 million). By the night’s end, counting the auction proceeds alongside international pledges and individual donations, the campaign had crossed the projected figure with the Aga Khan Foundation pledging $100 million, followed by both the Gates Foundation and EdelGive Foundation, each pledging $50 million. The Piramal Foundation also committed $50 million while Tata Trusts pledged $20 million.

The bidding itself was a spectacle with 31 rare vehicle plate numbers and mobile numbers going under the hammer.

All proceeds go to the Edge of Life Campaign, an initiative launched by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and ruler of Dubai, to rescue five million children from hunger worldwide.

In 2025, TIME magazine named Dangote in its inaugural TIME100 Philanthropy list. The 67-year-old Nigerian billionaire, whose net worth stands at approximately $23.9 billion, has been building the Aliko Dangote Foundation since incorporating it in 1994. He endowed it with $1.25 billion in 2014, making it the largest private foundation in sub-Saharan Africa by endowment from a single donor.

The foundation spends an average of $35 million a year on programmes across Africa with child nutrition as its primary focus. Dangote, through his foundation, is currently running a $100 million multi-year programme to treat children with severe acute malnutrition