Africa’s richest person plans to open a family office in Dubai

Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote is setting up a family office in Dubai, joining other high-net worth individuals who have flocked to the Middle East’s financial hub over the past few years.

With a $13.2 billion fortune, Dangote ranks as the wealthiest African and the 168th-richest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He made his money from commodities like cement and sugar, and recently opened a $20 billion oil refinery — the largest of its kind in Africa.

Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote

His family office in Dubai will seek out global investments to diversify the group’s holdings beyond industrials, Dangote, 67, said in an interview Monday. It will initially look to co-invest with families, firms or institutions that bring unique expertise of sectors and companies.

“It’s not good to reinvent the wheel,” Dangote said. “We’re new and we want to do it gradually.” His daughter Halima moved to Dubai last month to manage the firm that’s based out of Dangote Group’s office, which the billionaire said he’s owned for 17 years.

While a large part of Dangote’s assets are in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa, his holding company is based overseas, the tycoon said. That’s because of weakness in the naira, which has plunged more than 50% in the past year and is the continent’s worst-performing currency after the Ethiopian birr.

The Nigerian has a longstanding relationship with the emirate. The city’s main holding company bought a minority stake in his cement firm — its first major investment in Africa — a decade ago.

Dangote is also among the backers of Alterra Capital Partners, an Africa-focused private equity fund that was spun out of Carlyle Group Inc. last year, and has invested in Gateway Partners, an emerging-markets manager founded in 2014.

His move reflects Dubai’s growing appeal for the ultra-wealthy and their investment companies thanks to a favorable tax-regime, low crime rates and a convenient location at the juncture of multiple continents and time zones.

The United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai is a part, is poised to be the top destination for relocating millionaires this year, according to a report from migration advisory firm Henley & Partners. To cash in, Dubai’s finance hub has made a concerted push to attract family offices, the private investment vehicles of the extremely affluent.

The number of registered foundations — a vehicle commonly used by wealthy families — in Dubai rose by 53% last year, according to DIFC data.

Neighboring Abu Dhabi, which sits on 6% of the world’s proven oil reserves and boasts sovereign wealth funds that manage around $1.5 trillion in assets, has also drawn a string of billionaires including Ray Dalio.