Dangote says he bought first private jet at 22 and a half, then urged rich Nigerians to fund production instead of luxury aircraft

The President of Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, told an audience at the Nigerian Exchange in Lagos on Monday, 14 September 2026, that he acquired his first private jet at 22 and a half.

Also read: Dangote refinery IPO opens historic N2.15tn sale

Mr Dangote was speaking at the formal opening of the initial public offering of Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals.

After a glance back at his career, he said the ride had been good and that he would now board a commercial flight without fuss. “My career as a businessman, I really had a great time. I was telling somebody that right now I don’t mind, I can take commercial, I can take anything. I had my first private jet at 22 and a half years old.”

The Dangote says he bought first private jet line was not offered as a boast alone. He turned it on other wealthy Nigerians. People flying aircraft worth $900m, he said, should put that capital into production. “I try as much as I can to encourage people who are riding $900 million aircraft to please go and put that into production. We are not going to be a great nation without doing something productive.”

The setting mattered. The same morning he sounded the gong on a N2.15tn share sale meant to widen public ownership of the Lekki refinery. A man who bought a jet before many peers had finished university was asking the room to treat factories as the real luxury.

There is an obvious tension. Private aviation is part of how Nigeria’s richest man moves. Critics will hear a lecture from someone who has already enjoyed the toy. Supporters will hear a veteran saying the next naira should build plants, not hangars.

He did not name who owns a $900m aircraft, and he did not say he has given up jets for good. He said he can take commercial now, and that greatness will not come from sitting in the sky.

Also read: Dangote refinery IPO opens historic N2.15tn sale

The remark will outlive the day’s IPO chatter because it is simple, dated and sharp: 22 and a half, a first jet, and a plea to spend the next fortune on making things.