The story is an example of how the Middle East financial hub is becoming an increasingly significant location for the global wealthy.

Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote is reportedly setting up a family office in Dubai, part of a trend of ultra-high net worth individuals choosing the Gulf as a financial hub.

Dangote’s family office in Dubai will hunt for global investments to diversify the group’s holdings beyond industrials, Dangote, told Bloomberg yesterday. Initially, it will seek to co-invest with families, firms or institutions that bring unique expertise of sectors and companies, the report said. 

With a $13.2 billion fortune, Dangote ranks as the wealthiest African and the 168th-richest person in the world, the news service said, citing its Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He made his money from commodities such as cement and sugar, and recently opened a $20 billion oil refinery – the largest of its kind in Africa, the report said.

Dubai is competing with rival centers such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Switzerland as a place for single-family offices. In August 2022, Dubai International Financial Centre sad it was launching a “global family business and private wealth center.”

Last year, this publication spoke to Arif Amiri, CEO of the DIFC Authority, about the Middle East jurisdiction's aims and ambitions.

In a separate story in September, DIFC announced that it was opening a funds center in the first quarter of 2025, seeking to tap into an influx of hedge fund and other entities into the UAE.