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. It will initially 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.

Dubai is competing with rival centres such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Switzerland as a destination for attracting single-family offices. In August 2022, Dubai International Financial Centre said it was launching a “global family business and private wealth centre.”

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 is opening a funds centre in the first quarter of 2025, seeking to tap into an influx of hedge fund and other entities into the UAE.