African leaders have charged a new generation of leaders to move beyond talking about the continent’s challenges and take ownership of its resources, institutions and enterprises to build a stronger Africa and make the continent more competitive in the global economy.

At the closing of the 2026 Aliko Dangote Foundation Africa Diaspora Leadership Programme Young Global Leaders Convening in Lagos, the leaders urged young Africans to build globally competitive businesses, technologies, cultural assets and institutions.

The four-day programme with the theme, ‘Building Africa at Scale’, exposed Young Global Leaders from Africa and the Diaspora to Nigeria’s industrial, financial, technological and creative sectors.

Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), Amina Mohammed, at the event, said Africa’s quest for global influence must shift from seeking representation to gaining the power to shape decisions and control its own narrative.

“We can no longer be the people that are profited from. You have to own what it is that is your power,” she told the young leaders.

She said Africa must strengthen its institutions, improve strategic coordination and use its collective economic and political influence more effectively, warning that Artificial Intelligence (AI) was becoming another major arena of global power in which the continent could not afford to lag behind.

Mohammed also urged the young leaders to reject conventional thinking and have the courage to pursue their convictions.

Former President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank, Prof Benedict Oramah, said the Dangote Petroleum Refinery demonstrated that Africans could conceive and execute complex industrial projects on a global scale, describing its impact as a major boost to the continent’s confidence.

“The greatest thing that the Dangote Refinery has done and will do for us is our ability to take back our minds,” he said.

He, however, said Africa must move beyond individual success stories and build the productive capacity required to manufacture and produce at scale, while calling on African commercial banks to adopt developmental banking models capable of supporting long-term productive investments.

Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, said governments must create conditions that would enable more African entrepreneurs to build businesses on the scale achieved by Dangote.

Describing Dangote as ‘a fighter’, the minister said the government’s responsibility was to provide a predictable policy and regulatory environment that would allow private capital to drive innovation, create jobs and develop viable infrastructure.

He also stated that Africa must address the negative perceptions that increase the cost of doing business and investing on the continent, describing them as a ‘narrative cost’ and ‘prejudice premium’.

Minister of Art, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa, stated that Africa’s creative economy was equally important to changing the continent’s global image, stressing that culture should be treated as both an economic asset and a tool for shaping Africa’s narrative.

“We need to take a hold of our narrative,” she added.

Chief Executive Officer of Rwanda Development Board, Jean Guy Afrika, said the Dangote Refinery showed what exceptional entrepreneurial leadership could achieve but warned that Africa could not depend on exceptional individuals to overcome weak systems.

He also noted policy predictability, respect for contracts, institutional accountability and the development of investable assets were necessary to make it easier for the next generation of investors to build at scale.

President and Chief Executive, Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, who challenged the participants to translate the Lagos experience into action, said Africa’s major challenge was no longer a shortage of ideas or ambition, but the ability to convert them into institutions, productive capacity and lasting value.

He urged the Young Global Leaders to consider their individual roles in building what he described as the ‘New Africa’.

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Aliko Dangote Foundation, Zouera Youssoufou, said the Foundation had supported African members of the World Economic Forum (WEF)’s Forum of Young Global Leaders for 15 years as part of efforts to strengthen Africa’s representation and influence in global leadership networks.

She said the Lagos learning journey was designed to expose the participants to African excellence and demonstrate what it takes to build businesses and institutions at scale.

“We want the participants to leave Lagos with the conviction that they, too, can aspire to accomplish what Dangote has achieved over the years,” she said.