Africa’s wealthiest industrialist, Aliko Dangote, has warned that the ongoing Middle East conflict could push Nigerian and other African governments to reintroduce pandemic-style work-from-home policies if global oil prices continue rising unchecked, describing the continent as uniquely vulnerable to a shock it had no hand in creating.
Dangote made the remarks in Lagos after a courtesy visit to President Bola Tinubu at his Ikoyi residence on Monday, following the Eid al-Fitr celebrations. He said the globalised nature of energy markets meant Africa could not insulate itself from a conflict thousands of kilometres away.
“If it doesn’t de-escalate, we’ll end up paying big prices. Africa is very busy paying debt, and putting this on top of us is going to add a lot of hardship on people, on the government, on everybody, for something that we have no involvement in,” Dangote said.
Pointing to existing government responses elsewhere, he referenced Indonesia’s shift to a four-day work week and the adoption of remote work in other countries as early signs of what could become widespread policy. “If it doesn’t improve, they will ask everybody not to go to work anymore. We will do like that time of COVID, where people will now go and work from home,” he said.
He warned that African governments faced a particularly constrained response, having already accumulated heavy debt loads that would limit their ability to raise salaries to compensate workers for surging living costs. “Governments cannot really now go and add salaries. So people will really feel the heat barbers, people who are doing bread, people who have industries, who have to fire their own generators,” he said.
The International Energy Agency has separately advised countries to adopt remote work arrangements, reduce private transport use and improve energy efficiency as practical measures to absorb the impact of rising oil prices.
On a more optimistic note, Dangote praised President Tinubu’s recent state visit to the United Kingdom, describing it as a confidence signal that would unlock further investment interest. He said Nigerian investors could now directly access financing from UK Export Finance, a funding channel he described as largely untapped. “The moment that they do that, there will be other countries that will follow suit. Germany will come, others will line up and start coming,” he said.
