Aliko Dangote, president of the Dangote Group, has accused Farouk Ahmed, chief executive officer of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), of spending about $5 million on the secondary school education of his children in Switzerland.

In a paid newspaper advertisement published on Tuesday, Dangote claimed that the amount was expended on the education of four of Ahmed’s children over a six-year period. The allegation follows an earlier statement made by the billionaire on Monday, in which he described the purported expenditure as an act of “economic sabotage and corruption”.

Providing a breakdown in the advert, Dangote named the children as Faisal Farouk, Farouk Jr., Ashraf Farouk and Farhana Farouk. He said they attended some of Switzerland’s most exclusive institutions, including Montreux School, Aiglon College, Institut Le Rosey and La Garenne International School.

According to Dangote, the estimated annual cost of tuition, living expenses, airfare and upkeep per child stood at about $200,000. Multiplied across four children, this amounted to $800,000 each year. Over six years, he said living expenses and air travel alone came to roughly $1.2 million per child, or $4.8 million in total.

Based on these calculations, Dangote estimated that the combined cost of tuition and upkeep for the children’s secondary education was approximately $5 million.

He further alleged that the children’s tertiary education added significantly to the total bill. Dangote said university tuition, upkeep, airfare and related costs averaged about $125,000 per year over a four-year period, amounting to $500,000 per child and about $2 million for all four.

Citing one example, Dangote stated that Faisal Farouk recently completed an MBA at Harvard University in 2025, with tuition estimated at $150,000 and an additional $60,000 for upkeep, travel and other expenses, bringing the total cost for that year to $210,000.

Dangote argued that Nigerians are entitled to question the source of such funds, particularly when, according to him, many families in Ahmed’s home state of Sokoto struggle to pay school fees as low as N10,000 for their children.