While names like Dangote, Adenuga, Alakija come to mind when brainstorming Nigerian billionaires, the people featured in this article are lesser known billionaires who also control significant wealth in the country. Do you know them?
1. Joseph Arumemi Ikhide
Joseph Arumemi-Ikhide, the founder of Nigeria’s biggest commercial airline, Arik Air. Mr Arumemi-Ikhide’s shares in three top Nigerian banks- Zenith Bank, Fidelity Bank and First Bank was well valued at $13.7 million in September of 2017. While his total assets spiked to a valuation of $3 billion.
2. Emmanuel Ojei
Dr. Emmanuel I. U. Ojei serves as the Chairman of Nuel Ojei Holding Limited. Dr. Ojei heads a worldwide group of companies whose scope of activities remain diverse and include Construction, Banking, Importation, Sales and services of motor vehicle and Oil. His current net worth is estimated at over $1.2 billion.
3. Hakeem Bello Osagie
Hakeem Belo-Osagie is a petroleum economist as well as a businessman. His net worth is believed to be about $600 million according to Forbes. The Harvard educated businessman was also the chairman of Etisalat, Nigeria’s fourth largest mobile telecom network, with more than 18 million subscribers. He is a renowned philanthropist who regularly donates to African Leadership Academy. Read more about him here- Moguls in Africa: Who Is Hakeem Belo Osagie?
4. Uju Ifejika
Catherine Uju Ifejika is a Nigerian lawyer and Chairperson/CEO of Brittania-U Nigeria Limited (BUNL), an indigenous petroleum company for upstream exploration and production, and Brittania-U Ghana Limited (BUGL). She is believed to be one of the six most powerful women in oil and gas in the world and one of the richest women in Africa. She has received both national and international awards for best practices in business leadership. Her net worth is estimated to be upwards of $3 billion.
5. Muhammad Asibelua
Mr Asibelua is the Executive Chairman of Quinox Group Ltd, a global company with subsidiaries actively operating in oil trading, services, and real estate, partnering with significant international corporations such as Gazprom, Sinopec, British Gas and PetroVietnam in numerous upstream projects.
