Who is an entrepreneur? Simply put an entrepreneur is a person who runs and manages his own business. So by default, entrepreneurs are self-employed.
There are many entrepreneurs in Nigeria but so far a few have proven themselves to be more successful than others. Here is a list of the 10 successful entrepreneurs and what they produce or what kind of business they are into. We have also put in the various success stories of entrepreneurs in Nigeria. So this list can serve as some sort of history of successful entrepreneurs in Nigeria.
The list of the successful entrepreneurs in Nigeria and their business goes on with
- Aliko Dangote as the number one
Aliko Dangote tops this list because he is the richest man in Nigeria and Africa. He gets the bulk of his wealth from his company- Dangote Group which has now grown to be a conglomerate in many African countries. This conglomerate first started as a small undersized trading firm and with hard work and commitment has grown to be the conglomerate it is today.
Dangote is on this list not just because he is currently the most successful Nigerian entrepreneur but also because he is also one of the successful entrepreneurs internationally recognized. Dangote has also been recognised as the largest employer of Labour in Nigeria.
Mike Adenuga is a businessman who built his fortune from investing in Oil and Telecommunications. He is the third richest men in Africa and the second richest man in Nigeria after Dangote.
He also owns Globacom, the second largest operator in Nigeria after MTN with up to 36 million subscribers.
Femi Otedola made his wealth and fortune from Oil. He is the CEO of publicly traded Forte Oil- an oil marketing and power generation company. Otedola started out on his own, which is why he is listed as an entrepreneur and today he is a millionaire.
Otedola was a billionaire up until 2016 when his net worth drastically from $1.8 billion to $550 million due to the decline in the stock price of oil.
Orji Uzor Kalu is one man whose climb to success was indeed amazing. He became a millionaire as early as when he was still in his twenties. That means he was at some point on the list of Nigerian entrepreneurs under 30 who very successful.
He made his first fortune from retailing products like palm oil, rice and sugar. And then he went on to establish his own company- SLOK Holdings which operates in Oil and gas, banking and finance, media and publishing, real estate, trading, manufacturing, insurance and tourism.
He was initially worth $1 billion but his net worth recently took a plunge because of the weakness and fluctuations in oil prices.
Abdulsamad Rabiu
Abdulsammad is the founder and chairman of the BUA group, a conglomerate that is into manufacture, agriculture and infrastructure.
He is worth $1.1 billion.
Jim Ovia
Jim Ovia is the founder of Zenith Bank and also the founder of Visafone communications which has over 3 million subscribers. He is worth $550 million.
Oba Otudeko is the founder and chairman of Honeywell Group – a conglomerate with tentacles in many diverse sectors like- foods and agro-allied, real estate, infrastructure, energy and services.
He is worth $550 million.
- Innoson Chukwuma
Innoson Chukwuma is probably the most innovative entrepreneur on this list. He is the founder of Innoson Vehicles. His company is the first indigenous motor manufacturing company in Nigeria.
And it is stretching into other sectors, it also manufactures plastics and also has a presence in ICT.
- Raymond Dokpesi
Raymond is the founder of popular Nigerian Television Network AIT (African Independent Television). He is known as the media guru of Nigeria because he made his fortune from investments in the media.
Tony Elumelu is a Nigerian entrepreneur and investor who made his wealth from the banking sector. He is the CEO of United Bank of Africa and Heirs Holdings.
