In this article, we will profile youngest billionaires in Nigeria – vibrant youths who are holding their own in a competitive world.
Thousands of young Nigerians are breaking the bearers of poverty, rising from harsh backgrounds to financial stardom within Nigeria and elsewhere.
A good number of these adventurous characters have established multimillion dollar companies, becoming CEOs at a very young age.
Below are 10 youngest billionaires in Nigeria;
1. Igho Sanomi
Igho Sanomi is the youngest billionaire in Nigeria with an estimated worth of $1 billion.
Born in Agbor, Delta State, Sanomi’s business interest lies in telecommunications, shipping, aviation, engineering, construction and real estate investments.
Presently, he sits as the Executive Director of Cosmos oil AG.
He is also the founder/chairman of an energy trading company called Taleveras.
2. Ladi Delano
In 2004, at 24, young Ladi Delano took an uncommon step that many at his age would not have dared by founding a Chinese Alcoholic Beverage Company, Solidarnosc.
The company is known for its premium brand of vodka, Solid XS.
At some point, Solid XS had a 50% market share in China, becoming the mainstream liquor brand with it popularity spreading to over 30 cities.
He sold Solidarnosc for $15 million and channeled his profit from the sales to establish a real estate investment company based in mainland China.
A serial entrepreneur, Ladi also runs Bakrie Delano Africa (BDA), a $1 billion joint venture with the Bakrie Group of Indonesia.
In 2012, Delano featured on Forbes list as one of the youngest millionaires to watch out for in Africa.
3. Linda Ikeji
Linda Ikeji is one of the 10 youngest billionaires in Nigeria.
For blogging in Nigeria, Linda should be termed the goddess of blogging in Nigeria and perhaps Africa.
Born on September 19th, 1980, Linda began her career as a model before quitting to become a full-time blogger.
Linda rank as the highest paid blogger in the country.
Interestingly, she kicked off her blogging journey from the cyber cafe before she could afford an internet connection at home.
Few years ago, Linda shook Nigeria cyber space when news broke that she had purchased a property worth an estimated 1million dollar in the glamorous Banana Island, Lagos.
4. Jason Njoku
Born on December 11th, 1980, Jason Chukwuma Njoku is the founder of the internet subscription based television, iROKO Tv.
Reported to be his 11th attempt at starting a business, Jason came up with the idea while living with his mother as a 30-year-old.
In July 2012, he was named by Forbes Africa as one of the ten Young African Millionaires to watch out for.
He has also been named as one of the top 1000 Most Creative People in Business.
Part of his chain of a company include Spark, a Lagos based $2 million Investment Company targeted at internet start-ups.
Sparks initial investments include Tolet.com.ng, Hotels.ng, and Drinks.ng amongst other.
5. Sijibomi Ogundele
From a humble beginning, Sijibomi, born in Agege, Lagos, had an inherent craving to richest.
Over time, he could leverage his network to create wealth for himself by setting up Sujimoto Construction Company Ltd. His company is a multimillion dollar construction company with assets in cities like Accra, Dubai, Lagos, Riyadh, Paris and Madrid.
Also professionally certified lawyer, he has accumulated skills and experience in business, strategy and investments over the last few years.
And this has been pivotal in building his brand as a successful businessman.
6. Abiola Olaniran
In 2012, Abiola Olaniran founded the first indigenous gaming company, Gamsole.
The Company’s games has recorded a whopping 10 million downloads locally and internationally from the Windows Phone store.
Abiolas interest in software spans back to when he was 15 years old.
His interest in programming led to him studying Computer Science and Mathematics at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.
He is Nigeria’s highest paid Windows Game developer in the world.
7. Tayo Oviosu
If you have ever conducted financial transaction via Paga then, you may have contributed to the riches of this youth.
Paga is the brainchild of Pagatech Limited, a company founded by Tayo Oviosu in 2009.
Preceding the launching of Paga, Tayo worked at Cisco as the Manager, Corporate Development and was responsible for strategy, acquisitions, and private equity investments in four technology sectors including Virtual Computing, Application Networking, Security, and Network Management.
In no mean measure, Tayo helping Ciscos expansion in Africa. Before working at Cisco, Oviosu worked as a Senior Consultant at Deloitte where he worked on cases in another five tech industries high tech, telecom, pharmacy retail, government, and healthcare.
8. Mark Essien
Born in Ikot-Ekpene, Akwa-Ibom state, on December 18th, 1980, Essien is a Nigerian entrepreneur, a software developer and startup investor.
Mark Essien is the founder of Hotels.ng, a protuberant hotel booking company in Nigeria.
Prior to founding Hotels.ng, Mark Essien had previously built a file sharing software called Gnum which was acquired by Snoopstar.com.
He formed one of the first DirectShow based software-only Mpeg Encoders, Standard MPEG, which had high class clients such as Disney and the American Military.
Mark featured on the Forbes list of 30 youngest entrepreneurs in Africa in 2015.
His company, Hotels.ng is said to be worth over $4 million as at 2017.
9. Tonye Rex Idaminabo
Tonye was born in the 1980s. As a Nigerian entrepreneur, he became the first West African to be appointed to the board of World Leaders Forum.
A trained lawyer with a LLB degree from Glasgow Caledonina University in Glasgow, Scotland.
Tonye founded the African Achievers Awards in 2011 and founded Reputation Pool in 2016 which creates reputation pools and rankings.
He was recognized by Forbes Africa as one of the 30 Most Promising Entrepreneurs in Africa.
10. Iyinoluwa Aboyeji
Another person who will not be left out on the list of 10 youngest billionaires in Nigeria is a person in the name of ‘Iyinoluwa Aboyeji’.
He has been blazing the trail with his innovative startups, from Andela to Flutterwave.
Prior to his breakthrough in the Nigerian internet space, he founded Bookneto, an online learning platform in Canada which was acquired by the Canadian Innovation Centre.
His current business, Flutterwave is a provider of technology and infrastructure solutions for digital payments across Africa.
The company is a multimillion dollar company that has processed over $760 million through 7.5 million transactions for merchants in partnership with financial institutions across Africa.
We hope to see you in this list soon!