A vision that has evolved over time. His father, Isyaku Rabiu, was a famous entrepreneur who ran into trouble for dodging duties on rice imports in 1983, following General Muhammadu Buhari’s coup.
Today, Abdul Samad Rabiu is no longer so keen on imports. Instead, he is an evangelist for ‘Made in Africa’ as a way to fix the continent’s employment crisis. “Why is Nigeria importing rice? Why is Nigeria importing sugar? We can do those things,” said Rabiu. “We have a young, teeming population that needs jobs.”
Aldulsamad Rabiu Family (The Beginning)
The Chairman/CEO of BUA Group of Companies Alhaji Abdulsamad Rabiu is carrying on the legacy of his illustrious father, Isyaku Rabiu, a businessman of no mean repute.
Abdulsamad Rabiu was born into affluence. His father, Isyaku Rabiu, was one of the richest and most influential businessmen in northern Nigeria in the 1970s and 80s.
Abdulsamad’s father, born in 1928, started out trading in commodities and beverages before venturing into commercial real estate by snapping up dilapidated properties, renovating them, and flipping them for profit. With a penchant for serial entrepreneurship, Isyaku later ventured into textiles too, and eventually set up his own textile factory.
But he did not stop there. He acquired a franchise to sell sewing machines all over northern Nigeria to tailors and exploited other emerging opportunities in the nation’s fledgling oil industry and construction sector.
The end of the 70s established Isyaku’s reputation as a formidable business tycoon. In 1984, the Head of State at the time, General Muhammadu Buhari, who had taken over the government in a military coup, arrested Isyaku and jailed him along with other commodity traders on charges of rice hoarding.
It was a trying period for Rabius. Alhaji Isyaku Rabiu was the head of a very large family of four wives and many children.
Among his children were his first son, Nafiu Rabiu, a prominent businessman; Abdulsamad Rabiu, the Chairman/CEO of BUA Group; and Rabiu Rabiu an equally successful businessman with extensive interests in aviation.
But it was Abdulsamad Rabiu, perhaps the most famous of the Rabiu clan, who took over the family business at the age of 24, following the incarceration of his father.
Aldulsamad Rabiu Biography
Abdul Samad Isyaku Rabiu was born on August 4th, 1960 in Kano, Kano State, Nigeria to Isyaku Rabiu, a businessman and Islamic scholar. He is a business magnate and the founder & chairman of BUA Group, a Nigerian conglomerate focused on manufacturing, infrastructure, and agriculture.
Abdul grew up in a wealthy Islamic and polygamous family as his father had four wives and a lot of children. He had his primary and secondary education in Kano before proceeding to Ohio in the United States for his tertiary education where he studied and obtained a degree in Economics at the Capital University in Columbus.
Abdul Samad returned to Nigeria soon after his studies and took charge of his family business which centered on trading commodities and beverages.
The mantle of leadership
While still 24, the responsibility of running the business fell on his shoulders as his father was being detained by the military administration of General Muhammadu Buhari for rice hoarding. This was around 1984.
He founded his own business, BUA International Limited, in Lagos around 1988. The firm has grown and expanded. It first started with Nigerian Oil Mills Limited-the largest edible oil processing company in Nigeria and in 2005 he went on to build 2 flour milling plants in Lagos and in Kano.
By 2005, BUA built the second-largest sugar refinery in sub-Saharan Africa thereby breaking the hitherto existing eight-year monopoly in the Nigerian sugar market. BUA is currently worth around $2.5 billion.
In 2008, Abdul acquired the largest oil processing company in Nigeria, Nigerian Oil Mills Limited. He also owns a penthouse at The One & Only Hotel, in Cape Town.
He broke an eight-year monopoly in the Nigerian sugar industry by commissioning the second-largest sugar refinery in sub-Saharan Africa.
He’s married with children: Isyaku Rabiu, Junaid Rabiu, Rukaiya Rania Rabiu, and Khadijah Rabiu.
Aldulsamad Rabiu Companies (BUA’s Growth)
After a few years in business, Abdul Samad Rabiu finally got his breakthrough in the year 1990. When BUA successfully struck a deal with the Delta Steel company, a government-owned company, for the supply of raw materials, and in return, BUA International was to be given finished products.
The success of the transaction helped BUA to further expand into steel, thereby producing billets, importing iron ore, and constructing multiple rolling mills in Nigeria.
The company later went on to acquire Nigerian Oil Mills Limited, which was the largest edible oil processing company in the country.
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In the year 2005, Abdul Samad Rabiu further grew his firm by starting two flour-milling plants, both in Lagos state and in Kano state. And in the year 2008, his company finally unsettled an eight-year monopoly in the Nigerian sugar industry when it launched the second-largest sugar refinery in the entirety of sub-Saharan Africa.
By the year 2009, the BUA group acquired a controlling stake in a cement company listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and also constructed a $900 million cement plant in Edo State which was launched in the year 2015.
BUA Subsidiaries
BUA group is a parent to several other subsidiaries that have gone on to become major players in the Nigeria business environment
1. BUA oils
Formerly known as Golden Oil before its acquisition, BUA has established two Refining plants with a capacity of 700TPD, the oil plant is responsible for the production of products such as Stearine and Palm Olein, and also Distilled fatty acid.
2. BUA sugar
Incorporated April 13, 2005, BUA Sugar Refinery Limited is currently one of the largest sugar refining plants in Africa. The primary purpose of the company has been refining imported and local sugar, in order to actualize its original aim as an ultra-modern automated plant, the facility has been equipped with state-of-the-art technology, with an installed capacity of 2,000 metric tonnes of sugar daily. BUA Sugar has gone as far as deploying state-of-the-art technologies from Brazil which is undoubtedly the biggest in the world with the best technology in sugar refining.
3. BUA cement
Considered one of the biggest players in the Nigerian cement market, BUA cement owns a 2 million per annum MT floating terminal and 3 Subsidiaries across the Northern and Southern parts of Nigeria, Obu & Edo cement Company Limited Okpeala Edo State, Kalambaini Cement company limited, Sokoto and cement company of Northern Nigeria also in Sokoto State. All plants have been equipped with the necessary technology to provide different grades of high-quality cement that suits the Nigerian market.
4. BUA ports & terminals
After a highly competitive bidding process, BUA Ports and Terminal Limited finally won the concession bid for Terminal ‘B’ of the NPA in Port Harcourt, and currently controls two warehouses, and manages 4 Berths; Berths 5 to 8.
5 BUA estate
In order to key into the ever-expanding real estate market in Nigeria, BUA Estate was established. The company currently has estates for private residency and business purposes across Lagos and Abuja.
Abdul Samad Rabiu Net Worth
Abdul Samad Rabiu is the founder of BUA Group, a Nigerian conglomerate active in cement production, sugar refining, and real estate.
In early January 2020, Rabiu merged his privately-owned Obu Cement company with listed firm Cement Co. of Northern Nigeria, which he controlled.
The combined firm, called BUA Cement Plc, trades on the Nigerian stock exchange; Rabiu owns 98.2% of it.
According to Forbes’s real-time net worth, Rabiu is worth around $5.8B as of the time of publsihing this article.
Abdulsamad Rabiu and Dangote (Clash of the Titans)
On 1 September 2020, Abdulsamad Rabiu, chairman of one of Nigeria’s (and Africa’s) biggest conglomerates, BUA was all smiles in Paris as he signed a technology licensing deal with Jean Sentenac, CEO of Axens, France’s largest hydrocarbons group.
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The agreement is that Axens will supply process technologies for BUA’s upcoming integrated refinery and petrochemical facility in Akwa Ibom. The greenfield project, which is expected to be operational by 2024, is the latest in the Nigerian billionaire’s audacious moves to stamp the BUA brand as an exceptional regional force.
When completed, the facility will refine 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) of hydrocarbons. A ninth of Nigeria’s 1.8m bpd oil production– and help reduce the country’s unacceptable dependence on imported fuels. It will also export high-quality gasoline, diesel, kerosene, jet fuel, and propylene to neighbouring markets.
To succeed, Rabiu will have to source and develop technical expertise. Build at least a 100MW generating plant to power the facility. And construct roads wide and strong enough to carry imported refinery structures and parts.
BUA secured a large and strategic port on the Atlantic Ocean coast from the Akwa Ibom government. Thereby easing its logistics. The epoch-making project will swallow billions of dollars. Some development and commercial banks have stood in line offering to finance the operation via debt and equity.
If this sounds like deja vu. It is because this bold move mirrors a move by another Nigerian tycoon, Aliko Dangote. Who have diversified into petrochemicals.
Bone of contention
Rabiu’s bold entry into the refinery business expands the decades-long competition for market dominance between his conglomerate and the Dangote Group, into new territory.
His predecessor in the venture, Aliko Dangote’s highly anticipated $12bn refinery, will produce 650,000 bpd and is expected to begin operations in 2024. Business pundits have long pontificated that there seems to be bad blood between the two men.
If anything. This battle or clash of the titans can only be a good thing for the country, and indeed the continent. America was built by bold industrialists, each vying for dominance. The Korean chaebols (large, conglomerate family-controlled firms) which are now global giants, grew huge thanks to fierce competition amongst themselves. It pushed them to innovate, be lean, and become globally competitive.
The cynics might ask, why is Rabiu trying to get a finger into yet another Dangote pie? Rabiu explains that the move represents diversification, especially given the pressure on commodities related to FX and the dollar crunch. But it’s fascinating to understand the two men and their businesses.
Aldulsamad Rabiu Foundation
Abdul Samad Rabiu, through the BUA Foundation which he established for philanthropic purposes, has helped thousands of individuals. In 2017, the foundation was credited with giving out 600 million Naira in interest-free loans to a total of 2,000 farmers in Kano state. The farmers were also provided with improved seedlings and fertilizers.
The foundation has also been responsible for the construction of a 7,000-square-meter pediatric ward at the Aminu Kano teaching hospital.
In collaboration with the Rotary Club of Gbagada South in Lagos, the BUA foundation assisted in executing free ear, nose, & throat clinical screening on pupils of Kinniun-Ifa and Araromi primary schools.
Recent projects by the foundation
- ASR Africa begins construction of an ultra-modern Student center at Nnamdi Azikiwe University with A groundbreaking ceremony.
- ASR Africa, BUA Foundation Approve N1.5billion Grant for Development Projects In Ibese, Igbogila, Ilaro, Others in Yewaland, Ogun State.
- ASR Africa presents award letters worth N10 billion to security agencies as its contributions to National Security.
- ASR Africa grants 22 Nigerian Universities and Tertiary Institutions. 5.5 billion Naira for Infrastructure development under its ASR Africa. A USAID partner to Curb Tuberculosis and HIV in Nigeria with $500,000 tertiary education grants scheme.
References:
- https://venturesafrica.com/meet-nigerian-billionaire-abdulsamad-rabiu/
- https://newafricanmagazine.com/24407/
- https://www.theafricareport.com/489/interview-abdul-samad-rabiu-founder-and-chairman-bua-group/
- https://startuptipsdaily.com/biography-success-story-of-abdul-samad-rabiu/
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