BUA publicly detailed how Dangote blocked him from building his first sugar refinery factory at Tincan Island port in Lagos.
They approached Usman Dantata , Aliko Dangote’s uncle, and leased his NPA waterfront land (4.5 hectares) at the Tincan Island port, ‘Polo House’.
Then they took the land, signed an agreement with the consent of Nigerian Ports Authority, and paid all applicable dues.
Dangote waited until BUA's contractors and equipment were to be mobilised to the site, and then he went to former President Obasanjo.
President Obasanjo had the land revoked entirely. The president, in turn, gave the lease to Dangote. As a result, even his uncle lost the land. BUA was only given 24 hours to vacate the land.
BUA secured the alternative land directly from Abdul Samad Rabiu’s late father (Khalifah Isyaku Rabiu), who gifted it to them.
Today, the sugar refinery still remains operational on that land.
@aradelholdings has officially entered the Access Bank School of "Coming Soon... and Never Comes," and that's not a good look for a company of its size and reputation.
We've seen what companies that keep investors waiting this long eventually release, and the track record isn't particularly encouraging.
Hopefully, this time, the results are worth the suspense.
Tuesday–Wednesday, we'll be watching for Aradel to drop them.
But this culture of anyhowness and the NASD OTC-style approach to disclosures need to stop.
UBA did it. Nothing happened.
Access did it. Nothing happened.
Fidelity did it. Nothing happened.
FCMB is yet to release its financial report but has time for #OjudeOba content.
Now Aradel has joined the league.
Then there are companies that eventually wake up and upload results that are barely legible.
Ellah Lakes started the trend. TIP copied the same nonsense. And that Prestige Assurance result is still sitting on the NGX portal looking like it was scanned with a calculator.
No fines.
No sanctions.
No one called to order.
@ngxgrp@ngxregco, this isn't the standard expected of a frontier market that wants to attract and retain serious investors.
Investors deserve better. 🤬
Up and Vexing🤬🤬🤬
The other day, we celebrated a credit rating upgrade by the international credit agency, S&P. The events over the past few days just explains how the government (across all arms and tiers) make one step forward and two steps backwards.
A country does not become a $1 trillion economy simply because oil prices rise or because GDP numbers look bigger on paper.
A trillion-dollar economy is built when millions of people can safely learn, work, move, invest, build companies, transport goods, and plan for the future with confidence.
Industrial economies are built on efficient movement:
of people
of goods
of raw materials
of labour
of capital
Insecurity disrupts all of them.
@oluwadamisi One of my referred bosses in my industry once said “the hardest way to creating wealth is through entrepreneurship” it takes time and resilience.
World Bank told Nigeria to reopen fuel imports because Dangote’s fuel was 12% more expensive than imports. Dangote called it flawed. World Bank quietly deleted the whole report from their website.
Meanwhile Europe is buying refined fuel from the same Dangote refinery because Middle East supply got disrupted. The same Europe that used to sell Nigeria its own crude back as petrol. You can’t make this up.
An African refinery finally works at scale and the first recommendation is not invest more, not expand capacity. It’s bring back imports.
When Africa consumes nobody says a word. When Africa refines and competes suddenly it’s a problem.
And FCMB is still standing today. Otunba Subomi Balogun is also known as the grandfather of investment banking.
Though he is late, he has 4 children who carried on his legacy
Bolaji Balogun (first son) — the co-founder of Airtel Nigeria, Chairman of Unilever Nigeria Plc, former Chairman of Lafarge Africa and MD/CEO of Chapel Hill Denham.
Ladi Balogun — Group CEO of FCMB Group
Jide Balogun — CEO of PRIMROSE Development Company, the real estate arm of family business
Gboyega Balogun — CEO of CSL Stockbrokers Limited
Today, I reflect on my journey and the trajectory of my life and I’m deeply grateful for how God has guided me every step of the way. Started investing 19 years ago when I was 26. I have studied over 1000 audited and annual reports through this period. Studied Computer Sc. Attend Engineering, Project and Production Management program in university of Brighton in 2012. Attended Project Management MBA crash program organized by PMI in Pennsylvania in 2014. Financial markets course in Yale.
I began my career at Microsoftware, where I worked for a couple of years as a Technical Assistant to the Director and Software Architect, the only role in which I served as an employee. During that time, we were among the pioneers using PowerBuilder (a 4GL programming language) alongside Sybase SQL. I was privileged to be part of an exceptional team, contributing to the development of several Enterprise Pension and Personnel Management Systems (EPPMS), including a major development and deployment for the Nigerian Railway Corporation, supporting over 35,000 staff and more than 100,000 pensioners at the time. Printwiser, Labelwriter, Guk solutions for Academy Press, APBF, Megavons security, just to mention a few.
In 2010, I transitioned into consulting, advising one of the largest microfinance banks in Rivers State on ICT infrastructure evaluation.
By 2015, I became involved with WETV project at its inception, where I played a key role in building critical CTO-level systems. Wacom Cintiq cartoon solutions. Through strategic collaboration with Eurocom, we delivered specialized systems. I also contributed to multiple projects across media platforms including Cool FM, Naija Info, and Wazobia FM.
In 2017, I was part of the team that deployed a critical hardware security gateway layer, working with UN Unlimited South Africa for the largest revenue-generating government institution rep in Nigeria.
In 2018, I collaborated with Crossmatch Identity Solutions (now HID, USA) on integrating advanced identity systems for a major government revenue agency.
Built rendering systems for Lekki Gardens, during the pandemic. And some specialized systems for Clout Studio during the pandemic as well.
Ventured into real estate in 2022
I have also worked on several strategic projects with Webb Fontaine Nigeria, contributing to platforms that powered Nigeria’s bilateral trade and revenue systems at some point among other impactful initiatives throughout my career.
Today, I am living a lifelong ambition, sharing insights and helping others build strong investment portfolios on the NGX through my work on X.
Cheers to 45 🍾