Youngest billionaires in Nigeria 2019

There are scores of young people making waves across the country and beyond.

Many of these enterprising individuals have gone on to found multi-million dollar companies and in this post, we will be looking at 10 of these young men.

Youngest billionaires in Nigeria

Igho Charles Sanomi

1. Igho Sanomi

Igho Sanomi was born in Agbor, Delta State. He is the richest billionaire in Nigeria with an estimated worth of $1 billion.

His business interests include telecommunications, shipping, aviation, engineering, construction and real estate investments Currently, Sanomi serves as the Executive Director of Cosmos oil AG. He is also the founder/chairman of Taleveras, an energy trading company.

2. Ladi Delano

Ladi Delano founded a Chinese Alcoholic Beverage Company, Solidarnosc Asia in 2004 at the young age of 24. The company was known for its premium brand of vodka, Solid XS.

At some point, Solid XS had a 50% market share in China. It became the mainstream liquor brand and was popular in over 30 cities. Ladi eventually sold Solidarnosc for $15 million. Subsequently, he used his profit from the sales to establish a real estate investment company which is based in mainland China.

Delano is a serial entrepreneur who made his first million when he founded his first company, Solidarnosc Asia. Currently, Delano runs Bakrie Delano Africa (BDA) which is a $1 billion joint venture with the Bakrie Group of Indonesia.

In 2012, Delano featured on Forbes list as one of the young millionaires to watch out for in Africa.

3. Linda Ikeji

A few years ago, Linda Ikeji broke the news when it was reported that she had purchased a property in the exotic Banana Island for over $1 million.

Linda was born on the 19th September 1980. She began her career as a model before quitting to becoming a full-time blogger. Currently, she is the highest paid blogger in the country.

She started her blog from the cyber cafe before she could afford an internet connection at home.

4. Jason Njoku

Born on the 11th of December 1980, Jason Chukwuma Njoku is the founder of the internet company, IROKOtv. He is also a start up investor with investments in several budding start ups in Nigeria.

Jason came up with the iROKOtv idea when he was living with his mother as 30 year old. According to him, this was his 11th attempt at starting a business.

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 Fast Company’s Top 1000 Most Creative People in Business. Jason is also the founder of Spark, a $2 million investment company for Lagos based internet start-ups. Some of Spark’s initial investments include Tolet.com.ng, Hotels.ng, Drinks.ng amongst other.

5. Sijibomi Ogundele

Born in Agege, Lagos, Sijibomi had a very humble beginning but he had an innate desire to become rich, confident and unique. Over time, he was able to leverage his network to create wealth for him.

He is the founder of the Sujimoto Construction Company Ltd, a multi-million dollar construction company with assets in cities like Accra, Dubai, Lagos, Riyadh, Paris and Madrid.

Sijibomi is a trained lawyer but he has amassed 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 Abiola Olaniran is the founder of the Nigerian gaming company, Gamsole. He is also Nigeria’s highest paid Windows Game developer.

He founded Gamsole in 2012 and the company’s games currently has over 10 million downloads both local and international from the Windows Phone store. Abiola’s interest in software spans back to when 15 years old. His interest in programming led to him study Computer Science and Mathematics at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.

7. Tayo Oviosu

If you’ve heard of Paga, then you may have an idea of who Tayo Oviosu is. Paga is the brainchild of Pagatech Limited, a company founded by Tayo Oviosu in 2009.

Prior to launching Paga, Tayo worked at Cisco as the Manager, Corporate Development where he was responsible for strategy, acquisitions, and private equity investments in four technology sectors including Virtual Computing, Application Networking, Security, and Network Management.

He was pivotal in helping Cisco’s expansion into Africa. Before working at Cisco, Oviosu worked as a Senior Consultant at Deloitte where he worked on cases in five industries – high tech, telecom, pharmacy retail, government, and healthcare.

8. Mark Essien

Mark Essien is the founder of Hotels.ng, a prominent hotel booking company in Nigeria. He was born on the 18th of December, 1980.

Essien is a Nigerian entrepreneur, software developer and startup investor. He was born on the 18 th of December 1980 in Ikot Ekpene in Akwa Ibom.

Prior to founding Hotels.ng, Mark Essien had previously built a file sharing software called Gnumm which was acquired by Snoopstar.com.

Also, he created 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

Born in the 80s, Tonye Rex is a Nigerian entrepreneur. He is the first West African to be appointed to the board of World Leaders Forum.

Rex is a trained lawyer with a LLB degree from Glasgow Caledonina University in Glasgow, Scotland.

He founded the African Achievers Awards in 2011 and founded Reputation Pool in 2016 which creates reputation polls and rankings. He was recognized by Forbes Africa as one of the 30 Most Promising Entrepreneurs in Africa.

10. Iyinoluwa Aboyeji

From Andela to Flutterwave, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji has been blazing the trail with his innovative startups.

Prior to his sojourn 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.