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| Description: Estimated net worth: At least $75 million Source: Construction, Property, Oil Alayeluwa Oba Okunade Sijuwade, Olubuse II, is the traditional King (Ooni) of Ile-Ife’, an ancient city located in Osun state in Nigeria’s south-western region. Ile-Ife is generally believed to be the traditional home of the Yoruba civilization. Oba Sijuwade, 84, who ascended the throne in 1980, is also a prosperous businessman. The ???ni first cut his teeth in business by working in his father’s trading business as a teenager before going to the United Kingdom to study for a degree in business. Upon his return back to Nigeria, he worked as a manager for the Leventis Group and as a sales executive for National Motor. He struck out on his own in 1964, when he started WAATECO, an automotive distribution business that imported vehicles and vehicle parts from the Soviet Union to sell in Nigeria. He went on to build the Motel Royal hotel and several residential and commercial properties. He is the founder of the Sijuwade Group, a Nigerian conglomerate with interests in oil & gas, construction, property development and hospitality, which he incorporated in 1975. The group owns stakes in two onshore oil blocks in partnership with London-listed energy giant Centrica PLC as well as a construction outfit that handles large-ticket road construction projects in Nigeria and was awarded a concession by the Federal Government to construct and manage a tollgate along the Ibadan-Ife dual carriageway- one of the major vehicular routes in Nigeria. The King also owns several residential properties in Nigeria and the U.K. |
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