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| Description: Net Worth: $1.5 BILLION Industry: Manufacturing Country of Citizenship: Nigeria Age: 54 Number of Jobs Created: 3,159 Abdulsamad (Samad) Rabiu is the scion of the Isyaku Rabiu clan from the industrial city of Kano in Northern Nigeria. Like Dangote, Absulsamad inherited his business smarts from his father, Isyaku Rabiu, a prominent and wealthy businessman who made his fortune in commodities. When Nigeria’s military ruler, Muhammadu Buhari, arrested Isyaku and other commodity traders on charges of rice hoarding in 1984, Samad took the helm of his father’s business. He began importing everything from sugar to flour and cement. He subsequently founded BUA International Limited, which morphed into BUA Group. BUA hired consultants PWC to help transform the business from a trading outfit into a manufacturing powerhouse. In doing so, Rabiu emulated Dangote, who hired the services of McKinsey to help transform the Dangote Group. The BUA Group boasts revenues of almost $2 billion and has the second largest sugar refinery in West Africa, processing over 720,000 metric tonnes of sugar each year. Rabiu is also constructing a $500-million ultra-modern cement plant in southern Nigeria. The BUA Group owns Nigeria’s first floating cement terminal, BUA 1, which at 200 metres long, is capable of storing 80,000 metric tonnes of cement. It also has interests in edible oils, flour milling, real estate and transportation. Rabiu’s company directly competes with Dangote and Ibeto. Like Ibeto, he has locked horns several times with Dangote in the sugar and cement spaces. He is also the chairman of the Cement Company of Northern Nigeria Plc. |
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