Abdulsamad Rabiu – Biography And Net Worth Of A Skilled Merchant

Abdulsamad Rabiu is a Nigerian billionaire, an entrepreneur, and a philanthropist. He is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of BUA, a Nigerian conglomerate with an interest in agriculture, infrastructure, manufacturing, logistics, and port operations. Abdulsamad Rabiu is also the Chairman of the Nigerian Bank of Industry.

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Abdulsamad Rabiu Biography

Abdulsamad Rabiu was born into a wealthy family on the 4th of August, 1960 in Kano State. His father, late Khalifah Isyaku Rabiu was one of Nigeria’s foremost industrialist in the northern states of Nigeria in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Late Khalifah Isyaku Rabiu was a serial entrepreneur who built his wealth majorly from commodity trading. It will be right to say that Abdulsamad Rabiu got his entrepreneurial skills from his late father, who was a skillful merchant.

Abdulsamad Rabiu had his early education in Kano state before proceeding to United States for his university degree. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, USA.

He is married with children, the most popular of his children is Khadija Rabiu. Abdulsamad has many siblings including Nafiu Rabiu, a prominent businessman, and Rabiu Rabiu, the Chairman of IRS Airlines.

Abdulsamad Rabiu Net Worth

His net worth as at 2016 was $1.1billion according to Forbes.

Entrepreneurial Journey of Adbulsamad Rabiu

Young Abdulsamad Rabiu was saddled with the responsibility of running the father’s business at a young age of 24 when he returned from the United States after his studies. At the time his father was detained by the administration of General Muhammed Buhari on allegations of duty aversion on rice imports. Even though young Adbulsamad did not have much business experience, he was able to stir the company around for good in the absence of his father.

Experience they say is the best teacher. That responsibility gave Adbulsamad real business insights which he used in setting up his own company in 1988. BUA International Limited which was started in 1988 has grown into a conglomerate.

Expansion of BUA International Limited

Abdulsamad Rabiu established BUA International Limited basically for importation of rice, edible oil, iron and steel.

A breakthrough came for BAU International in 1990 when they struck a deal with the government owned Delta Steel Company. The deal was for BUA International to supply the company with raw material for production. In return, BAU International was paid with finished products. It was indeed a windfall for the young company.

After many years, under Abdulsamad Rabiu leadership, the trading company evolved into BUA Group. BUA Group is a diversified conglomerate with subsidiaries in cement making, sugar refining, oil milling, real estate, and port and terminals. They even diversified further into billets, steel, iron ore importation, and supplying multiple rolling mills in the country.

Subsidiaries of BUA Group

BUA Cement

It is one of the largest cement manufacturing company in Nigeria. The company has 3 plants in the Northern and Southern part of Nigeria as well as a floating cement terminal. These plants are: Kalambaina Cement Company Limited in Sokoto State, Obu & Edo Cement Company Limited in Okpella  and Cement Company of Northern Nigeria in Sokoto State. The plants have capacity to produce various grade of cements as required by Nigerian market.

BUA Sugar Refinery Limited

The company was incorporated in 2015 as a private limited liability company. It focuses on refining of imported and locally sourced raw sugar and has refineries in Lagos and Port Harcourt. BUA Sugar produces 1,440,000 metric tonnes per annum.

BUA Estates

The company’s real estate portfolio includes various residential, commercial, mix-use developments in major cities in Nigeria. Residential portfolio includes BUA Kado Estates, BUA Hills in Abuja and BUA Court in Abuja while commercial and mixed use includes BUA Towers in Victoria Island, The BUA Place, VI and BUA Business Park, FCT-Abuja.

BUA Port and Terminals Limited

The company is a concessionaires of Terminal ‘B’ Rivers Port designed to handle various cargoes and the storage. BUA Port & Terminals manage four berths, Berths 5-8 and two warehouses, warehouse 5 & 7. The types of cargo handle by the company are general cargoes such as frozen fish, bagged rice and coated steel pipes. They also handle dry bulk such as dried wheat, palm kernel shell, bulk cement and iquid bulk such as Crude Palm Oil, Base Oil, Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), etc.

BUA Oil Mills Limited

It was established in 2008 for the production of high-quality products including Distilled Fatty Acid, Stearine, and Palm Olein. The company’s oil mills are located in Kano and Lagos.

Philanthropy of Abdulsamad Rabiu

Abdulsamad Radiu gives back to the society through BUA Foundation which was founded for corporate social responsibility (CSR) purposes. The foundation’s aim is to discover and develop talented young athletes.

BUA Foundation also supports the health sector in the country by donating medicine and other healthcare equipments to the Cancer Centre in FCT, Abuja and medical equipment to Daniel Ogechi Akujobi Memorial Foundation in Ogun State.

In partnership with Rotary Club of Gbagada South, the foundation rendered free ears, nose, and throat clinical screening on pupils of Araromi and Kinniun-Ifa Primary School in Lagos.

Abdulsamad Rabiu contributed massively in the construction of a seven thousand square meter pediatric ward at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital and Islamic Studies Centre at Bayero University, Kano State.

In April 2017, the foundation disbursed about 600 million naira; an interest fee loan to two thousand farmers in Kano State. They also supported the farmers with fertilizers, improved seeds and other rice farming tools.

Early this year, Abdulsamad announced plans of BUA foundation to construct a 7.5 billion Naira ultra-modern specialist hospital in Kano State.

Abdulsamad Rabiu Recognitions and Awards

Commander of the Order of the Federation, Nigeria                                                                                         2011

Business Person of the Year Award by Sun Newspaper                                                                                     2012

Forbes’ Africa’s 50 Richest                                                                                                                             2015

Lifetime Achievement Award by Vanguard Newspaper                                                                                     2015

Forbes’ Billionaires                                                                                                                                        2016

West Africa Industrialist of the Year by CNBC, All Africa Leaders Award                                                     2016

Silverbird Extraordinary Business Achievement Award by Silverbird Group                                                 2017

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