10 Most Philanthropic Business Men in Nigeria

“My goal is not to be the richest African, but to be the richest philanthropist,” said Aliko Dangote.

Honestly, a cadre of visionary entrepreneurs stands out not only for their remarkable success in the corporate world but also for their unwavering commitment to philanthropy and humanitarian causes. This article explores the altruistic endeavours of the “10 Most Philanthropic Business Men in Nigeria,” shining a spotlight on the individuals who have seamlessly woven social responsibility into the fabric of their professional journeys.

Nigeria, with its dynamic economy, has seen a surge of entrepreneurial spirit, and these ten philanthropic titans have harnessed their success to effect positive change. Their philanthropic initiatives range from empowering local communities through education and healthcare to championing sustainable development and fostering entrepreneurship. As influential pillars of society, these business leaders understand the profound impact of philanthropy in addressing social challenges and promoting inclusive growth.

Throughout the series, CSR Reporters shall delve into the diverse philanthropic endeavours of each individual, unraveling the stories behind their initiatives and the transformative effects on Nigerian society. From spearheading charitable foundations to implementing groundbreaking projects that address pressing issues, these business magnates serve as beacons of hope and exemplars of corporate social responsibility.

This exploration by CSR Reporters not only celebrates the generosity of these business leaders but also underscores the interconnectedness between business success and social impact. As we navigate through the narratives of these philanthropic trailblazers, it becomes evident that their commitment to making a difference transcends business metrics, leaving an indelible mark on the collective well-being of Nigeria.

Ready to jump? Go!

1. Tony Elumelu

Tony Elumelu, Nigerian celebrity entrepreneur and philanthropist, is renowned for his commitment to driving economic development in Africa. His philanthropic initiatives are primarily channelled through the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF). Tony Elumelu has an intentional act of fostering opportunity and access for young people. Tony Elumelu has empowered thousands of African entrepreneurs to start and grow their businesses. Annually, The Tony Elumelu Foundation, TEF gives $5000 grant to 5000 young African entreprenuers to support their innovative business ideas/ventures, providing them with seed capital, training, and mentorship necessary to support their business ventures.

Tony Elumelu has become the voice and face of philanthropy in Africa, greatly advancing the continent’s economic development alongside institutional philanthropy. As a thought leader, Elumelu propounded the theory and letter of Africapitalism which he says is a call-to-action for businesses to make decisions that will increase economic and social wealth, and promote development in the communities and nations in which they operate. He is adamant that the African continent’s innovative industrialization and economic growth must be spearheaded by the private sector.

Through the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Tony Elumelu has dedicated himself to helping young African entrepreneurs, proving that private investment and entrepreneurship can lead to sustainable development and constructive change on the continent.

Elumelu’s shift from banking to philanthropy and entrepreneurship signified a new chapter in his influential career. Heirs Holdings, an investment company with a wide range of holdings in industries including real estate, technology, oil and gas, hospitality, and agriculture, was formed by him. In parallel, he introduced the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme, which offers training and coaching, through the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF). Thousands of African entrepreneurs have been enabled by TEF to launch and expand their enterprises. The programme continues to empower these entrepreneurs to hire staff members and generate employment opportunities in their communities by giving them access to seed money, training, and mentorship. The continent-wide unemployment rate is declining as a result of this job growth, especially for young people.

Tony Elumelu’s philanthropic actions are rooted in his belief in the transformative power of entrepreneurship and the need for sustainable, homegrown solutions to Africa’s challenges. Through the Tony Elumelu Foundation, he continues to make a significant impact on the lives of entrepreneurs and the broader African community.

The amiable Chairman of United Bank for Africa and Heirs Holdings is a cerebral businessman and a deeply family man who’s infectious love for humanity is said to have been derived from his mother. His mom is a well known community leader and philanthropist who did everything to ensure everyone around the Onicha-Uku community had something to eat. She in turn trained all her children to be humane from their childhood. So, it is not much of a surprise to see Tony and his siblings adopting that lifestyle as they grew.

2. Arthur Eze

Prince (Dr.) Arthur Eze, the famous oil magnate, has continued to be a mystery and a phenomenon in Nigeria’s charitable community over the years. Arthur Eze is the Chairman of Atlas Oranto Group which also owns Atlas Petroleum, the biggest African iindigenous oil exploration company in Nigeriaa. He is from the royal line of Ukpo Kingdom of the Dunukofia dynasty in Anambra State.

Prince Eze is renowned for being both close to the oppressed and the world’s highest elites in Africa and globally. To ensure his service to humanity outlives him, few years ago, Prince Eze, who studied mechanical and chemical engineering in California State University at Long Beach, USA from 1974 to 1978, started the non-governmental organisation (NGO) called Prince Arthur Eze Philanthropy and Empowerment International to drive his charitable activities. The mission of the NGO is to establish an organised structure and consolidated channels of empowerment and philanthropy. The organisation’s motto is to celebrate prosperity with philanthropy and to empower humanity with generosity

Though an indigene of Anambra State, Prince Eze constructed an overhead bridge in Ebonyi State with his funds without asking for government intervention some years ago.

He gave a $12 million donation in 2013 to help build the St. Stephen’s Anglican Deanery and Youth Development Centre in Otuoke, Bayelsa State.

Two elementary schools in the Yirol and Rumbek communities in central South Sudan were built thanks to a $800,000 donation from Prince Arthur Eze. That is PanAfricanism. A standard sickle cell clinic at Ukpo, Dunukofia Council Area, Anambra State has been built with the help of N5 million provided by Prince Eze to the Association of People Living with Sickle Cell Disorder.

He was part of those that contributed to the relief needs of the victims of Boko Haram insurgencies, the ‘Russia 2018’ FIFA World Cup, the flood relief efforts in 2013 and the covid crisis.

Arthur Eze is a man that gives in both millions and billions without any expectations whatsoever. Even as he gives freely, he still has more than enough to give from his reservoir of wealth.

3. Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma

General TY Danjuma is a Nigerian Billionair philanthropist, ex-soldier, businessman and politician. He served in the Nigerian army for 20 years and achieved the rank of Lieutenant General before serving as Chief of Army Staff.

Over the years, General TY Danjuma, a well-known African philanthropist has contributed billions of dollars to community development and educational development projects in Nigeria and beyond, and he has backed numerous healthcare initiatives following his observation that there was a severe lack of publicly funded health services in his own state. The state of Taraba still has the greatest number of cases of river blindness and other similarly crippling illnesses, even after all these years.

Danjuma founded the TY Danjuma Foundation in Nigeria in December 2009. His main goal in creating the foundation was to provide sustainable solutions through development programs. The TY Danjuma Foundation operates as a large-scale philanthropic organization, rather than a charity, and has given out several thousands in grants to a variety of NGOs that help the needy in Africa. General Danjuma prefers the focus of his donations to go towards:

• Providing medical services in rural African areas

• Improving the quality of education received by children and young adults

• Alleviating poverty in African communities

• Providing basic social facilities and services

The Foundation has partnered with more than 59 NGOs operating throughout Nigeria and has the cooperation and support of governors across various Nigerian states.

4. Jim Ovia

Jim Ovia is a seasoned banker with over thirty years of banking expertise. He is the founder of Zenith Bank, a Nigerian bank where he served as Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer for more than 20 years. Under his leadership, Zenith Bank became one of Africa’s most capitalized and respected banks.

Ovia is responsible for introducing a range of innovations and technological developments in the banking industry in Nigeria that not only brought great success to Zenith, but also created a major industry-wide shift.

As a notable philanthropist, Jim Ovia has been in charge of several NGOs including the Nigeria Internet Group. In his personal capacity Ovia founded the Jim Ovia Foundation, Mankind United to Support Total Education and the Youth Empowerment/ICT Foundation. The Jim Ovia Foundation was launched with the aim of running programs that nurture upliftment of underprivileged youths through social and educational initiatives. MUSTE is a charity organisation with the goal of providing educational scholarships for underprivileged students. The goal of the Youth Empowerment/ICT Foundation is to encourage young people in Nigeria to use information and communication technology in order to improve their social and economic well-being. The Jim Ovia scholarship programme features a sophisticated scheme to finance secondary school and university graduates; tuition and living expenses. For a year, aspiring business owners are trained to spot opportunities and markets in the African technology sector through the Jim Ovia ICT Entrepreneurs Programme. He gave Nigerian flood victims $6.3 million in 2012. Additionally, he gave $2 million to schools in Africa.

5. Mike Adenuga

MIKE Adenuga is not just one of Nigeria’s richest men in Africa; he has ideed used his wealth well to impact positively on millions of lives.

Mike Adenduga did not come from a wealthy background, but instead sponsored his education by working as a taxi driver while pursuing two degrees in business in the United States. Born and raised in Nigeria Adenuga is proudly African and committed to serving the needs of his country and continent. To ensure a future of social and economic growth, for his beloved continent, the businessman decided to launch the Mike Adenuga Foundation, a philanthropic organisation with the goal of improving Nigeria and other African countries. Adenuga and his foundation use networking and research to identify potential partners with which the foundation can collaborate to develop and implement various socio-economic initiatives. Adenuga uses his business acumen to manage these collaborations. He accomplishes his goals by ensuring that site inspections are completed and by routinely convening with stakeholders to create, oversee, and manage grants. Adenuga has contributed N500 million to aiding the Bayelsa flood victims.

The Mike Adenuga Foundation is a philanthropic organisation that is passionately Pan African. The organization’s primary goal is to assist Nigeria and other African nations who have permanent business operations with the Mike Adenuga Group of Companies in achieving social and economic independence. The Mike Adenuga Foundation seeks to enhance the prospects of Nigerians and other African nationals.

The Mike Adenuga Foundation helps students by giving them around $20.5 million in scholarships and other financial aid each year. They give out undergraduate, graduate, and doctorate scholarships every year to women studying in Africa, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, China, Japan, Indonesia, and India.

6. Mohammed Indimi

Mohammed Indimi is the Founder and Chairman of Oriental Energy Resources Limited, a privately-owned oil exploration and production company that he started in 1990. Hard as it is to believe, Indimi is not an overnight success story. Despite his well-known affiliation with the oil and gas industry, Indimi’s business ventures began by taking advantage of random small-business opportunities.

Altruism is at the core of his giving because, for a man who did not have the privilege of formal education, he has made the facilitation of that which he was denied a key plank of his philanthropic endeavours. Focusing on education, over 1,000 indigenes from his company’s host communities in Mbo and Effiat local government areas of Akwa Ibom state have benefited from scholarships provided by Alhaji Indimi since 2009. Alhaji Indimi donated a Science Laboratory Complex to Community Grammar School, Ebughu to help facilitate STEM scholarship.

Plans are underway to build a secure housing estate for the company’s host communities. The magnanimous man of resources has contributed N2 billion to victim support in an attempt to lessen the impact of the insurgency in the Northeast. Over 30,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) get his yearly food and financial help in Borno, where he has invested over N600 million to construct a fully functional estate in Bama that includes 100 residences, a school, and a medical facility to aid in the resettlement of IDPs and other refugees.

He established a sponsorship programme for the Department of Petroleum and Chemical Engineering at the University of Uyo and granted over 470 scholarships in Akwa Ibom State. Indimi gave Lynn University in the United States a multi-million-dollar International Business Centre that bears his name.

7. Aliko Dangote

Aliko Dangote is a billionaire businessman and a leading global philanthropist. Dangote once said he “does not want to be remembered as the richest black man on earth, but as the biggest philanthropist.” He is the founder of Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF). The Dangote Foundation is the Corporate Social Responsibility arm of Dangote Group.

The Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF) has a $1.25 billion endowment. The Foundation, which was established in 1994, is leading the way in enhancing chances for social change by making thoughtful investments that advance high-quality education, enhance health and wellbeing, and increase prospects for economic empowerment. His interest is using economic empowerment to help the most vulnerable individuals escape poverty. With the highest endowment by a single African donor, the Foundation has grown to be the biggest private foundation in sub- Saharan Africa after about 27 years. The Foundation has been in charge of giving over $100 million in charity contributions to various Nigerian causes over the years.

In 2020, Dangote donated a $3.3 million complex to Bayero University Business School Kano; A 150 fully kitted operational cars to the Nigeria Police Force; A 200 housing units to Boko Haram victims – mostly women and children; Injected over N7billion to create succour in North East in the wake of the Boko Haram insurgency; donated more than $800,000 to the University of Ibadan and $2.7 million hostel to the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

In order to alleviate the suffering of communities in Jos affected by the prolonged ethno-religious crises in 2010, the Dangote Foundation made a donation of relief materials worth N50 million to the community leaders.

The Foundation is a leading contributor to the ‘Saving One Million Lives’ every year in Nigeria initiative. The Dangote Foundation was at the frontline of containing the spread of Ebola in Nigeria and other parts of Africa, by donating $3 million; the biggest private contributor to African Union Ebola Trust Fund.

8. Abdulsamad Rabiu

An astute businessman, philanthropist and industrialist, Abdul Samad Rabiu is the Founder and Chairman of BUA Group – a company which he established in 1988 and has grown to become one of Nigeria’s largest privately-owned foods, manufacturing and infrastructure conglomerates with diversified investments spanning key business sectors of the Nigerian economy. He is also the founder of the Abdul Samad Africa Initiative, ASR Africa – an Africa-focused Fund for Social Development and Renewal which seeks to support Nigeria and other African countries in the areas of Health, Education, and Social Development. 

Abdul Samad Rabiu conducts his charitable endeavours through the BUA Foundation. These include, among other things, the building of the Centre for Islamic Studies at Bayero University Kano and a 7,000-square-meter paediatric unit at the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital.

In addition to his financial contributions, Abdul Samad Rabiu has made significant contributions to numerous charitable and social development initiatives in a variety of fields, including healthcare, education, sports, water and sanitation, and more through the BUA Foundation and, more recently, his Abdul Samad Rabiu Africa Initiative (ASR Africa).

Abdul Samad Rabiu gave US$500,000 to the US Agency for International Development in October 2022 through ASR Africa in order to collaborate on TB control, HIV prevention, and gender-based violence (GBV) prevention initiatives in Nigeria. ASR Africa's contribution to this partnership will be: the refurbishment of 10 Tuberculosis Directly Observed Therapy (DOT) centres; the provision of laboratory reagents and consumables for 11 loop-mediated isothermal amplification diagnostic machines, or TB-LAMPs; and roughly 1,200 dignity kits for survivors of gender- based violence in a few states in Nigeria.

Abdul Samad Rabiu is still one of the biggest private benefactors to development and rehabilitation projects in Northeastern Nigeria.

9. Segun Adebutu

Segun Adebutu is a Nigerian visionary, business magnate, investor and philanthropist. The Economics graduate of the prestigious University of Ibadan, started trading in oil and gas in 2004. His entrepreneurial dexterity has seen him grow that small business into a world-class conglomerate with interests in shipping, mining, construction, infrastructure, real estate, telecommunications and entertainment. He has made significant investments in sub-Saharan Africa in the mining, oil and gas, infrastructure, construction, telecommunications, and entertainment sectors as part of his aim to establish an African conglomerate with international standards.

He founded The Oladiran Olusegun Adebutu (OOA) Foundation which is a non-profit, non-political organisation in October 2016 in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

Segun Adebutu is the creator, chairman, and financier of the group. The OOA Foundation has been actively engaged in charitable endeavours since 2014 before he formally launched it. These endeavours have included providing clean water, shelter, educational support, health support, nutritional support, emotional support, and recreational support.

The foundation is committed to supporting orphans and vulnerable children through access to “quality education, primary healthcare, nutrition as well as social and economic welfare.” The foundation whose mantra is ‘Leave No Child Behind’ adopted 300 internally displaced children, and has been responsible for their upkeep including education, feeding, housing and health. The organization’s main areas of focus include women and children in crises in Nigeria, community investments, health, and economic empowerment. It was also in charge of establishing ground-breaking youth entrepreneurship projects in Lagos and Osun States, as well as nurturing more than 500 youth-led microbusinesses.

Adebutu is the Chairman of Baseline Records, a record label for music, Oladiran Agro-Allied Company, and Bluebridge Marine.

10. Emeka Offor

Sir Emeka Offor, is one of those personalities who needs no introduction. He is widely celebrated globally as one of Africa’s most iconic business titans who founded Chrome Group of Companies in 1993; a conglomerate with investments in oil and gas, insurance, finance, power, logistics, hospitality, telecommunication, and travels.

Sir Offor’s exploits in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector inspired an entire generation of Nigerian entrepreneurs to invest in our economy’s important industry. By so doing, he changed the face of an industry and changed the world.

While the majority of Nigerian billionaires are well-known for their money, Sir Emeka Offor is best recognised for his unusual acts of generosity. In 1993, the same year as his business empire, this business entrepreneur established the Sir Emeka Offor Foundation (SEOF), a non-profit charitable organisation. Through his foundation, he has reached millions of people worldwide as well as in Nigeria and other parts of Africa with his special message of compassion and optimism. In the areas of healthcare, economic empowerment, education, sports, and community development, the Sir Emeka Offor Foundation has significantly advanced humankind.

This respected business tycoon is one of the global leaders who worked tirelessly to eradicate river blindness globally. He has made several donations to causes committed to tackling this terrible disease. In 2015, Sir Emeka granted former US President Jimmy Carter’s Carter Center a $10 million gift, the largest from an individual African donor to the non-profit towards its efforts to end river blindness in Nigeria.

Through his foundation, SEOF, Sir Emeka has also built and equipped several healthcare facilities across Nigeria; an example is the amenity ward valued at close to N50 million. He donated it to the National Orthopedic Hospital in Enugu. These facilities provide free medical treatment and drugs to underprivileged Nigerians.

Through his foundation, Sir Emeka has funded many Nigerian universities’ pharmaceutical and medical faculties, including the University of Nigeria and Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University.

The Sir Emeka Offor Foundation has so far committed over N750 million to charitable projects.

Thank you, our dedicated philanthropic business men, CSR REPORTERS loves you.