Editor’s Note – Last year, Mark Mobius, a renowned emerging markets investor and Executive Chairman of Templeton Emerging Markets Group announced that there may be up to 200 hidden billionaires in Africa. He’s probably right. VENTURES AFRICA’s Intelligence unit is on a mission to traverse the continent and uncover some of these billionaires you’ve never heard about.

VENTURES AFRICA – There’s a new dollar-billionaire on the block, and he’s Nigerian.

Jim Ovia, 58, made his fortune providing financial services to Nigeria’s richest middle class. He is the founder and largest individual shareholder of Zenith Bank, a $4.5 billion (Market Cap) financial services conglomerate after a successful stint in finance in the United States.

Banking was always in Jim Ovia’s blood. Even before he completed his Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Southern University Louisiana as a teenager in 1977, he had already enjoyed a stint as a clerk in Barclays Bank, DCO (which now operates under the name, Union Bank). After obtaining his MBA from NorthEast Louisiana University in the United States in 1979, he joined International Merchant Bank as a financial analyst, subsequently rising to become a senior manager in 1987.

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http://www.ventures-africa.com/2013/02/nigerian-banker-jim-ovia-joins-billionaire-ranks-with-billion-dollar-fortune/

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