The Igbos are known for their industry. They dominate marketplaces in and outside of their homeland. But there are tendencies to confused Igbos as traders who are capable of owning shops, chains of shops, giant warehouses, the Ugwu and Sons Limited format, nothing more. They would have you believe that business, real business, building conglomerates are the duopoly of the west and north.

If you look at the list of the richest people in Nigeria by Forbes and Bloomberg Index, you would be tempted to believe the narrative that at the very top, Igbos are ill-represented. It would seem to you that Igbos dominate the small and medium leagues while the major leagues are exclusive of the Hausa-Yoruba tag team.

So we decided to dig. And dug we did. Our goal, to unearth as many Igbo businesses and brands as possible. It turns out, as these things are wont to happen, we didn't have to dig too deep; Igbo groups and power companies are all over the place.

We see them in the bank alert we get, in the cars we drive, in the fuel we use, in the drugs we use, in the cables that power our homes, in our computers gadgets, and the beverages we take, etc. If you fail to dominate the top ten and take a chunk of positions 11 to 100, you are no loser whatever the index, whatever the mythical press would like to force down your truth.

In doing this, we firmly refused to play politics. We didn't discriminate against Igbos living in Anioma and Igbos in Ikwerreland. You can call them Rivers and Delta Igbos and we would point you to Anambra, Imo, Enugu, Abia, and Ebonyi Igbos.

Note that we used the US dollars and the naira to give our worth. We used 510 naira to exchange for one dollar.

20. Cutix Plc

Cutix Plc was founded by Dr. Gilbert Obiajilu Uzodike in 1984 as a cable manufacturer. Uzodike is a graduate of the University of Lagos and the world-famous Harvard Business School. He returned to Nigeria in 1977 and established Cutix in 1982.

To found Cutix, he pooled resources from up to 18 investors and raised 400 thousand naira a big deal in those days. Today the company is worth billions of naira and the number one maker of cables in the country.

Today, near the end of September 2021, Cutix shares closed at 4.70 naira. According to Nairametrics, there are 90,172, 226 units which makes the total share value at 423.8 million naira. The aforementioned source claims the shares represent just 10.24% of the company.

Cutix, therefore, is worth about five billion naira or just under 10 million dollars.

19. ABC Transport

ABC Transport Plc is a road travel company founded in 1993 by Frank Nneji, who is also the managing director and CEO. Route and directories cover the South East, Lagos, and Abuja.

ABC Transport is reportedly worth an estimated 6 billion naira (11.76 million dollars). 

18. United Nigeria Airlines

United Nigeria Airlines is the trade name of Private Airlines Services Limited founded in the year 2020. Obiorah Okonkwo is the Executive Chairman of the company. United Nigeria Airlines operates between Abuja, Asaba, Enugu, Owerri, Lagos, and Port Harcourt.

United Nigeria Airlines is worth 15 million dollars or 7.6 billion naira.

17. ThisDay Media Group

This Day was founded in 1995 by Nduka Obaigbena. The media group houses THISDAY Newspaper and its television arm, Arise Television Network. This Day operates in all 36 of Nigeria and other parts of the world. T

The company has an estimate of 4 million dollars which puts their holdings of more than 20 billion in the local currency.

16. Chicason Group

Founded by Alexander Chika Okafor, Chicason Group subsidiaries cover oil and gas, health, transportation, manufacturing, owning the distinction of being the makers of AZ lubricant oil.

Chicason has had high-profile losses such as the gas explosion at his factory, and frauds including losing 150 million naira to Aisha Buhari's impersonator. There are also whispers of bad investments costing billions of naira.

Ultimately, it is hard to tell the worth of this company. We project it is worth at least 25 billion naira (49 million dollars).

15. Master Energy Group

Masters Energy Group Nigeria was founded in 2015 by Uche Ogah, an Uturu, Abia State-born businessman. Master's interests cover oil and gas, power, petrochemicals, aviation, shipping, marine, truck transportation, etc. Wikipedia (not the most reliable source) mentioned 15 subsidiaries under the company.

Nigerianinfopedia puts Ogah's net worth at 85 million dollars. We don't know how they come about this figure but until we have refutable evidence, we would go with it. Or over 43 billion naira.

Continue reading... https://www.anaedoonline.ng/2021/09/24/valuable-igbo-businesses/

Complete it here