Ndhlovu has continued pushing the boundary of success with his relentless entrepreneurship exploits with his DafriGroup Plc. Born March 12, 1985, to a Nigerian father and a South African mother, Xolane Ndhlovu is more than just a billionaire; the Chairman of DafriGroup PLC has become one of the biggest African inspirational figures in entrepreneurship.
Born in the dusty streets of Burgersfort town in Mpumalanga province of South Africa, Xolane Ndhlovu survived the hard-knock life in his teenage years by taking up dishwashing jobs at 17, and like any other youth growing up in poverty he inexorably got mixed up with street gangs and ended up serving a jail term for illegal possession of a gun and attempted murder.
However, unlike others who could not rise above the vicissitudes of life, Xolane Ndhlovu prevailed over his struggle.
Right inside the prison, he met fate, when he read the biography of Sir Richard Branson, and the process of self-reformatory and the entrepreneurship odyssey he started after investing in the then little known Binance, would in a matter of few years transform him into a crypto blockchain millionaire and one of the new age serial entrepreneurs.
In five years, he had grown his DafriGroup Plc into a conglomerate with 20 subsidiaries across four African countries, namely Nigeria, South Africa, Comoros Island, Botswana, and the United Kingdom. As one of the most diversified business groups on the continent, DafriGroup’s interests spanned banking, media, hospitality, automobile, cryptocurrency, real estate, digital finance, and other contemporary core business areas.
Modeling his business enterprise after Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, he founded UMEH Group, an R500 million company, and by 2020 merged it with DafriGroup PLC, a giant conglomerate, headquartered in South African, but with no less than 20 subsidiaries―including DafriTechnologies, UMEH, DafriBank Digital, DafriXchange Africa, and OMAHA Hotels―across four African countries and the UK.
Announcing the newly incorporated DafriHoldings Ltd, United Kingdom, Ndhlovu had recently posted on Instagram: “I’m happy to announce that DafriGroup has made an inroad into the European market and is now officially incorporated in England & Wales.”
Without any doubt, the continuing exponential growth of DafriGroup Plc is a testament that Xolane Ndhlovu is indeed the new African titan of entrepreneurship.
Education also played a role in his extraordinary metamorphosis. From a poorly educated young man, Xolane Ndhlovu took himself back to school and earned, in commendable fashion, a diploma in Media Management, a bachelor’s degree in Economics, and a Master in Business Administration from Georgia Institute of Technology.
In 2021, Xolane Ndhlovu, combining philanthropy with his business genius, has become one of the new breed of role models for the new generation of Africans, a hero to many and a business oracle to a multitude.
