Chief Michael Adeniyi Agbolade Ishola Adenuga Jr. is a Nigerian business mogul, and the third richest person in Africa continent. Adenuga has been enterprising while growing up, as he worked as a cab driver to be able to financially afford himself a tertiary education. He graduated from Northwestern Oklahoma State University and Pace University, New York, bagging degrees in Business Administration.
Adenuga’s exuberance in business came to light when he was able to get an oil drilling license in 1990, and fortunately, struck the black gold of oil in 1991. His company, Consolidated Oil was the first indigenous oil company to do so in commercial quantity. In pursuance of his widening business empire, Adenuga got a GSM license in 2003. His telecommunication company, Globacom, is today a household network provider in Nigeria, Ghana, Benin Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, and a gradual stretch across the West Africa coast. Globacom is Nigeria’s second-largest telecom operator. Adenuga owns stakes in the Equitorial Trust Bank and the oil exploration firm Conoil (formerly Consolidated Oil Company). As of February 2020, his net worth is estimated at $7.7 billion, according to Forbes.
This decorated billionaire was conferred upon the national honor of the Grand Commander of the Order of Niger (GCON) by the federal government of Nigeria in 2012. He was named African Entrepreneur of The Year at the first African Telecoms Awards (ATA) in August 2007.
The Ijebu-Igbo native also holds a Yoruba tribal chieftain this title of Otunba Apesin of the Ijebu clan.
In 2018, Adenuga was decorated with the insignia of a a Commander of the Legion of Honor by the French President Emmanuel Macron.
