Biography

Billionaire businessman, Mohammed Indimi: Biography, Children, Wife, Source of income and Net Worth

Published

2 years ago

2022/08/14

The billionaire businessman is the founder and chairman of Oriental Energy Resources, an oil exploration and production company, Mohammed Indimi . He is also an in-law to the President Muhammadu Buhari, by virtue of the fact that his son, Ahmed, is married to Zahra, the president’s daughter.

Though he was not born with a silver spoon, Indimi, through sheer grit and determination, was able to extricate himself from the claws of poverty into the embrace of fortune. He is believed to be worth over $1bn with investments in different areas of the economy, including oil and gas. He is also on the board of many companies, including Jaiz Bank.

Biography:

Muhammadu Indimi is a Nigerian entrepreneur and philanthropist who was the founder of Oriental Energy Resources Limited. His contribution to higher institutions of learning extends beyond Nigeria.

Age:

Indimi was born on August 12, 1947, in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State. He only attended Quaránic schools but he learnt how to speak, read and write in English.

Indimi’s Children

The founder of Oriental Energy is blessed with 20 children

Jibrila,
Yakolo,
Ibrahim,
Ahmed,
Ameena,
Mustapha,
Rukaiya,
Hauwa,
Amina,
Zara,
Mairama,
Amouna,
Meram,
Habibi,
Tijjani,
Aya,
Abdulrahman,
Abdullah,
Fatima
Adama

Wives:

Fatima Mustapha Haruna, Samsu Samara

Family:

Indimi’s father Alhaji Mamman Kurundu was a merchant who buy hides and skins from the communities near Maiduguri and sell them to those who need them.

As a youngster, he did not receive any official education, instead, he attended solely a Quranic school.

At the age of ten, he began working with his father in the family business of selling animal hides and skins and this was how he started learning the act or trade which he expanded on to become who he is today.

The Birth of Oriental Energy

His first foray into the oil and gas sector began in 1990 when he founded Oriental Energy Resources, an offshore exploration and production firm.

He went ahead to acquire oil prospecting licenses (OPL) which allow him to obtain up to 1000 kilometers of seismic data and drill at least three exploratory wells in that year.

Ebok, Okwok and OML 115 are three of the three properties under development offshore Nigeria that Oriental Energy began with Block OPL224.

Production on the Ebok Field began in the second quarter of 2011, while that on the Okwok Field began in the second quarter of 2015.

On the coast of Nigeria, Oriental Energy has built an offshore production hub centred on the Ebok Terminal, which is used to store and ship crude oil to and from refineries and other locations.

Source of income:

Mohammed Indimi is the chairman and leading shareholder of Oriental Energy Resources, a privately held Nigerian oil exploration and production company he founded in 1990. Oriental currently has three projects offshore of Nigeria’s Niger Delta region. Six of his children serve on the company’s board. His net worth dropped from an estimated $670 million a year ago due to ongoing low oil prices.

Net Worth

Borno-state billionaire was valued at $500 million in 2015 according to Forbes, but since then he has an estimated $1 billion in investments.

Philanthropy:

A committed philanthropist, Indimi set up the Muhammad Indimi Foundation in a bid to touch as many lives as possible, with focus on helping vulnerable families through poverty alleviation programmes, as well as fighting against hunger, illiteracy and ill health.

He is said to have built a 100-unit N600m housing estate, as well as provided food and clothing for vulnerable people displaced by Boko Haram terrorists. Indimi, through the foundation, has also built schools and clinics. It built a 100-unit N700m residential estate in Mbo, Akwa Ibom State. This is even as he has awarded over 470 scholarships to students in Akwa Ibom. He also created a sponsorship programme for the University of Uyo’s Department of Petroleum and Chemical Engineering. He donated a multi-million-dollar international business centre to Lynn University in Florida, United States of America. The centre is named after him.

Controversy:

The chairman of Oriental Energy Resources was not known for controversy, but he was in the news in 2016 when the Borno-born billionaire donated a massive building to Lynn University in the United States.

The donation was rumoured to be worth US$14 million by the Nigerian media organisations, but the spokesman of his oil and gas company denied the report, stating that the donation was $900,000.

While Muhammadu Indimi swiftly corrected the figure in the public domain, he was criticised for donating such a humongous amount to an American-based university when his donations were more needed in his home state and across Nigeria.

Specifically, THISDAY Newspaper in an editorial entitled “The Prodigal Billionaire”, criticised the billionaire in its May 25, 2016 publication.

Some of his daughters attended Lynn University, which may have inspired Indimi to make a contribution.