Described as “The King of African Oil” by Forbes magazine, and one of the top ten CEOs in the world by ASKMEN, Adewale Tinubu is a name that requires no introduction.
Widely known as Wale Tinubu, before he turned 30, he had already built for himself, a reputation as a market leader in Nigeria’s emerging oil and gas sector at the time.
Adewale Tinubu is the nephew of Chief Bola Tinubu, a Nigerian politician and former governor of Lagos State, and the national leader of the All Progressives Congress.
Biography
Jubril Adewale Tinubu is a Nigerian businessman, consultant and lawyer, who is the group chief executive of Oando PLC.
Wale Tinubu is the Group Chief Executive of Oando PLC, the leading indigenous integrated energy company. He serves on the board of several blue-chip companies as Chairman and Director. In 2007, he was named a Global Young Leader by the World Economic Forum, Geneva, in recognition of his achievements as one of the leading executives under 41.
In 2010, Wale won the Africa’s ‘Business Leader of the Year’ award by the African Business Magazine and the Commonwealth Business Council on the basis of his contributions to the development of the African Oil and Gas industry. In 2011, he was awarded the ‘African Business Leader of the Year’ by Africa Investor.
Early Life
Adewale Tinubu started out his career working in his father’s law firm, K. O. Tinubu and Co., as a lawyer specialising in corporate and petroleum law. Even though he had spent years studying to do exactly what he was doing, he soon got bored of the profession, and his hands started itching to put on the entrepreneurial gloves. Tinubu longed for bigger challenges that would take him around the world, brokering and sealing mouth-watering deals.
For as long as he worked in his father’s law firm, he knew he would remain in his father’s shadows and never get the chance to do the things he really wanted. In 1992 and only 25 years old, Adewale quit his job and started a company, working out of his father’s garage since he did not have enough money to rent an office space. He installed a telephone which he borrowed from the family house, and also borrowed some office supplies from his father.
Education
He had his early education in Nigeria, obtaining his West African Senior Certificate in 1983, before proceeding to the United Kingdom at the age of 16 to study law at the University of Liverpool, England.
After his law degree, he went to the London School of Economics to get his Masters in Law in 1989, before returning to Nigeria at 22 to attend the Nigerian Law School. He was called to bar in 1990.
Age
Adewale Jubril Tinubu was born on 26 June 1967, in Lagos, Nigeria.
Wife
Jubril Adewale Tinubu, is married to his lovely wife, Bola, Unlike some of her fellow billionaires’ wives who love flashier lifestyle, she lives a fairly quiet life and rarely seen at most high society parties. But her breathtaking philanthropic interest has impacted several lives.
On Christmas Day— the adorable couple marked their wedding anniversary amidst torrents of felicitous messages from friends and family members.
In her own message, Bola, on her social media handles, had described her hubby, Wale as “My Rock”. A successful corporate lawyer with a tight schedule.
Children
Wale Tinubu and Bola both have five beautiful children.
Career
He began his career in 1992 as an attorney, specialising in corporate and petroleum law assignments. In 1994, he co-founded Ocean & Oil Group and guided its strategic development from an oil trading and shipping company.
Ocean and Oil, the beginnings of O-and-O
A friend, Jite Okoloko, approached Adewale Tinubu in 1994 to inquire if he could help him get a vessel to transport fuel. Okoloko had been contracted by Unipetrol, a government-owned oil company to transport diesel from the Port Harcourt refinery in the Niger Delta to fill up a few fishing trawlers in Lagos, and could not lay hands on a vessel to execute the deal.
This was just the kind of opportunity Tinubu had been looking for and he wasted no time. He contacted another friend, Omamofe Boyo, a lawyer at FRA Williams Chambers. Boyo had represented an oil service firm, which owned a weather-beaten 1945 World War II tanker called The Carolina. After inspecting the ship, which was docked at Bonny Island, Tinubu paid for and chartered the vessel, using it to transport the fuel to Lagos in exchange for a fair share of the returns. This was the beginning of his oil and gas business, and marked the informal birth of Ocean and Oil.
He soon purchased the vessel altogether, and started doing other businesses like selling fuel to indigenous oil companies. His legal wiz came into play here, and he registered the oil trading company officially – naming it Ocean and Oil. As an astute business man, client satisfaction was his priority, given that he had no plans for marketing but hoped to break through with referral and positive reviews. His practice of effective and timely delivery did not escape his clients’ notice and the deals kept rolling in.
He went ahead to partner with his friends, Okoloko, Boyo, and Osaze Osifo in Ocean and Oil, and the business grew, further increasing the fleet to 7 vessels. By the time Tinubu clocked 30 years in 1997, he had become something of a market leader in the sales and supply of fuel products in Nigeria.
In 2000, when the Nigerian government decided to sell off its 40% equity in Unipetrol (10% to the investing public and 30% to a private investor), Tinubu knew that it was time to move in for the kill. It was a “now or never” moment for Ocean and Oil. Tinubu led Ocean and Oil to successfully bid for the 30% stake, the largest ever acquisition of a quoted Nigerian company (given that Unipetrol Plc had purchased Agip Nigeria Plc).
The group was rebranded to Oando PLC, as a way to retain the former character – Ocean and Oil (O and O). It has been a bullish rise for the company since then, with several successful subsidiary brands and businesses all under the Group. There is Axxela Limited in the midstream (formerly known as Oando Gas and Power) and OVH Energy in the downstream (formerly known as Oando Marketing Limited).
In 2005, the company became the first Nigerian company to dual-list on both the Nigerian and Johannesburg Stock Exchange, and has grown to become one of the largest indigenous energy companies listed on the Nigerian bourse.
With both subsidiaries equally successful, in 2019, Oando concluded its phased divestment from Axxela to a vehicle owned by Helios Investment Partners LLP (“Helios”), a premier Africa-focused private investment firm, for a total of $160 million. In 2019, Oando also successfully divested Oando Marketing Limited to the Vitol Group and Helios Investment Partner, resulting in the formation of OVH Energy for $461m.
Source of wealth
Here’s how Forbes described him
Tinubu is inspired by the former General Electric boss. This much we know. But aesthetics aside, it is difficult to catch Tinubu in the same place for long; he’s always on the move: London today, New York tomorrow, Paris the next. You know the type. After being on his trail for several weeks, and exchanging numerous phone calls and emails with his corporate communications staff, our persistence paid off. We were finally meeting with one of Africa’s most storied oilmen.
In case you were unaware, Tinubu is the group chief] executive officer of Nigerian energy giant, Oando. Oando is a Pan-African energy corporation with operations actively spanning all aspects of the energy value chain, including the marketing and distribution of refined petroleum products, exploration and production, refining, and power generation. Oando is the largest non-government owned Energy Company in Nigeria and has a market capitalization north of $1 billion. It is the first Nigerian company to achieve a dual listing on both the Nigerian and Johannesburg Stock Exchanges. Tinubu has made himself Nigeria’s most venerable energy tycoon and inserted himself atop the pecking order in the major league of Nigeria’s oil industry.
Tinubu’s vision shaped Oando. So did his relentlessness. Forty-four-year-old Tinubu is apparently very proud, almost to the point of being cocky, of how much his company has achieved. “Our business started 17 years ago as a very small service company delivering fuels to the upstream service providers, and it has grown to become the largest indigenous oil and of multinationals operate here, but there are very few indigenous oil corporations that span the downstream, midstream and upstream like we do.” When he divulges that the group’s revenues hit the $3 billion mark in 2010, he says it flippantly, almost detached– like $3 billion is pocket change.
Tinubu’s characteristic composure and demeanor makes it seem like success has been easy. But it hasn’t always been this way. Oando’s early beginnings were humble. While Tinubu easily comes across as Nigeria’s most powerful energy entrepreneur today, his initial ambition was to be a lawyer. As the story goes, at the age of 16, he left Nigeria to study law at the University of Liverpool in England.
In 2005 Oando incorporated Oando Energy services, an integrated oilfield services company.
Two years later, in 2007, the company acquired two oil drilling rigs for an estimated $100 million for use in the Niger Delta. In 2008, Oando acquired a 15% stake in two producing deep water assets–OML 125 and 135 located in Niger Delta. By 2009, Oando’s fleet of rigs had increased to five. Oando is also a major player in the midstream sector of the petroleum economy. In 2007, the company’s subsidiary, Gaslink Limited, completed the laying of a 100km gas distribution pipeline in Lagos state. Gaslink has successfully phased and executed the construction of about 100km of natural gas pipeline distribution network from the Nigerian Gas Company city gate in Ikeja, to cover the Greater Lagos Area including Ikeja, Apapa and their environs. Gaslink currently deliversover 40 million standard cubic feet of gas to over 100 industrial customersevery day.
Net Worth
Wale Tinubu has an estimated Net Worth
Of $3billion.
The information in this article was curated from online sources. NewsWireNGR or its editorial team cannot independently verify all details.
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