Born in 1955, Hakeem Belo-Osagie is a businessman from Nigeria. He is the chairman of Metis Capital Partners, a firm dedicated to brokering and executing attractive, large-ticket transactions in Africa to a limited group of foreign investors.
He was a former chairman, Board of Directors of United Bank For Africa, until 2004. Additionally, he controls First Securities Discount House in Nigeria, money markets and Treasury bill trading and financial services organization. He is one of the sponsors of $120 million retail complex in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
Hakeem Belo-Osagie was a former CEO of Etisalat Nigeria.
Hakeem Bello-Osagie Academic Qualification
His father Professor Tiamiyu Belo-Osagie, a prominent gynaecologist treated the family of former Nigerian military President Ibrahim Babangida.
He attended King’s College in Lagos, Nigeria, and finished his secondary education at the United World College of the Atlantic in Wales.
Belo-Osagie has a law degree from Cambridge University, MA in Economics from Oxford University, an MA in Politics, Philosophy, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He’s a member of the Nigerian Bar Association.
Hakeem got employment as a Special Assistant to the Presidential Adviser on Petroleum and Energy and afterwards as a Special Assistant to the late Alhaji Rilwan Lukmon, the late Minister of Petroleum and Energy. He confesses that the appointments helped him clinch a few oil transactions that resulted in his initial fortune.
His Career
Following his graduation from Harvard Business School, Belo-Osagie began his career as a petroleum economist and attorney. He has been a significant actor in the Nigerian economy for more than three decades through his involvement in a variety of private-sector firms, most notably in the oil, banking, and telecommunications sectors.
Up until 2017, Belo-Osagie served as chairman of Etisalat’s Nigerian subsidiary, in which he held a substantial shareholding. Additionally, he holds a variety of additional commercial interests in Nigeria.
Family
Belo-Osagie and his wife, Dr Myma Belo-Osagie (a co-founder of Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie), are well-known billionaires who firmly believe in the power of education.
They are major supporters to the African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg and have donated a fund at Yale University devoted to the development of Africa. Additionally, the pair supports Harvard University’s Center for African Studies, and he established a grant to aid African students studying at Oxford’s Balliol College.
His Contribution to the society
Belo-Osagie was named non-executive chairman of the Abuja Investment Corporation by the Nigerian Minister of the Federal Capital Territory in 2007 and served until 2011.
Though He was not compensated for acting in this capacity, however, the exposition and benefits attached to it cannot be underestimated. Belo-Osagie is also the Chairman of Chocolate City Music Group, a renowned entertainment organization in Nigeria.
Hakeem and his wife are members of the Harvard University Global Advisory Council. They are also members of the Yale University President’s Council on International Activities, as well as the New York University President’s Global Council.
They serve as the Brookings Institution’s International Advisory Council and the Council on International Diplomacy’ Global Board of Advisors
African Leadership Academy (ALA), a Johannesburg residential secondary school dedicated to educating Africa’s finest pupils, has received significant funding from Belo-Osagie and his wife, who are among the ALA’s greatest contributors.
Since its inception in 2008, the ALA has admitted significant numbers of deserving students to its rigorous two-year program in leadership, service, and African studies. The ALA alumni network includes around 400 young leaders from 43 nations throughout the continent.
It was in 2012 that the academy opened the “Hakeem and Myma Belo-Osagie Wing” in honour of the couple’s longtime support of the ALA
Myma and Hakeem Belo-Osagie sponsor the Harvard Center for African Studies, which they recently launched at Yale University.
He is on the board of Alfanar, a charity that uses the ideas of private sector investment in charitable giving to help develop sustainable social businesses throughout the Arab world.
Investment Portfolios
Hakeem Belo-Osagie is the founder and chairman the FSDH holding business, a group which owns FSDH merchant bank, FSDH Asset management, PAL pensions and the securities trading company FSDH securities trading company.
His Exploit in Oil industry
As soon as Belo-Osagie graduated from Harvard University in 1980, he returned to Nigeria. He began his career in the Nigerian government as a Special Assistant to the Presidential Adviser on Petroleum and Energy, and then served as Secretary of the Oil Policy Review and LNG Committees.
Afterwards, he worked in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s Petrochemicals Division.
In 1986, he left his position to form CTIC, a premier energy consultancy business. He also serves on the board of Vitol Nigeria, a subsidiary of the Swiss-based Vitol Group, a global oil and commodities trading corporation.
His Foray In Finance
Among Nigeria’s leading commercial banks, The United Bank for Africa Plc (“UBA”), appointed Belo-Osagie as chairman of its board of directors in 1998. In March 2004, when the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) made unfounded charges that the UBA had been involved in unlawful foreign exchange trading, he resigned from this position. The CBN quickly placed Belo-Osagie on blacklist on these charges.
Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) reportedly began an inquiry into Belo chairmanship in UBA in 2005, according to local sources, He was never charged with a crime.
Later on May 24, 2010, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) withdrew Belo-Osagie from its sanctions list, admitting that its measures had been too severe.
Entry into Telecommunications
Belo-Osagie formerly served as chairman of the board of directors of Emerging Markets Telecommunications Services Ltd, a mobile phone provider in Nigeria known by the brand name Etisalat.
He is the ultimate beneficial owner of a sizable interest in the corporation, which is jointly owned by Mubadala Development Company and the Etisalat group.
Belo-Osagie is the chairman and sole proprietor of Duval Properties Limited, a real estate business that is currently creating a significant new residential and commercial zone in Abuja’s Jabi Lake neighbourhood.
He also serves as chairman of the board of directors of Vitol Nigeria, a part of the Swiss-based Vitol Group, a global oil and commodities trading corporation.
Belo-Osagie is also an investor in Andela group, which is a group that is responsible for building a network of high-quality computer science education programs throughout Africa. He is also a member of Andela board of directors.
Net worth:
In 2014, Forbes Magazine ranked Hakeem Belo-Osagie as Africa’s forty-first richest man. He may have been richer considering his never-relenting exploration of the investment world.
Conclusion
In Nigeria ecosystem, Hakeem Belo-Osagie is a name that rings a bell when it comes to investments in telecommunications, education, oil and gas, and other areas on businesses within Nigeria and across the world.