Pascal Gabriel Dozie, founder of the defunct Diamond Bank Plc and former chairman of MTN Group, died yesterday, a day before his 86th birthday.
At 85, Edozie was a prominent businessman whose passion for banking knew no bounds.
It was passion for banking that prompted him to establish the defunct Diamond Bank, a lender of necessity in 1985.
The bank was established to provide solutions to traders in the South-Eastern Nigeria who were faced with banking problems at that time.
At its inception, Diamond Bank’s share capital was N10 million ($28,000) with only 21 interested shareholders.
In 1990, he satisfied the requirements of the Central Bank of Nigeria to operate a standard bank and in 1991 the Diamond Bank began operations. He was CEO of Diamond Bank from 1991 to 2006 when he handed over to his son Uzoma Dozie.
It was under Uzoma’s leadership that the Diamond Bank was acquired by Access Bank Plc. The acquisition helped Access Bank gain strong footings in the Southeastern Nigeria, where Diamond Bank was a household name.
As a successful entrepreneur and businessman, Pascal Gabriel Dozie was the chairman of Pan-Atlantic Univerity and founding Chairman, MTN Nigeria.
Dozie began his career as an economist, at the National Economic Development Office in the United Kingdom. He was also a part-time lecturer at the North Western Polytechnic, London.
Between 1970 and 1971 he served as a consulting economist at the African States Consulting Organisation in Uganda and subsequently returned to Nigeria in 1971.
It was that same year that he launched his first company, the African Development Consulting Group (ADCG). ADCG had worked with companies such as Nestle and Pfizer.
He was subsequently hired by Clement Isong, then Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) , to conduct some studies on the Co-operative and Commerce Bank.
In 1985, he was appointed Chairman of Progress Bank, which is now defunct.
Dozie was born in 1939 in the Egbu village of Owerri, Nigeria. He was born into the family of Charles Dozie who was a Catholic catechist.
