Cement mogul and chairman of BUA Group, Abdulsamad Rabiu, is not your conventional billionaire. With a keen sense of adventure that has seen him navigate successfully the world of business, Samad as he is popularly called, now wants to break through polar ice. And the only way to do that, he reckoned, is to own an expedition yacht that is also capable of providing ultra-luxe accommodations and a wide array of toys and tools for exploration while at it.
Without much ado, the Kano-born billionaire forked out a few millions of dollars to satiate his urge; now, his luxury yacht, which reportedly has a movie theatre, outdoor bar, is moored on outside the country. Indeed, the prevailing economic upheavals notwithstanding, Samad is putting his billions to good use.
Do not forget; his breathtaking mansion in the fortress of the wealthy and powerful, Banana Island, Ikoyi, Lagos, is said to be one of the best. He has prime properties in Abuja, London, South Africa and the United States of America. He also owns a private jet. Beyond his strides and successes in business and other endeavours, his rating and renown as a billionaire, Rabiu is a power dresser.
In 2016, a year that saw many billionaires lose chunks of their money due to plunging stock prices and weaker currencies, with the number of African billionaires shrinking from 23 to 20, Samad returned to the Forbes Africa’s Richest List. He was knocked off the list in 2015 but his return was facilitated largely, according to the influential American magazine, by the merger of his Kalambaina Cement firm with publicly traded Cement Company of Northern Nigeria, which he controlled. “Rabiu now owns 97% of Kalambaina, which operates a new cement production facility, and started selling cement in mid-2018.
Separately, Rabiu’s OBU Cement recently expanded its operations, adding a new production line,” the magazine stated. The BUA Group commissioned its $350 million Kalambaina Cement Plant in Sokoto State in July 2018 with an installed capacity of 1.5 metric tonnes per annum and is the largest single private sector-led investment in North West Nigeria.
Thoroughbred Samad is the son of Isyaku Rabiu, one of the richest and most influential businessmen in northern Nigeria in the 1970s and 80s. After his education at the Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, he returned to Nigeria at the age of 24 to takeover his father’s vast multi million naira businesses. He started the BUA Group in the late 80s as a private company specializing in the importation and marketing of iron and steel, shipping, port concessions, real estate and agricultural and industrial chemicals among others. Over the years, the company has evolved into a massive conglomerate playing in a wide range of sectors including oil and gas and shipping.
