A phenomenal entrepreneur, philanthropist and billionaire Abdul Samad Rabiu is the founder and CEO of BUA, a Nigerian conglomerate focused on agriculture, infrastructure, manufacturing, logistics, and port operations.
In a city known as the center of commerce popularly known as kano, Abdulsamad was born on 4th august 1960. He received his early education in Nigeria’s northwestern region, Kano state, where he attended Federal Government College before moving to the United States to enroll in university and persue his Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, USA.
Abdulsamad mastered the art of entrepreneurship from his father, late khalifa Ishak Rabi’u who was a prominent industrialist in the 1970’s and 1980’s in the northern states of nigeria. Isyaka Rabiu and Sons was established by the late Khalifa Isyaku Rabiu and dealt in banking, real estate, and manufacturing.He was a successful businessman who made much of his money by trading commodities.
When young Abdulsamad Rabiu returned from the United States following his education, he was tasked at the age of 24 with managing his father’s business. At the time, the General Muhammadu Buhari administration detained his father on grounds of avoiding paying duties on imported rice. In the absence of his father, young Adbulsamad turned the company around permanently despite having little prior business experience.
They say that experience is the best teacher. That responsibility provided Abdulsamad with valuable business insights, which he applied when he founded his own company in 1988.
BUA International Limited was founded in 1988 with the sole purpose of trading commodities by Abdul Samad Rabiu. Iron and steel, rice, flour, and edible oil were all imported by the company. Abdulsamad Rabiu established BUA International Limited basically for importation of rice, edible oil, iron and steel.
BAU International achieved a breakthrough in 1990 when they signed a contract with the government-owned Delta Steel Company. The arrangement called for BUA International to supply the company with raw materials for manufacture. BAU International was compensated with finished products. It was a jackpot for the young company. BUA expanded further into steel, producing billets, importing iron ore, and constructing multiple rolling mills in Nigeria.
After several years of leadership by Abdulsamad Rabiu, the trading company evolved into BUA Group.BUA bought Nigerian Oil Mills Limited, Nigeria’s largest edible oil processing enterprise. In 2005, BUA established two flour-milling factories in Lagos and Kano. By 2008, BUA had broken an eight-year monopoly in Nigeria’s sugar sector by completing the second largest sugar refinery in Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2009, the company acquired a majority position in a publicly traded Cement Company in Northern Nigeria and began construction on a $900 million cement plant in Edo State, which was completed in early 2015.
Today, the BUA Group has grown from a modest company in 1988 to a world-class enterprise that contributes significantly to the country’s GDP(gross domestic growth) and employs tens of thousands of Nigerians through their subsidiaries : BUA Sugar Refinery Limited, BUA Cement, BUA Port and Terminals Limited, BUA Oil Mills Limited, BUA Estate. These are in addition to significant portfolio investments in critical sectors of the Nigerian economy.
Regarding his marital status, Abdulsamad Rabiu is married with four children namely, Isyaku Rabiu, Junaid Rabiu, Ruqayyah Rania Rabiu and Khadijah Rabiu.
Helping society might be described as his hobby. That could be interpreted as the reason he established the BUA Foundation for his philanthropic efforts. Abdul Samad Rabiu, through the BUA Foundation and, more recently, his Abdul Samad Rabiu Africa Initiative (ASR Africa), has made significant contributions to numerous philanthropic and social development efforts ranging from healthcare to education, sports, water and sanitation, among others.
With its recent commitment to infrastructure development in 2023, Bua Group flagged off 116billion Naira project of expansion and dualization of the 132km Kano-Kazaure-Kongolam highway as the sole financer in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing.
The Nigeria 63rd Independence Day celebration was brightened by BUA group as they announced reduction in its prices of cement, this can be said to be one of the highlights of 2023 as it oppose the norm of price inflation of goods and services in the country.
Noting his potential,The billionaire made it to the list of standing committee of All progressive congress in 2023. Abdulsamad Rabiu was included on the finance committee alongside prominent figures such as the chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), the minister of finance, and the Senate President.
However, in a statement released shortly after, the BUA Group announced that Rabiu had declined the appointment.
The statement cited two reasons for Rabiu’s decision: he was not consulted by the party before his name was added to the list, and his demanding schedule would make it difficult for him to commit time to the committee.
Abdulsamad did the unthinkable at this time of hardship as he announced a 50% salary increase for staffs across board. He made the disclosure at an internal memo signed in Lagos by Mr muhammad Wali head of Human Resources. The memo qouted BUA chairman as saying that the increase t was to mitigate the impact of the economic hardship current being faced in the country.He said the salary increase will cover both permanent/regular and non-permanent staff with effect from 1 February,2024.
We can all agree that the award given to the BUA Chairman at the democracy hero award is well deserved. Abdulsamad Rabiu is among the top awardees at the 2023 edition (which took place on 18tg October) of democracy hero’s award Africa organized by face of democracy Nigeria (FDN). The award was designed to celebrate heros and democracy (individuals who have made immense contributions towards building Nigeria’s democracy that have not been recognized) . The award is equally opene to humanitarians, entrepreneurs ,Bussiness and political leaders whose contributions have helped in entrenching stability through job creation, youth empowerment and poverty alleviation measures.
According to Forbes magazine, Abdulsamad rabi’u is estimated to have over 8.5 billion dollars as at 2024.
