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Mike Adenuga, An entrepreneur with the nine lives

By on November 8, 2011

Success story: Mike Adenuga, An entrepreneur with the nine lives

Mike Adenuga has shown remarkable drive in managing the uncertainties of the marketplace by surviving succeeding and building a conglomerate. He runs Globacom, ETB and Conoil and he is listed on the Forbes list of billionaires as Nigeria’s 2nd richest man. He started off as a cab driver and went ahead to deliver great feats only daring men could pull.

Mike Adenuga was born on April 29, 1953 in Ibadan, Oyo State Nigeria. He hails from Ijebu-Igbo, Ogun State. His father, Chief Mike Adenuga Senior was a school teacher and the mother, Chief Mrs. Onyindamola Adenuga was a successful businesswoman in Ibadan. It is argued that Mike was influenced by his late mother’s business acumen.

Also, Mike is unique on the billionaire’s business success stories as he wasn’t a dropout. But he graduated with a degree in business administration from Northwestern University, Alva, Oklahoma, and had an MBA, majoring in marketing from Pace University, New York, all in United States of America. He holds an honorary doctorate degree from Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye Ogun State. While schooling in the United States of America, Mike Adenuga worked as a cab driver and security guard to pay his tuition fees.

It is told that he returned for USA and took over his Dad’s sawmill business while later he got into commodity trading. By age of 22, Mike proffer a solution to stolen stereos by importing them and also lace too which later made him his first millions.

With the government ‘s liberalization of the banking sector of 1980s, he obtained a banking license and incorporated his bank, Devcom Bank on June 9, 1989 and that was followed by acquisition of another banking license that same year which became known as Equatorial Trust Bank. They would subsequently merged together, retaining the name Equatorial Trust Bank.

He went into the oil and gas business and struck at the black gold in the 80s when he could have sold the license. Today he is a major player in that sector.

Then came GSM opportunity, he went for the license and entered into strategic partnership with Alcatel of Germany, that set the business on the upswing.  This wasn’t to last long as the license was cancelled. He would have sucked but he had faith and made history.

With a massive sum of $285 million which he raised from Bank Paribas of Paris, he would loss the GSM license, along with the $20million application fee. But today Globacom is a huge success story, having been named as the fastest growing GSM network in Africa. It has won Thisday award in 2004 while Mr. Adenuga has been named African Entrepreneur of The Year at the maiden African Telecoms Awards (ATA) on August 15, 2007.

Keys to success

Follow your instinct, start small, dare the odds, take the risk, leverage strategic partnership with technical partners, never suck, courage and persistence wins.

10 Comments

  1. Changesdayo

    November 9, 2011 at 12:52 am

    Nice write up, although it looks like a rushed job , a few grammatical errors here and there.

  2. Mowarinmichaelmudiaga

    November 22, 2011 at 4:21 am

    world richest, while his workers die in poverty

  3. Fezemba

    November 24, 2011 at 6:48 pm

    they must allso tell us the names of ex militry men who have mega share in his business

  4. Victor

    December 14, 2011 at 12:44 pm

    World number???,African number ???,Nigerian number ????? can you please show us his tax paying list…..beri-beri people! God have mercy on Nigerians.

  5. Babaroboto

    January 5, 2012 at 2:42 pm

    This story does not add up, how many lace materials do you need to sell to become a millionaire, Please check you facts the linkage in the story and source of money is dubious.

  6. Suinner_Suinner

    January 5, 2012 at 8:17 pm

    Some nigerians don’t see anything good in others, some are lazy, no focus, too much in a hurry to be rich, some nigerians don’t appreciate their employer if all the loopholes to steal or fraudulent are plugged, when others are given opportunity to make wealth. Some squander from the beginning. Mike Adenuga is a hardworking man, all his workers close to him will attest to his passion for work, always seeking innovations, he is a perfectionist, a rare bred a genius, he has a heart of Gold, very compassionate. If he seized the opportunity of being friends to the so called Generals, these Generals are also Nigerians, they must have so much confidence in him and trust to be involved with him an anyway. He must be a trustworthy person. How many nigerians can you trust now. Mike came from a rich family traceable.

    • okwuu

      January 26, 2012 at 2:08 pm

      Ole Ole Ole, That the chop I chop of Obasanjo and IBB.

  7. Anonymous

    January 25, 2012 at 11:41 am

    OLE !!OLE!!OLE !!!

  8. okwuu

    January 26, 2012 at 2:09 pm

    Ole Ole Ole, That the chop I chop of Obasanjo and IBB.

  9. Andrewmudamuda07

    January 28, 2012 at 12:09 pm

    Andrewmuda07@ yahoo.com. According to my own view & understanding of the scripture, i believe everybody has his own appointed time to make it in Life. So, we need to wait for our time, because Mike Adenuga is using his own time for now. I have the strong believe that i’ll breaks-forth more than Him.