DAMOLA ADEDIGBA takes a look at the journey of some of Nigeria’s most successful business leaders, tracing how they moved from unlikely beginnings, different professions and modest ventures to build businesses that eventually become household names and powerful corporate empires
Ibukun Awosika
Ibukun Awosika entered the working world with a Chemistry degree, but the laboratory was not where her entrepreneurial journey would ultimately unfold. Her interest soon shifted towards business, leading her into the furniture industry at a time when she was still building her career.
She founded The Chair Centre, which grew from its early furniture operations into a group involved in office furniture, retail and banking security systems. The company describes Awosika as its founder and CEO and says the business has spent more than two decades operating in the furniture and banking-security sectors.
Her success in business gradually opened another door to the corporate boardroom. Awosika later became the first woman to chair First Bank of Nigeria, adding one of the country’s most prominent banking leadership positions to a career that had begun in an entirely different field.
From a Chemistry graduate who ventured into furniture, Awosika built a business career that eventually took her from manufacturing into some of Nigeria’s most influential corporate rooms.
Yemisi Edun
Yemisi Edun’s first academic qualification was in Chemistry, but her professional journey soon moved in another direction. Rather than building a career around science, she switched to accounting and finance, obtaining a master’s degree in International Accounting and Finance from the University of Liverpool.
That change of direction became the foundation for her entry into the financial sector. Edun began her professional career with Akintola Williams Deloitte in 1987, focusing on corporate finance and working on audits involving banks and other financial institutions.
Her experience eventually brought her to FCMB in 2000, where she joined as Divisional Head of Internal Audit and Control before becoming the bank’s Chief Financial Officer.
She later rose to become Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer.
What started with Chemistry therefore evolved into accounting, corporate finance and banking, taking Edun from a science classroom to the top of one of Nigeria’s major financial institutions.
Sim Shagaya
Sim Shagaya’s career moved through several industries before he became known as one of Nigeria’s prominent technology entrepreneurs.
He started out in banking in South Africa, working with Rand Merchant Bank, before moving into technology and becoming Google’s head for Africa.
Rather than remaining in corporate employment, Shagaya turned his experience towards entrepreneurship.
In 2005, he founded E-Motion, an outdoor advertising business, beginning a series of ventures that would take him deeper into Nigeria’s emerging digital economy.
He subsequently moved into online commerce, founding Konga and helping establish e-commerce as a significant part of Nigeria’s technology landscape.
His later move into education technology led to the creation of uLesson, which brought digital learning into his growing portfolio of technology ventures.
The progression from banking to Google, advertising, e-commerce and education technology shows a career built around repeated transitions into new industries, with each experience feeding into the next venture.
Tara Fela-Durotoye
While some entrepreneurs switched industries after establishing professional careers, Tara Fela-Durotoye began building her business while still studying Law.
Fela-Durotoye studied Law at Lagos State University and was only 20 when she started House of Tara.
At the time, professional makeup was not widely regarded as a serious commercial industry in Nigeria. But Fela-Durotoye saw an opportunity in an area she was passionate about.
What began with makeup services eventually developed into House of Tara, which grew beyond individual makeup services into a beauty business, including products, training and opportunities for people working in the beauty industry.
Fela-Durotoye’s story is therefore particularly different from the others because she did not abandon an established legal career to enter beauty. Instead, she began building the beauty business while pursuing her law degree.
After 27 years of building House of Tara, she handed over its day-to-day leadership in 2025 and has since focused on Building Beyond You, an initiative centred on succession, governance and sustainable growth.
Folorunso Alakija
Folorunso Alakija began her professional life in office administration, a starting point that eventually led her into banking and, later, entrepreneurship.
After working in administration, she moved into the banking sector, where she worked with institutions including First National Bank of Chicago and International Merchant Bank of Nigeria.
But banking was not the final destination. Alakija eventually left the sector to pursue her interest in fashion, establishing Supreme Stitches, which grew in prominence before becoming the Rose of Sharon House of Fashion.
Her entrepreneurial interests later expanded into the oil industry through Famfa Oil, where she became Vice Chairman. Her official biography describes the progression from office administration to banking, fashion and eventually oil and gas.
The career path took her through three very different worlds from administration, fashion and energy with each transition opening a new chapter in the business empire she eventually build.
Wale Tinubu
Wale Tinubu, Oando Group Chief Executive Officer, is one of the prominent Nigerian businessmen whose academic background is far removed from the industry in which he built his business career.
Tinubu earned a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Liverpool in 1988 and later obtained a Master of Laws from the London School of Economics in 1989, specialising in International Finance and Shipping.
He initially followed the path his education suggested, beginning his career with his family’s law firm, K.O. Tinubu, where he worked on corporate and petroleum law assignments.
However, his career soon moved beyond legal practice.
In 1994, Tinubu co-founded Ocean and Oil Group and subsequently played a leading role in its expansion. The company acquired a controlling stake in Unipetrol during the Federal Government’s privatisation exercise in 2000. He later led the acquisition of Agip by Unipetrol in 2002.
The developments eventually contributed to the emergence and expansion of Oando, where Tinubu became Group CEO.
Thus, the man who trained as a lawyer ultimately became one of the prominent figures in Nigeria’s energy industry.
Allen Onyema
Allen Onyema, the Chief Executive Officer of Air peace limited his journey from law to business took him from the courtroom to the aviation industry.
Onyema obtained his law degree from the University of Ibadan and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1989. He initially practised law and also established a property business.
In September 2014, Onyema entered the aviation sector after securing an Air Operator’s Certificate to commence operations under the name Air Peace Limited.
According to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria’s profile of him, his motivation for entering the sector included creating employment opportunities.
The move represented a major departure from his formal training. Rather than building a career around legal practice, Onyema ventured into an industry involving aircraft, flight operations and passenger transportation.
Air Peace subsequently grew into one of Nigeria’s major airlines, with Onyema at the helm.
Adesola Adeduntan
For Dr Adesola Adeduntan, previous Managing Director and CEO of First Bank the path he choose from university to the banking boardroom was far removed from the discipline he initially studied.
Adeduntan earned a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the University of Ibadan in 1992.
However, instead of building a career treating animals, Adeduntan moved into the financial services industry.
He began his professional career at Akintola Williams Deloitte, where he worked in corporate finance and auditing. He later joined KPMG Professional Services before becoming Senior Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer of Citibank Nigeria.
He subsequently served as the pioneer Chief Financial Officer and Business Manager of the Africa Finance Corporation.
His banking career eventually took him to FirstBank, where he joined in 2014 as Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer. He became Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer in 2016 and remained in the position until his retirement in April 2024.
Although his first degree was in veterinary medicine, Adeduntan later added an MBA from Cranfield University Business School in the United Kingdom, where he studied as a British Chevening Scholar.
He also became a Fellow of both the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria.
His career offers a striking example of how an academic qualification does not necessarily determine the industry in which a professional eventually makes his mark.
Adeduntan went from studying Veterinary Medicine at the University of Ibadan to spending more than three decades in banking and finance, eventually leading one of Nigeria’s oldest and largest financial institutions.