Before independence, Nigeria has produce men with enduring legacies of big time businesses and flourishing enterprise as well wealthy individuals who are major player amongst conglomerates doing business in this part of the world .
Here are the list of the five wealthiest Nigerians before Independence
Chief Candido Joao Da Rocha ( 1860 – March 11, 1959)
He was born to the family of Joao Da Rocha,a native of Ilesha who was captured as slave on his way to school.He was born in Brazil and his father returned to Nigeria in I879s
He was a Nigerian businessman, landowner and creditor who owned Water House on Kakawa Street, Lagos Island, Lagos, and held the chieftaincy title of the Lodifi of Ilesa.
He is known as Nigeria's first millionaire. His house was the first and only house in Lagos to have a borehole and it was being sold to residents.It was reported that he was so rich that he frequently send his dirty cloth to laundry men in united kingdom.
Candido supported the government during the Second World War. He also supported the Catholic Church. When the Holy Cross Cathedral was built, he paid for the building of three chapels and was highly respected by the British.
Da Rocha later venture into real estate and the hospitality business. He opened The Restaurant Da Rocha, Bonanza Hotel, and Sierra Leone Deep Sea Fishing Industries Ltd. He also went into a partnership with two other businessmen, J. H. Doherty and Sedu Williams, to establish the Lagos Native Bank.
Alhassan Dantata (1877 –1955)
Alhassan Dantata ,the Grandfather of Alhaji Aliko Dangote was a Northern Nigerian trader.
Dantata was born into an Agalawa trading family in Bebeji in present-day Kano State in 1877. His parents were caravan leaders and traders.
He was Regarded as the richest man in the British West African colonies. In 1929, Dantata deposited 20-camel-loads of silver coins in the newly opened Kano branch of Bank of West Africa.
He traded in groundnuts, kola, cattle, clothes, beads, precious stones, grains, ropes and other merchandise across the region.
Dantata was the biggest trader in groundnuts transacting with the United Kingdom-based Royal Niger Company,later known as the United Africa Company.
He was said to have founded, with other businessmen, the Kano Citizens’ Trading Company and in 1949, he donated property worth ₤10,200 to establish the first indigenous textile mill in the North.
In 1917, he acquired two plots of land in the non-European trading site at an annual fee of ₤20. In 1950, Dantata was made a councillor in the Emir of Kano’s council, the first non-royal individual to be so honoured.
Timothy Odutola (1902-1995)
Chief Timothy Adeola Odutola OBE, CFR, CON, was a prominent Nigerian businessman from Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State. He was one of the pioneers of modern Nigerian indigenous entrepreneurship .
Odutola was the first president of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria. He was reported to have established a multimillion-dollar business, including three factories, a retail franchise, a cattle ranch and a sawmill before 1960.
Before his breakthrough, he worked as a clerk in various departments of the Lagos Colony and in the Ijebu Native Administration between 1921 and 1932.
By 1932, he opened stores where he sold damasks and fish in various cities in the Western Region; and later, he began trading in cocoa and palm oil.
Throughout his career, he established various factories in the country, spanning, the transport and food industry, he also built a secondary school at Ijebu-Ode. He was president of the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
He also dealt in sawmilling and gold mining. By 1967, he had begun production of tyres and tubes which did so well that he added a $1,700,000 plant, with the plan to harvest his own rubber from his 5,000-acre plantation.
Sir Mobolaji Bank-Anthony (1907-1991)
Mobolaji Bank Anthony, KBE was a Nigerian businessman and philanthropist. He was a council President of the Lagos Stock Exchange and was a minority investor in Aero-Contractors before indigenous shares were acquired and at a time held the distributional rights to cars manufactured by Rootes Group.
Between 1923 and 1930, he worked as a junior clerk in the correspondence section of the Post and Telegraphs Department. By 1931, he travelled to Germany and England to study how to make palm oil. Following that, he established M. de Bank Brothers, to trade in palm oil and patent medicine.
After sometime, he began importing watches, clocks and pens, becoming the third largest seller of fountain pens in Nigeria.He also owned a tanker fleet and a charter airline.
He was one of the first set of Nigerians to become chairman of a European company . He was the chairman of the Italian Construction firm, Borini Prono and Company. He was also a director of Mobil Oil and Friesland Foods back then.
Sir Louis Odumegwu-Ojukwu (1908-1966)
Sir Louis, who was considered the wealthiest person in Nigeria and the whole of west Africa at the time, was Nigeria's first recorded billionaire with his net worth reaching equivalent of 4 billion dollars using today's currency, and he was the founder of Ojukwu Transport, Ojukwu Stores and Ojukwu Textiles.
He was the founding president of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. As an honour for supporting the British military during World War II with his fleet of trucks, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. The queen – on the request of the colonial administration – was said to be driven in a Rolls Royce owned by Ojukwu.
It is believed that he is still the richest African ever , worth in trillions because his wealth was put at an estimated $4bn in today’s economic value.
Ojukwu was said to have made his money by importing dried fish, dealing in textiles, cement and transport.
He was also the president of the African Continental Bank. He was on the board of companies such as Shell Oil Nigeria Limited, Guinness Nig. Ltd, Nigerian National Shipping Lines, Nigerian Cement Factory, Nigerian Coal Corporation, Costain West Africa Ltd, John Holt, and Nigerian Marketing Board, among others.
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