Profile
- Name Michael Adeniyi Agbolade Ishola Adenuga Jr.
- Profession: Businessman
- Nationality: Nigeria
- Spouse: Titi Joyce Adenuga
- Children: Seven (7)
Who is Mike Adenuga
Chief Michael Adenuga, popularly known as Mike Adenuga is a Nigerian businessman born on 29th April 1953 and is one of three children of Oloye Michael Agbolade Adenuga Sr, and Omoba Juliana oyindamola.
His father was a school teacher, and his mother was a businesswoman and was of royal descent from Ijebu.
Although Mike’s father had died in a car accident in 1993, he did a reburial of his father in 2005 with one of the most expensive coffins in the world.
He owns Globacom, the second largest telecommunication in Nigeria, and is also present in countries like Ghana and the Benin Republic. He is also into oil and gas as he owns shares in the oil exploration firm Conoil, where he’s the current chairman.
He currently resides in Lagos State, Nigeria.
Mike Adenuga’s Net worth
With an estimated net worth of 7.7 billion dollars ( Forbes), Mike turns out to be the third richest personality in Africa and is rated as 317 in the Forbes list of wealthiest people.
Mike Adenuga’s biography
Mike had his secondary education at Ibadan Grammar School in Ibadan, and he received his Higher School Certificate (HSC) at Comprehensive higher school Alystoro.
He later traveled to the United States to further his education, where at some point, mike worked as a taxi driver to fund his education.
He studied Business administration and graduated from Northwestern Oklahoma State University and Pace University in New York.
Michael Adenuga is married to Titi Joyce Adenuga, and they have just one daughter from the marriage. Being a polygamous man, Mike is known to have relationships with other women, and he has seven children in total.
Career
When He returned from the University, Mike Adenuga took over his mother’s sawmill business and started distributing Coco-Cola and lace.
His first most significant milestone in business was in 1990 when he received a drilling license, and by 1991 he brought together oil struck in the shallow waters of Southwestern Ondo State, it became the first-ever indigenous oil company to do so in commercial quantity.
After that, in 1999, he was given a conditional GSM license, which was revoked. He received a second one after the government held another auction in 2003.
After launching his telecommunication company Globacom in 2008, it gained fast recognition and spread quickly across Benin, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire, challenging the telecom giant MTN Group.
With more licenses currently being prospected in other West African countries, Globalcom is a fast-growing telecom company. Mike was detained in 2009 for money laundering by the Economic Financial Crime Commission.
He later left the country for London, where he remained until the former president of Nigeria Umaru Musa Yar’Adua granted him a pardon to return.
In 2015, Mike purchased Ivorian mobile telecom’s operator Comium in Côte d’Ivoire for the sum of $600 million; it was a takeover bid. No doubt, Mike Adenuga is a successful businessman. But like most business people, it has been revealed that Adenuga ran into debt over the years.
In 2016 it was disclosed that Mike was being sued for a combined debt of USD$140.5 million, which was a result of uncleared debts from his company Conoil owed to, amongst others, the French company Total Groups.
Mike also had an interim injunction placed on another of his company Bellbop by the High Court in Lagos, Nigeria, after it failed to pay the sum of $9.4 million owed to Baker Hughes, a US oil and gas company.
Honors
Michael Adenuga has a number of awards to his name, including foreign awards.
- In 2007 he was named African Entrepreneur of the Year at the first African Telecom Awards (ATA).
- In 2012 he was made Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger by the Nigerian Government.
- In 2018 he was given the insignia of a Commander of the Legion of Honour by President of France Emmanuel Macron.
He also holds a traditional chieftaincy title as Otunba Apesin of the IJebu clan.
