Shortly before Nigeria’s
independence in 1960, Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu, reportedly Nigeria’s first black
billionaire, and founding president of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, was
knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. The royal honor came after he helped the
British during World War II with his fleet of trucks. He was so wealthy that
during the Queen’s visit in 1956, she was chauffeured around in his Rolls-Royce
– apparently the only one in the country at the time – on the request of the
colonial administration.
Profiled in September
1965 by TIME magazine, Ojukwu made his money by importing dried fish for
resale, and diversifying into textiles, cement and transport. When he died a
year later, his wealth was an estimated $4 billion in today’s economic value.
His son, Chukwuemeka, who
also ended up a billionaire, returned from Oxford University at 22 with a
master’s degree in history and led his fellow Igbos into the Nigerian civil war
as head of the secessionist state of Biafra in 1967.
