Dinner with Dr. Toye Akindele

SA Chamber USA board member Magda Odendaal met Dr. Toye Akindele in person this evening with the African leadership magazine.

SA Chamber USA was included in a dinner reception in honor of Dr. Akintoye Akindele, an investor, entrepreneur, lecturer, and also Philanthropist from Nigeria. It was a privilege to meet Dr. Akindele.

Dr. Toye Akindele: The Entrepreneur and philantropist

Dr. Ankindele serves as the Chairman and CEO of Duport Midstream Company Ltd; Unicorn; Co-Chair of WhiteSpace X; CEO of Diatom Impact, and lastly, Chairman of Platform Capital Group.

One of the companies he leads, Duport Midstream, is developing the first Energy Park in Nigeria. This Energy Park consists firstly, of a 10,000 barrels per day (BPD) modular refinery; a 60 million standard cubic foot (SCF) gas processing plant, a 10 million Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) facility, a 30 000 metric ton (MT) refined product terminal and a 20 Megawatt power plant.

The project is a first for Nigeria. The energy park will be able to provide electricity to several communities surrounding the park. Also, this project will create more than 1000 jobs and impact over 10 000 families.

Governor of Edo State in Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Obaseki said: “Edo State is proud to be setting an example for other States in Nigeria. We are particularly excited about the opportunity of rebuilding local skills and content in refinery operations especially amongst our young workforce. We fully support this project by Duport Midstream Company Limited.”

They also anticipate that the energy park will contribute towards petroleum products availability. With the abundant gas resources in the area, the energy park will be able to increase the development of Nigeria’s own capabilities. And add tremendous value to the nation’s natural resources. The project will also create wealth and social amenities for the local communities. “The Duport Midstream Company commits to helping government increase its revenue and reduce dependence on imported petroleum products,” said Dr. Akindele.

Investor

Dr. Akindele also recently led about 15 leading global investment partners on a tour of 3 African Countries to explore latent opportunities. This tour resulted in more than $10 million dollars in foreign investment for Africa. This happened at a time when most people have lost confidence in the African continent.

While other people are looking for escape routes, it is quite refreshing to meet a man who believes so much in Africa and its youth. Dr. Ankindele has great confidence in potential Africa as a continent can offer.

Dr. Akindele admits: “I think I have had more failures than successes.” But through his mistakes and failures, he achieved his success. “The more you fail, the more you are likely to succeed.” His emphasis is on supporting local communities, developing local key players, involving them in projects, and in so doing, unlock valuable human resources.

Nation Building is veryone’s job

He spends his time understanding the ins and outs of a community, project, and area of opportunity. So, armed with this knowledge, he has the ability to have the biggest impact with optimal results. Adding capital, investment partners, experts, and international collaboration to the mix, you can unlock and create the most value for your local economy. Rather than exporting raw materials, he prefer to process it locally. So, adding capital to the economic development and growth of the local infrastructure.

We were inspired by the humility of this great African business leader. #sachamberusa