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By Funsho Arogundade
Foremost business icon, Dr Mike Agbolade Adeniyi Adenuga Jr. is a rare gem. So much has been written about this visionary businessman’s stupendous wealth, and his expansive influence across the continent. He is everywhere in the Nigerian economy —with his innovative sense of business and charismatic personality. His formidable business empire cuts across various sectors of the Nigerian economy. But this quintessential architect of enterprise bets big on a tripod: telecommunications, energy and philanthropy.
At 73, Adenuga —who became a multi-millionaire when he was in his 20s— still remains a fabulous hardworking man. Through telecommunications, energy and philanthropy, the business tycoon has been pushing huge capital into infrastructure in those sectors.
As Nigeria transitions fully into a digital economy driven by broadband, fintech, and artificial intelligence, Adenuga is quietly creating a technology revolution in the telecommunications sector. As Globacom founder, his investments in data infrastructure and broadband capacity have positioned the company as a key player in Nigeria’s digital ecosystem, contributing to internet penetration, digital commerce, and content consumption. In particular, the investment in Glo 1 submarine cable, which ensures sufficient bandwidth for the West Africa sub-region, has attracted stakeholders’ commendations.
In the late 2025, Glo also invested in an additional spectrum leading to spectrum expansion in the 1800 Mhz frequency band to 2600mhz frequency spectrum across the nation. The company also embarked on the rollout of an additional 3000 LTE base stations of 2600mhz 4G/enhanced LTE data network to further enhance data speed. Significantly, Glo has also commenced fibre to site rollout in addition to updating its national fibre backbone. It is rolling out over 2,000 kilometres of fibre to connect more of its sites on fibre to be able to drive bandwidth requirements for LTE expansion. Through all these strategic investments, Glo has successfully harnessed the expanded spectrum capacity for higher data speed, exceeding customers’ expectations and experience which resulted in better video streaming experience, faster video speed, and an efficient live streaming experience.
In the energy sector, Adenuga, a couple of months back, announced a high-profile partnership between his Conoil Plc and global energy firm, TotalEnergies. The deal signed and sealed at TotalEnergies’ global headquarters in La Défense, Paris by Adenuga and Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman/CEO of TotalEnergies, affirmed his status as one of the hydrocarbon industry’s most influential leaders as well as assert the global confidence in Nigeria’s production ecosystem.
But equally celebrated is Adenuga’s quiet generosity. His pan-African philanthropic organisation, Mike Adenuga Foundation handles his charities activities. Scholarships, hospital support, arts and community projects move through it with little fanfare, a posture that matches the man. While many relish their prosperity in terms of currency and assets, his riches are in millions of transformed lives. He prefers the work to the credit, and the foundation’s footprint in Nigeria backs that up.
On Wednesday April 29, the Chairman of the Mike Adenuga Group fondly called ‘The Guru’ will clock 73. But he rarely marks the day with any public spectacle. He generally views his birthday as strictly a private affair, thus avoiding lavish celebrations and large parties. Rather, he will celebrate quietly and definitely blow out his 73rd candle surrounded by his close-knit family and friends inside his sprawling mansion in Banana Island, Ikoyi, Lagos.
