Billionaire magnate, Orikolade Karim has extraordinary influence, with the power to move and disrupt business in fundamental and important ways. For nearly two decades, the quintessential businessman has become one of the wealthiest men, who have shown confidence in Nigeria by making huge investments in various critical sectors of her economy.
Already, plenty of ink has been spilled over his vast interests in the Nigerian business space. His Shoreline Group has played —and still playing big— in various high-powered sectors of the Nigerian economy including energy, engineering, agriculture, telecom and lastly, infrastructure.
But 54 year-old Karim who is the Agbaoye of Ibadanland still felt an itch he needed to scratch in other critical sectors. The billionaire is about to open a new chapter —chiefly in the aviation industry— and he is looking at starting with an airport concession. Of course, liquidity is vitally important to the aviation industry, and Karim has it in spades.
Recently, the Corporacion American Airport Consortium —comprising the Corporation American Airports, Mota Engil Africa, and Mota Engil Nigeria that has Karim as a major shareholder— successfully got a concessionary approval from the Nigerian government to run the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja (NAIA) and Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport Kano (MAKIA) as the preferred bidder.
In 2018, Karim’s Portuguese partner, Mota-Engil entered Africa’s largest economy and the continent’s biggest oil producer to leverage on Karim’s clout in Nigerian business and political circles to target large-ticket infrastructure construction projects in Nigeria.
And by 2021, the partnership won the biggest contract in the history of the company, to design and build the Kano-Maradi railway line between Nigeria and neighbouring Niger, worth $1.8 billion. Late last year, the firm, alongside two Chinese ventures, was shortlisted by Lagos State as the prefer bidder to build the $2.5 billion 37 kilometre Fourth Mainland Bridge, and now, the juicy deals of managing both Abuja and Kano airports effectively for 20 years for NAIA and 30 years for MAKIA.
During the concession period, total projected nominal revenues accruable from the combined concession of NAIA and MAKIA exceed $4 billion, of which over 70 percent will be payable to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN). Karim’s crown jewel in his conglomerate, Shoreline Natural Resources, is Nigeria’s third-largest indigenous oil producer with an estimated 40,000 barrels of oil per day. Karim is also an avid polo player and is the patron of the STL Shoreline polo team in Nigeria.