Business tycoon, AbdulSamad Rabiu expands his giving spree

There’s having a lot of money, and then there is having an unbelievable amount of money. For a super billionaire like AbdulSamad Rabiu, he is one of Africa’s richest and when he splurges, he spends like the super rich. Rabiu has been transforming Nigerian philanthropy in the past few years by giving record amounts of money to often overlooked causes. He’s now stepping up his donations outside of his home country where his billions could have even greater impact. It is worthy of note that a few months ago, an exclusive report by a financial journal, Billionaires Africa confirmed that Rabiu has surpassed the telecom mogul, Dr. Mike Adenuga to become Nigeria’s second-wealthiest billionaire. However, a recent report revealed that the BUA Group founder has seen his net worth fallen from more than $7 billion to $5.8 billion in less than three months thus losing that ranking for Adenuga’s re-emergence as Africa’s second-richest man. But that has not deterred the industrialist who ironically upped his philanthropic expenses within the same corresponding months.

Despite losing more than $1.2 billion of his fortune, Rabiu has increased his donations to nonprofits in Nigeria and some other West African countries. Just last week when he visited President Muhammadu Buhari to thank him for creating an enabling environment for business to thrive and briefed the President on the activities of his foundation, Abdul Samad Rabiu Africa Initiative (ASR Africa), the billionaire announced the donation of N10billion to the Nigeria Security Support Fund towards the provision of some security equipment, medical and other supplies, upgrade of health facilities and other infrastructure for families of those on the frontlines. But his large heart is not limited to his home country as Rabiu, some weeks ago, donated $3 million to Niger Republic from its ASR Africa Fund for Social Development & Renewal. This is coming a few months after ASR Africa awarded a Ghanaian NGO —the Rebecca Foundation— a $500,000 inaugural Africa-focused basic education infrastructure grant to support the Foundation’s “Learning to Read and Reading to Learn initiative” aside the construction of eight multi-functional libraries in schools across Ghana.