Femi Ashekun/
Ibadan-born billionaire and one of Nigeria’s foremost industrialists, Chief Bode Akindele, is dead, aged 87.
The founder of the popular Mondandola Group (MG) and Parakoyi of Ibadanland, reportedly died in the early hours of today at his residence in Apapa, Lagos.
NewsmakersNG learnt that the renowned philanthropist and founder of the Bode Akindele Foundation had been nursing an undisclosed ailment, for which he had undergone surgery, long before now.
Reacting to the death of the late Parakoyi, the Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Saliu Adetunji, expressed shock over his passage barely four days after the death of former Governor Abiola Ajimobi.
Olubadan said, “Even though a man who lives up to 87 can be said to be advanced in age, when people mourn their loses it is because the vacuum left behind by them is always difficult if not impossible to fill.”
The business mogul had donated several millions of naira to governments at the federal and state levels towards the fight against COVID-19.
The deceased had, for some decades, awarded scholarships to indigent students at various educational levels.
The Bode Akindele Yield Initiative also collaborated with the University of Ibadan in giving vocational training to students in a bid to be self reliant after graduating.
The Modandola Group, with headquarters in the United Kingdom, engages in maritime business, property and real estate, manufacturing, investments, finance and flour milling.
The local subsidiaries of the group include Standard Flour Mills; Standard Breweries; Standard Packaging Limited, Diamond Foods Limited; United Beverages Limited; the Associated Match Industry; ARAMED Hospital, among others.
His mother, Rabiatu Adedigba, was a wealthy Ibadan trader with political influence.
The Baba Ijo of Methodist Church Cathedral, Agbeni, Ibadan attended Olubi Memorial School, Ibadan and Lisabi Commercial College, Abeokuta.
He said at different fora that at the commercial school, he received the training that helped him to build a successful business life.
After completing his secondary school education, Akindele and some of his friends nursed the idea of travelling to the United Kingdom to study Law, but the growth of his business activities eventually took precedence.
He got his first paid employment in 1952, as secretary to an assistant district officer and later became a cadet manager with the United Africa Company where he was an assistant to the expatriate manager in Oyo. Akindele left UAC foods for the Western Nigerian Union of Importers and Exporters.
He registered his first company at the age of 20. He bought a land in Agege, a Lagos suburb and constructed a 80ft by 350ft warehouse where he stockpiled and grade cocoa. Importation of goods and the high volume of cocoa exports led to an interest in clearing and forwarding and road haulage, so he set up a company, Coastal Services Limited.
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