Hakeem Belo-Osagie

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Hakeem Belo-Osagie is a Nigerian businessman. He is chair of Metis Capital Partners an organisation focused on brokering and delivering attractive, large-ticket transactions in Africa to select blue chip international investment partners.^[1] He was listed by Forbes Magazine as the forty-first richest man in Africa in 2014.^[2]

Belo-Osagie is the son of Professor Tiamiyu Belo-Osagie, a renowned gynecologist who catered to the medical needs of the family of former Nigerian military president Ibrahim Babangida. Through that connection, Hakeem secured a job as Special Assistant to the Presidential Adviser on Petroleum and Energy and later as Special Assistant to the Minister of Petroleum and Energy, late Alhaji Rilwan Lukmon. The appointments, he admits put him in the position to close in on a few oil deals from which he made his first fortune.

Belo-Osagie started his career as a petroleum economist and lawyer, following his graduation from Harvard Business School. For more than three decades, he has been a key player in the Nigerian economy through his participation in several private sector businesses; particularly in the fields of energy, finance and telecommunications. Up Until 2017, Belo-Osagie was the chairman of Etisalat's Nigerian arm, in which he controlled a significant stake. He also has a range of other business interests in Nigeria.^[1]

Belo-Osagie and his wife, Dr Myma Belo-Osagie (a founding partner of Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie), are noted philanthropists who believe strongly in the power of education. They are among the largest donors to the African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, and have endowed a fund for the promotion of Africa at Yale University.^[3][4] The couple are also supporters of Harvard University's Center for African Studies, and Belo-Osagie has established a scholarship to support African students studying at Balliol College, Oxford.^[5][6]

Belo-Osagie and his wife are both members of Harvard University's Global Advisory Council. Belo-Osagie also serves on the Yale University President's Council on International Activities and the New York University President's Global Council.^[7] In addition, Belo-Osagie sits on the International Advisory Council of the Brookings Institution and the Global Board of Advisors of the Council on Foreign Relations.^[8][9]

Belo-Osagie and his wife are among the largest donors to the African Leadership Academy (the "ALA"), a residential secondary school in Johannesburg that works to educate Africa's brightest students. Founded in 2008, the highly selective ALA immerses promising young people in a rigorous two-year curriculum of leadership, service and African studies. The ALA network of alumni includes almost four hundred young leaders drawn from forty three countries across the continent. In 2012, the academy unveiled the "Hakeem and Myma Belo-Osagie Wing", named in recognition of the couple's support of the ALA and their advocacy on its behalf.^[10]

Belo-Osagie is also the founder and Chairman of the board of FSDH holding company, which includes among its holdings FSDH merchant Bank, FSDH Asset management, PAL pensions and FSDH securities trading company^{[citation needed]}