Tinubu Paves Way for Businessman, Samuel Dossou-Aworet in Sale of Shell Assets

Talent is good and diligence is great. But starting as outstanding and managing to maintain this position might require a fortuitous encounter or a friend looking out for one’s interests. Samuel Dossou-Aworet, pan-African businessman and chairman of ND Western has entered the door opened due to a possible relationship with President Bola Tinubu. This puts him in a better position than in the past to achieve his vision of Africans developing Africa.

Thanks to the British energy giant, Shell Plc, the way has opened for Dossou-Aworet and a few others to make new and strong corporate moves. Among the recently actualised of these moves, Dossou-Aworet and his colleagues are set to take over some of Shell’s assets in Nigeria. With this acquisition, the operations of Western corporations in the country will be better balanced with the operations of indigenous businesses.

When Shell announced its decision to sell off one of its subsidiaries, Shell Petroleum Development Company Ltd (SPDC), many energy businesses showed interest. Dossou-Aworet was one of these. However, their interests did not yield any positive outcome until the emergence of President Tinubu.

Recently, with Tinubu’s presidential approval, the deal was sealed and SPDC was sold off to a consortium of five companies led by Dossou-Aworet’s ND Western Ltd. The others are Aradel Holdings, First E&P, Waltersmith group, and the Petrolin group. Together, the consortium is known as Renaissance.

The main source of joy to Nigerians is that four of the five companies that make up Renaissance are indigenous, and the only ‘outsider’ is Dossou-Aworet’s ND Western. Despite being from the Republic of Benin, Dossou-Aworet has shown a remarkable passion for pan-African businesses, showing a determination to position indigenous African businesses as the main drivers of their economies.

In this way, Dossou-Aworet has benefited from Tinubu’s big-picture perspective. In the coming days, both of them could be hailed as taking the first step towards securing their individual economies from undue external influences.