Bashir Fakorede: Breaking Glass Ceilings

Bashir Fakorede did not inherit the empire he now commands. From modest beginnings at the markets of Obalende, he ventured into the world of business, gradually establishing himself as an astute entrepreneur and oil industry player. He recently opened up to Adebayo Adeoye about how he built his empire at his Ikoyi mansion.

The oil guru, Bashir Fakorede, is known for a measured manner, a preference for substance over noise and a business instinct honed over decades. He is also a man who enjoys good company, the pleasures of travel and a celebration worthy of an occasion. His family’s gatherings, from a daughter’s wedding festivities in Lagos and London to more recent milestones, have brought together friends and members of Nigeria’s social and business circles in signature style.

Before the business interests, the high-profile gatherings and the London celebrations, there was Obalende, and a young boy watching his mother, a trader, work to provide for the family. She sold provisions and food in Obalende market. His father had abandoned them and relocated to Port Harcourt, and, over time, they lost contact.

“I never knew my father because he abandoned us when I was a child and never came back. There was no silver spoon,’’ he says during a recent encounter.

As a young man, he moved to Apapa to live with his uncle who was intent on keeping him focused. He sent him to Marine Beach to work with an independent petroleum marketer. It was an apprenticeship in the most practical sense: the daily rhythms of the trade, the demands of customers, the movement of products and the intricacies of supply.

“I started from the grassroots,” he says. “I learnt the business practically. I learnt how to deal with people, how to manage the business and how the petroleum business works.”

He later worked with a businesswoman and became involved in the construction and operation of petrol stations around Badagry. By absorbing the business from the ground up, he kept learning, saving and preparing for the chance to build something of his own.

That opportunity came in 1996. Fakorede was 26 when he was offered the opportunity of a lifetime to operate an African Petroleum station in Obalende. The required capital was N1.2 million. He had saved N700,000; his mother-in-law came to his rescue when she loaned him the remaining N500,000.

“That money meant a lot to me because it gave me the opportunity to take that first major step,” he stated.

The station was a beginning, not a destination. One of his early challenges was the unreliability of third-party transporters. Delayed deliveries could mean shortages, so Fakorede set about bringing transportation under his own control.

He could not afford to buy a complete tanker outright. Instead, he assembled one over time: first the truck head, then the tank, axle and tyres.

“I didn’t have the money to buy everything at once,” he says. “So, I built it gradually.”

It was an ingenious solution to a practical problem, and an early expression of the entrepreneurial instinct that would shape his career.

“I realised that if I could control transportation, I could reduce the problems we were having with third-party transporters. It also gave me another margin.”

From Obalende, the business grew to Idiroko, Badagry and beyond. The Ikate station, commissioned in 2011, became another significant landmark. At its peak, it reportedly sold as many as seven truckloads of fuel in a day.

As the business expanded, so did Fakorede’s thinking. He was not interested in just generating income; he wanted to preserve it, grow it and convert it into lasting assets. Land became an important part of that strategy.

“I have always believed that you should not spend everything you make,” he says. “You have to put something away. Landed property was one of the ways I preserved value and created another source of capital.”

His interests have since reached beyond petroleum into real estate, agriculture and dredging. Public profiles have also associated him with businesses including Enyo Retail & Supply, 2B5M Limited Agricultural firm, and High Link Royal Castle Development.

For all the breadth of his portfolio, however, it is the fundamentals of the petroleum business that still animate him. Ask about supply chains, transport or the workings of the trade, and the reserved businessman becomes a lively authority.

One of the most striking chapters in Fakorede’s story unfolded in the classroom. After decades of building enterprises, he returned to the United Kingdom to pursue a master’s degree in Business and Entrepreneurship at Northumbria University. The decision was personal. His five children had all earned master’s degrees, and he realised he was the only one in the family who had stopped at a first degree.

“I looked at my children and realised that all five of them had master’s degrees,” he says with laughter “I was the only one with just a first degree. So, I said to myself, ‘Why don’t I go back to school?’”

The choice was not about adding another credential to his business profile. It was about curiosity and fulfillment.

“I did it for myself. It was for self-development and self-actualisation. I believe that one never really stops learning.”

In September 2025, he celebrated his convocation at Central Hall, Westminster. The occasion offered a fitting expression of his character: he appeared in a full Aso-Oke Danshiki and matching Kembe, bringing Yoruba heritage into the heart of London. Family and friends cheered him on as he took the stage.

The celebrations continued at his London residence, where guests gathered for an evening of fine food, champagne and good company. His wife, Chief Mrs. Tayo Fakorede, played a prominent role in hosting the celebration.

It was quintessentially Fakorede: a London address, Nigerian culture, family at the centre, and a milestone marked with elegance.

For all his influence and wide circle of connections, Fakorede says he has no political ambitions.

“I don’t have any political ambition,” he says. “I am a businessman. I know what I am good at, and I want to concentrate on what I do best, business.”

It is a clear-eyed answer from a man who has built his life around recognising an opportunity and committing himself to the work it demands.

Philanthropy is another part of his public life. Fakorede has spoken about the values instilled in him by his parents and his desire to support young people, including aspiring entrepreneurs. His advice is rooted in his own experience: success is rarely instant. It is built through patience, discipline and a willingness to learn.

His own journey bears that out. Obalende led to Apapa; Apapa to Marine Beach; and the lessons of the petroleum trade to the first station, the first tanker and a widening business portfolio. In time came land, real estate, further study, and now, a granddaughter.

There is a quiet shift in emphasis when Fakorede speaks of family, knowledge and legacy. These are the things that sit beyond the metrics of business. The arrival of his first granddaughter seems to have brought them into sharper focus.

“It makes you appreciate life differently,” he says. “You realise that family is very important.”

His London birthday celebration, then, was more than another occasion on the social calendar. It was a moment to honour the distance travelled: the boy from Obalende who refused to be defined by circumstance; the young entrepreneur who turned a single petrol station into the foundation of a diversified enterprise; the father who watched all five of his children earn master’s degrees; and the student who decided there was still more to learn.

The values that carried him from one chapter to the next remain strikingly simple: work hard, save, learn, invest, build relationships, give back, and never stop growing.

But perhaps the most instructive part of Fakorede’s story is not the fortune he has accumulated, but the practical problems his years in the downstream oil business taught him to solve. One of the clearest was the perennial problem of customer confidence in fuel retailing, particularly the suspicion among motorists about whether they were receiving the quantity they paid for.

Through Enyo Retail & Supply, a business with which Fakorede has been closely associated, customer feedback was used to identify that concern, leading to the “Our litre is a litre” proposition and a stronger emphasis on transparency, customer service and properly equipped retail stations.

The company also approached another familiar challenge in the downstream market: access and distribution. Rather than treating a filling station as simply a place to sell petrol, the business expanded its retail footprint, moving from its first station in Ibadan in 2017 to a network that was reported to serve more than 60,000 customers daily and supply close to two per cent of Nigeria’s PMS demand at the time.

His experience offers a lesson that goes beyond the familiar story of hard work: entrepreneurs create lasting value when they understand the frustrations within their market, turn those frustrations into business opportunities and build systems capable of serving the solution at scale.

“My advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is simple: know the industry from the ground up, listen to your customer, solve a real problem before chasing expansion, and build an organisation capable of delivering that solution consistently’’

Fakorede has accumulated many titles along the way: businessman, philanthropist, husband, father and now grandfather. After the boardrooms, filling stations, properties, convocation halls and celebrations, it may be the newest one that brings him the greatest pleasure. Being a Grandpa!