GILBERT CHAGOURY

Chagoury Group traces its roots to the 1950s when the Chagoury family arrived in Lagos from Lebanon and established a small food and beverage operation. Gilbert took the business and transformed it into a diversified conglomerate covering construction, real estate, hospitality, and manufacturing.

The group built a dominant position in Nigeria during the oil boom years, winning major construction contracts and developing hotel properties. His relationship with General Sani Abacha — Nigeria's military ruler from 1993 to 1998 — brought enormous business access but also enormous liability.

After Abacha died, a Geneva court convicted Chagoury in 2000 of money laundering and aiding a criminal organisation for helping the Abacha family move money out of Nigeria. He got a suspended sentence, paid a 1 million Swiss franc fine, and refunded about $66 million to the Nigerian government.

He has always denied knowing the money was stolen. He then redirected his energy toward Eko Atlantic City — an audacious land reclamation project to build a new financial district on a former barrier beach in Lagos harbor.

The project broke ground in 2009 and is designed to house 250,000 residents and serve 150,000 daily commuters.

Chagoury Group (real estate, construction, hospitality, food manufacturing). South Energyx Nigeria (developing Eko Atlantic City in partnership with Lagos State Government).

Eko Hotels and Suites (premier hotel complex on Victoria Island, Lagos). Multiple manufacturing and food-processing ventures across West Africa.

Chagoury is not a public markets investor. He builds and holds — large-scale private real estate and infrastructure in Nigeria and West Africa.

He prefers government-backed projects with long-term land ownership. His model is to invest where others see too much risk and build infrastructure that becomes indispensable.

Eko Atlantic is the purest expression: reclaim land, build the backbone infrastructure, sell plots to developers, and collect for decades. He is patient in ways most investors are not because his time horizon is genuinely generational.

Eko Atlantic City. A 10 square kilometer plot of reclaimed land in Lagos harbor that is becoming one of Africa's most ambitious new financial districts.

The project protects Lagos from flooding while creating enormous new real estate value from nothing. Land that did not exist in 2009 is now prime waterfront development territory in one of Africa's largest cities.

His proximity to Sani Abacha. The association with one of Nigeria's most repressive military rulers gave Chagoury enormous business access in the 1990s but permanently marked him in Western capitals.

He was reportedly denied a US visa over concerns about alleged connections to Lebanese political organizations. The Swiss conviction and the $66 million refund closed the legal file but did not rehabilitate his international reputation.

Physical assets in growing frontier markets. Population growth creates demand for everything — housing, hotels, power, food.

Be early, be patient, own the land. He does not try to time commodity cycles or stock markets.

He believes in Nigeria's growth story because 200 million people need somewhere to live, eat, and work. The frontier market discount is a feature to exploit, not a warning to heed.

Born 8 January 1946 in Lagos, Nigeria to Lebanese immigrant parents. Holds Lebanese and St.

Lucian citizenship. Based primarily in Monaco.

Keeps family details very private. His son Roland Chagoury and other family members are involved in the business.

Educated in Europe, reportedly in Switzerland. No specific university degree is widely documented.

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