Chickens And Clothes On The Way To A Business Empire

Alexander Chika Okafor is a multimillionaire with a finger in many businesses, from construction and mining to oil and gas exploration. It all started when he was a boy selling newspapers and eggs.

- Peace Hyde

Alexander Chika Okafor has avoided the trappings of wealth that many in his position cling so desperately to. He answers his own phone, has no swanky corporate communication executive as a gatekeeper, and you won’t find conversations with him infused with trendy buzzwords. His response is precise and straightforward, with just enough color to paint a detailed picture so even someone with little knowledge of his business will begin to understand just how far he has come.

The 60-year-old Okafor is the executive chairman and founder of the Chicason Group, which has interests in oil and gas, mining, real estate, transport and manufacturing. Okafor maintains a handson approach to driving the business that has taken more than 36 years to build. That journey began as a street trader during the Biafran war in Nigeria.

“I came from a poor family. My mother was a fish seller and my father was a farmer and wine tapper. My mother valued education because she didn’t have the opportunity so she wanted all her children to have an education. I was in primary two, in 1966, when the civil war started but we still went to school until 1967 when they shut down all the schools,” he says.

Okafor epitomizes self-reliance. He had to fend for himself and his mother at the age of eight following the death of his father. Okafor started by helping his mother sell akara (bean cake) and before long expanded into more lucrative business ventures.