Meet one of Nigeria’s most prominent young billionaires, known for his oil and gas dominance, with a net worth of $1 Billion.
Igho Charles Sanomi is a Nigerian businessman, geologist, public speaker, and philanthropist. He was born on May 17, 1975, in Agbor, Delta State, Nigeria. He is the fifth child and first son of a Catholic family. His father, Dickens Ogheneruemu Patrick Sanomi, was a retired Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) in the Nigeria Police Force and the second national vice-president of the Urhobo Progress Union (UPU). His mother, Mabel Iyabo Sanomi, is a former nurse and a tribal chief of the Isotun Ijesha kingdom in Osun State.
Sanomi holds a bachelor’s degree in geology and mining from the University of Jos, Plateau State. At the age of 23, while still in his final year of university, he became interested in the oil and gas industry and co-founded Sarian Oil, an oil business in West Africa. He later founded the Taleveras, a $2 billion (revenues) international commodities trading company active over a wide spectrum of global energy markets including crude oil and refined petroleum products, natural gas and power. Taleveras’ trading arm, now based in Dubai and Abuja, is one of the largest independent energy traders in Africa, with additional offices spread across West Africa, Europe and Asia. The company at its prime moved more than 170 million barrels of crude and oil products annually, and has upstream and downstream assets in a number of African countries.
The company has business interests in oil, power, logistics, telecommunications, the maritime industry, aviation, and real estate. Taleveras trades over 100 million barrels of crude oil annually and has acquired oil blocks in Nigeria and Ivory Coast.
Sanomi is also known for his philanthropic work.
In 2011, he and his siblings established the Dickens Sanomi Foundation (DSF) in honor of their late father. The foundation has been involved in various initiatives, including an annual essay competition for Nigerian secondary-school students, flood relief efforts in Delta State, and a “substantial grant” to the Bobby Moore Fund for cancer research in the UK. Sanomi is also involved with the Global Initiative for Peace, Love and Care (GIPLC).
He has received numerous awards and recognitions for his work in business and philanthropy, including being named by Forbes as one of “Ten Young African Millionaires to Watch in 2013,” and receiving the Forbes Best of Africa Leading Philanthropist award in 2022. He was also granted honorary citizenship in the U.S. state of Georgia.
Here was a man, I thought, who had lived ten lifetimes in four decades; scaling mountains most dare not climb, and doing so with rare humility and unrelenting drive. In the halls of energy trading, he was already a global force; in the realm of philanthropy, a silent but relentless tide. I felt the world needed to understand that beneath the boardroom acumen and transcontinental influence lay a man whose story could inspire generations.
Thus, Pacemaker was not merely a biography; it was a tribute to velocity guided by vision, to purpose unshaken by privilege. I titled it thus because Sanomi was, and still is, a pacesetter, blazing trails so that others might find their path illuminated.
This is my benediction for a titan moulded of quiet thunder. His journey from a young oil trader in his twenties to a business colossus at fifty establishes his vision, resilience, and commitment to excellence. Yet, if the world has learned anything about Igho Sanomi, it is that his story is far from over. As he stands at the precipice of fifty, the world waits, not just to celebrate but to witness yet another remarkable chapter unfold.
d for pushing his limits, and he has parlayed this single attribute to stunning effect; growing Taleveras into one of the largest physical commodities trading companies in Africa in just over a decade, while remaining one of the most mysterious and storied figures in Nigerian business.
Igho Sanomi, 41, is the founder of Taleveras, a $2 billion (revenues) international commodities trading company active over a wide spectrum of global energy markets including crude oil and refined petroleum products, natural gas and power. Taleveras’ trading arm, now based in Dubai and Abuja, is one of the largest independent energy traders in Africa, with additional offices spread across West Africa, Europe and Asia. The company at its prime moved more than 170 million barrels of crude and oil products annually, and has upstream and downstream assets in a number of African countries.
