Africa Soft Power: Getting to Business

Stephen Hendel graduated with a B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law. He was a partner at Goldman Sachs, and went on to co-found Hartree Partners, LP, a global merchant commodities firm specializing in energy and associated industries.

Growing up, Stephen Hendel would spend his spare time in record stores to see what looked interesting. Decades later, having become a prominent commodities trader in New York, Hendel was scrolling through music on Amazon.com when he came across an unfamiliar name: Fela Kuti, the pioneer of Afrobeats and regarded as Africa’s most “challenging and charismatic music performers”. Hendel’s love for transporting music took form with Fela, whose dramatic life as an African nationalist embedded in the lyrics of his pulsing songs was so inspiring to Hendel that he said to his wife, Ruth, a theater producer, that they should find a way to bring his music to a wide audience.

That endeavor led Hendel and his wife to producing “Fela!,” the Broadway show that tied for 11 Tony nominations – the most Tony Award nominations in 2010, including the leading contender for best musical.

Hakeem Belo-Osagie is chair of Metis Capital Partners an organisation focused on brokering and delivering attractive, large-ticket transactions in Africa to select blue chip international investment partners. Hakeem is also the founder and Chairman of the board of FSDH holding company, which includes among its holdings FSDH merchant Bank, FSDH Asset management, PAL pensions and FSDH securities trading company. He was listed by Forbes Magazine as the forty-first richest man in Africa in 2014.

Belo-Osagie started his career as a petroleum economist and lawyer, following his graduation from Harvard Business School. For more than three decades, he has been a key player in the Nigerian economy through his participation in several private sector businesses; particularly in the fields of energy, finance and telecommunications. Up Until 2017, Belo-Osagie was the chairman of Etisalat’s Nigerian arm, in which he controlled a significant stake. He also has a range of other business interests in Nigeria.

Belo-Osagie returned to Nigeria shortly after graduating from Harvard in 1980. He began his career in the service of the Federal Government of Nigeria working in various capacities in the energy sector ranging from Special Assistant to the Presidential Adviser on petroleum and energy, to Secretary of the Oil Policy Review and LNG Committees. He subsequently worked in the Petrochemicals Division of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. He resigned his appointment in 1986 to set up CTIC, which became a leading energy consulting firm. He also chairs the board of Vitol Nigeria, which is a subsidiary of the Swiss-based Vitol Group, a multinational energy and commodity trading firm.

In 1998 Belo-Osagie became the chairman of the board of directors of The United Bank for Africa Plc (the “UBA”), one of the largest commercial banks in Nigeria. Belo-Osagie is also the founder and Chairman of the board of FSDH holding company, which includes among its holdings FSDH merchant Bank, FSDH Asset management, PAL pensions and FSDH securities trading company.

Belo-Osagie until recently was the chairman of the board of directors of Emerging Markets Telecommunications Services Ltd, a mobile telephone operator which operates in Nigeria under the Etisalat brand. He is the ultimate beneficial owner of a significant stake in the company, which is operated as a joint venture with Mubadala Development Company and the Etisalat group.

Belo-Osagie is the chairman of and main shareholder in Duval Properties Limited, a real estate company currently engaged in developing a major new residential and commercial district at Jabi Lake in Abuja. He also chairs the board of Vitol Nigeria, which is a subsidiary of the Swiss-based Vitol Group, a multinational energy and commodity trading firm.

Belo-Osagie has also recently invested in Andela, which is developing a network of high quality computer science education programmes across the African continent. Andela operates a self-financing model of education: it funds the training of promising young programmers, and generates revenue by supplying its graduates’ services to a range of global clients. Belo-Osagie also sits on Andela’s board.

Belo-Osagie sits on the Global Board of Advisers of the Council on Foreign Relations, a leading non-partisan US think tank. In 2015, Belo-Osagie was appointed to the International Advisory Board of the Brookings Institution in Washington DC, which has been described as the most influential think tank in the world.

Belo-Osagie and his wife both serve as members of Harvard University’s Global Advisory Council. Belo-Osagie is also a member of the Yale University President’s Council on International Activities and the New York University President’s Global Council.

Belo-Osagie was appointed by the Nigerian Minister of the Federal Capital Territory to act as a non-executive chairman of the Abuja Investment Corporation from 2007 to 2011. Belo-Osagie also currently chairs Chocolate City Music Group, a leading Nigerian entertainment company.

Belo-Osagie and his wife are among the largest donors to the African Leadership Academy (the “ALA”), a residential secondary school in Johannesburg that works to educate Africa’s brightest students. Founded in 2008, the highly selective ALA immerses promising young people in a rigorous two-year curriculum of leadership, service and African studies. The ALA network of alumni includes almost four hundred young leaders drawn from forty three countries across the continent. In 2012, the academy unveiled the “Hakeem and Myma Belo-Osagie Wing”, named in recognition of the couple’s support of the ALA and their advocacy on its behalf.

The couple have recently established the “Hakeem and Myma Belo-Osagie Fund for the Promotion of Africa” at Yale University, and are supporters of Harvard University’s Center for African Studies. Belo-Osagie has also endowed a fund to provide scholarships for African students studying at Balliol College, Oxford.

Belo-Osagie serves on the board of Alfanar, a charity which applies the principles of private sector investment to charitable giving to help build sustainable social enterprises throughout the Arab world. He also chairs the Nigerian National Committee for the United World Colleges, which assists the organisation’s member colleges in identifying suitable candidates for their two-year International Baccalaureate scholarship programmes. Mr Belo-Osagie has also funded several scholarships to the United World Colleges.

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