More about Kola Abiola

Kola is today the Non-executive Chairman of several companies including Crittall-Hope Nigeria Limited (a Nigerian building materials manufacturing company), Noah’s Ark Advertising Limited (an award-winning African brand and marketing company), Management Transformation Ltd (an Africa-focused strategic management consulting firm) and Wecyclers Ltd (a recycling and sustainability company pioneering social change in Nigeria using new technology).  He is also the Proprietor of Zulikha Abiola Center of Arabic & Islamic Studies, Abeokuta, Ogun State.

He is the Executive Chairman of Summit Oil International Ltd and 35 Oil & Gas (Nigeria) Ltd, in the upstream and downstream energy sectors respectively.  Summit Oil was the first indigenous oil company to successfully drill and find economic quantities of oil and gas reserves in Nigeria, in 1992. As the Managing Director of Summit Oil at the time, he negotiated the acquisition of OPL 205 and 206, commissioned all analyses, field assessments and interpretations, and managed the successful wild cat drilling in the Otien-1 field. As the Executive Chairman, Kola supervised the conversion of OPL 205 to OML 142.  Well ahead of the industry, Kola envisaged the need for Energy Transition and successfully negotiated with a partnership a midstream company to build a gas processing, CNG and power plants to offtake gas from Summit Oil’s wells towards a Zero-flare situation.

Kola is one of the founding members of such key organisations as G-15 Committee and National Association of Indigenous Petroleum Exploration Companies in Nigeria (NAIPEC).  He has also delivered many papers and publications including Investment Opportunities in Nigerian Oil Industry, P.T.I, Warri.

Following more than a decade of dedicated service on the Board of Habib Nigeria Bank PLC (a joint-venture between Habib Bank Pakistan, the Agha Khan Foundation and selected Nigerian investors including Bashorun MKO Abiola (one of the largest and most liquid banks in Nigeria in the 1990s), Kola was appointed Chairman of the Board, and later appointed the first Chairman of PlatinumHabib Nigeria Bank in January 2006.

Kola was a Non-Executive Director of LM Ericsson Nigeria Limited for 6 years.

Kola has vast experience in successfully growing businesses in Nigeria. These include Concord Airlines (the largest private airline company at the time) and Abiola Farms (the largest private agricultural company in the 1990s with over 15,000 hectares of farmland with 5,000 actively under cultivation at any given year).

He has mentored many entrepreneurs and captains of industry on business expansion and sustainability strategies.

Kola Abiola is a Pan-Africanist and passionate advocate for the Nigerian federation and her people. He is a staunch patriot with an indelible track record of value-based leadership.

Kola is the Presidential Candidate for the People’s Redemption Party (PRP).

Between 1992 and 1993, Kola headed the successful Hope ’93 Nigerian Presidential campaign team which involved organising over 150 grassroots, regional and national campaign teams across the nation, using creative methods in the pre-digital age.

Today, Kola is also the Convener of the Advocacy for One Nigeria and Citizens’ Rights Initiative, the creators of the Tribe Naija electronic platform.  With interfaces like Feed, Discussions, Market and Tribe Talks, Tribe Naija offers a safe one-stop environment for the Nigerian Youth and other communities to connect, interact, engage and most importantly voice their views and expectations on burning issues.  Launched on June 12, 2021, Tribe Naija is starting to get attention from the Nigerian Youth who are engaging actively in the different topics they generate and debate. The platform has witnessed multi-dimensional geographical presence; in Nigeria across all it’s states, and in 68 countries of the world, following the footprint of the Nigerian Diaspora.

Kola is recognised as a model citizen of West Africa.  He was awarded an honorary citizenship of the Republic of Togo and the Key to the city of Lome in 1991.

Kola Abiola holds a Master of Science Degree from the School of Banking and Money Management, Adelphi University in New York (1985) and Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from San Francisco State University in California (1983).  He has also attended numerous seminars, conferences and courses both in Nigeria and abroad.

Latifu Kolawole Abiola was born in 1962 in Glasgow, Scotland, and is married with children.