Benedict Peters is a Nigerian billionaire who founded the Aiteo Group, Nigeria's largest indigenous oil producing firm. As of November 2014, he had an estimated net worth of US$2.7 billion. He is ranked by Ventures Africa as the 17th richest person in Africa and the 7th richest in Nigeria.

Early life and development

Peters hails from Onicha Oloma in Delta state and was born in

Abakaliki Abakaliki is the capital city of Ebonyi State in southeastern Nigeria, located southeast of Enugu. The inhabitants are primarily members of the Igbo nation. It was the headquarters of the Ogoja province before the creation of the Southeastern ...

Ebonyi State Ebonyi State ( ig, Ȯra Ebonyi) is a state in the South-East geopolitical zone of Nigeria, bordered to the north and northeast by Benue State, Enugu State to the west, Cross River State to the east and southeast, and Abia State to the southwes ...

to a banker and a homemaker. He attended Ekulu Primary School, Enugu and

Federal Government College Enugu The Federal Government College, Enugu (FGCE), locally known as Fedi, is a secondary or high school in Enugu, Enugu State, Nigeria. The school was created by the Nigerian government in 1973 as one of the federally funded "Unity schools" to bring t ...

, after which he proceeded to University of Benin, where he obtained a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) Hons degree in Geography and Town Planning.

Career

Peters began his career in the oil and gas industry in the early 1990s, working with the founders of Ocean and Oil, the entity now known as Oando Nigeria Plc, Adewale Tinubu, Mofe Boyo and Onajite Okoloko. He moved to MRS Oil Nigeria PLC as Group Executive Director, ending as its Managing Director, before leaving in 1999 to establish Sigmund Communecci. In February 2008, Peters founded the Aiteo group (Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Company Limited), the successor entity to Sigmund Communecci. The company owns one of the largest petroleum tank farms in Nigeria with facilities in excess of over 250 million litres on over 100,000 square meters of landmass It also owns and operates the Abonnema Storage Terminal. In 2014, Aiteo acquired a controlling stake in Oil Mining Lease (OML) 29 and the Nembe Creek Trunk Line (NCTL) in the Eastern Niger Delta from Royal Dutch Shell Plc. According to

Wood Mackenzie Wood Mackenzie, also known as ''WoodMac,'' is a global research and consultancy group supplying data, written analysis, and consultancy advice to the energy, chemicals, renewables, metals, and mining industries. In 2015, the company was acquire ...

, "OML 29 is a large block located in the southeastern Niger Delta. It contains 11 oil and gas fields". "The 983-square-kilometre OML 29, onshore in the Niger Delta region, is the site of Nigeria's first-ever commercial discovery", in 1956 at the

Oloibiri Oilfield Oloibiri Oilfield is an onshore oilfield located in Oloibiri in Ogbia LGA of Bayelsa State, Nigeria, about east of Port Harcourt in the Niger Delta. Oloibiri field is about and lies in a swamp within OML 29 Oloibiri Oilfield is named afte ...

. Peters is also rapidly diversifying with his founding of Aiteo Power, of which he is chairman. He leads the Aiteo Consortium and EMA Consortium which has won separate bids to acquire three power generating companies and is set to build a 100,000 barrel refinery in oil-rich Warri in Delta State. In April 2017, Aiteo Group announced the signing of a five-year partnership agreement with the

Nigeria Football Federation The Nigeria Football Federation (known as Nigeria Football Association until 2008) is Nigeria's football governing body. It was formally launched in 1945 and formed the first Nigerian national football team in 1949. It joined CAF in 1959 and FIF ...

worth an estimated N2.9b. In the capacity of Official Optimum Partner of the NFF, Aiteo's support funded the salaries of Super Eagles boss

Gernot Rohr Gernot Rohr (born 28 June 1953) is a German professional football manager and former player who was most recently the manager of the Nigerian national team. Managerial career In 1996, he managed Girondins de Bordeaux to the UEFA Cup final, whe ...

and coaches of all NFF's national teams. Peters told the media that "Aiteo Group is as passionate about leadership as Nigerians are about football, so we are proud to be working together with the NFF and its coaching staff to reach a shared goal of a more prosperous Nigeria".

Awards

On August 5, 2014 in Washington DC, Peters was one of four recipients of the Marquee Award for Global Business Excellence at the Africa-US Leadership Awards dinner, hosted by African Energy Association, "a non-profit organization of experienced negotiators, advisors and high-level energy advocates". ''Leadership'', an

Abuja Abuja () is the capital and eighth most populous city of Nigeria. Situated at the centre of the country within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), it is a planned city built mainly in the 1980s based on a master plan by International Plann ...

, Nigeria based national newspaper, named him the "Leadership CEO of the Year 2014" for championing a local content deal facilitating a greater capacity to manage oil assets in his native country, Nigeria. On 18 January 2015, Peters was given the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Awards in the "Economic Empowerment" category in an event held in

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

's Willard Hotel. Benedict Peters was listed among the 50 Most Influential Nigerians in 2017 by ''BusinessDay'' Newspaper in Nigeria. In June 2018, he was also named by ''The Guardian'' (Nigeria) as Oil and Gas CEO of the Year. Business Day's Man of the year 2019

Personal life

Peters is married and has four children. In 2017 the

Supreme Court of Nigeria The Supreme Court of Nigeria (SCN) is the highest court in Nigeria, and is located in the Central District, Abuja, in what is known as the Three Arms Zone, so called due to the proximity of the offices of the Presidential Complex, the National Ass ...

ordered the immediate lift of an Interim Forfeiture Order on Peters properties in the UK. The Interim Forfeiture Order was obtained by the

Economic and Financial Crimes Commission The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is a Nigerian law enforcement agency that investigates financial crimes such as advance fee fraud (419 fraud) and money laundering. The EFCC was established in 2003, partially in response to pre ...

EFCC. The court accused the EFCC of "gross misstatements, concealment and misrepresentation of facts". Benedict Peters was accused in the

Pandora Papers The Pandora Papers are 11.9 million leaked documents with 2.9 terabytes of data that the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published beginning on 3 October 2021. The leak exposed the secret offshore accounts of 3 ...

leak of bribing a Nigerian oil official (

Diezani Alison-Madueke Diezani K. Alison-Madueke (born 6 December 1960) is a Nigerian politician and the first female President of OPEC. She was elected at the 166th OPEC Ordinary meeting in Vienna on 27 November 2014. She became Nigeria's minister of transportation o ...

) with overseas luxury real-estate in order to secure favors with the Nigerian Ministry of Petroleum Resources. Benedict has denied the allegations.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peters, Benedict Nigerian billionaires 1966 births Living people Federal Government College Enugu alumni University of Benin (Nigeria) alumni