7 Nigerian Family Owned Businesses Still Thriving (2025)

Family businesses play a big role in Nigeria’s economy. They give people jobs, teach young workers, and pass useful skills from parents to children. 

Many of these businesses began small and grew over time, even during hard times like changes in money value, government rules, or new competitors.

What keeps them going? Strong values, smart long-term plans, and good teams that can work well, with or without the founder. 

This article shares stories of successful Nigerian family businesses, when they began, and why they’re still doing well today.

Dangote Group

The Dangote family enterprise shows how patient investment can build local industry at scale. Founded in 1981, the group moved from trading into making things people use every day—cement, sugar, salt, fertilisers, and energy.

Its edge is simple but powerful: own production, control logistics, and keep reinvesting in better plants and stronger supply chains. By focusing on what the market needs most and building capacity inside Nigeria, the group reduces import pressure and supports thousands of jobs.

A steady approach to financing and cost control helps the business ride out rough economic cycles.

BUA Group

BUA is a modern example of a family company that grows fast without losing discipline. Founded in 1988, the Rabiu family built the group from earlier trading activity into a strong player in cement, sugar, foods, ports, and infrastructure.

The model is to build efficient plants, keep operations lean, and expand where demand is deep and lasting.

Reliable logistics and power solutions keep factories running smoothly, while long-term planning and sharp daily cost control keep prices competitive.

FCMB Group

The Balogun family created one of the country’s best-known financial services brands and then professionalised it early. FCMB began in 1982 as First City Merchant Bank (with roots from 1977 via City Securities) and grew into a wider group covering banking, asset management, pensions, and fintech.

What keeps it strong is governance: clear roles for family and non-family leaders, strong risk management, and steady investment in technology.

The group stays close to retail and SME customers through digital channels, while the family’s long-term view supports careful lending and continuous service upgrades.

GIG Group (GIGM and GIG Logistics)

The Ajaere family turned intercity transport into a tech-enabled logistics engine. GIGM was founded in 1998 as God Is Good Motors; the group later added GIG Logistics to serve e-commerce and last-mile delivery.

Trust grew from reliable routes, clean buses, and good customer service, then extended into parcel delivery with apps, tracking tools, and well-run terminals.

Designed for Nigeria’s real road and retail conditions, these services keep customers coming back and support steady growth.

Heirs Holdings

Tony Elumelu’s family investment company takes a broad approach—banking, power, hospitality, healthcare, insurance, and more.

Heirs Holdings was founded in 2010, built on a simple idea: back sectors that can transform the economy and keep capital in long enough to see real results. The group blends an ownership mindset with professional management and clear governance.

A strong leadership pipeline and hands-on oversight allow it to scale across industries without losing direction.

Dantata Organisation

The Dantata name is one of Nigeria’s most enduring business lineages. The family’s enterprise dates back to around 1910 under Alhassan Dantata, growing from trade in kola nuts and groundnuts into larger commercial ventures.

Over many decades, the group and its offshoots have worked across trading, agriculture, construction, and services.

What sets this legacy apart is community trust, training, and steady transfer of know-how. Younger members learn the craft, earn responsibility, and then launch ventures of their own, keeping the family footprint wide and resilient.

Eleganza Group

The Okoya family built a manufacturing brand that meets everyday needs at scale. Eleganza began manufacturing in 1978 with a factory at Oregun, Ikeja (with earlier trading roots often traced to the late 1960s).

The company focuses on household goods, plastics, packaging, and other daily items where affordability and steady supply matter most.

The formula is direct: understand mass-market demand, invest in efficient plants, control key inputs, and build distribution that keeps shelves stocked. By making goods locally and managing costs tightly, Eleganza remains competitive even when imports become expensive.

The company also puts effort into factory discipline and quality control, which protects the brand over time.

Aig-Imoukhuede & Wigwe Family Office (Tengen)

The family office created by Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede and the late Herbert Wigwe shows how families can organise ownership for the long term.

Tengen Holdings (the family office platform) was founded in 2013, giving the families a structure to manage major shareholdings, coordinate new ventures, and handle risk under one roof. A

family-office setup brings in experienced advisers, sets clear rules for decisions, and plans succession professionally—reducing confusion, improving capital allocation, and helping the next generation step into leadership with clarity.