Nigerian businessman, Jim Ovia was born on November 4.

He is the founder of Zenith Bank, one of Nigeria’s biggest commercial banks. He is the largest individual shareholder of the bank with a stake of slightly more than 9%. Mr Ovia was not only successful in banking.

He also has extravagant real estate across Nigeria to his name, as well as mobile telecom operator Visafone, which has 3 million subscribers.

Forbes Africa named him the “Godfather of Banking” after successfully building Nigeria’s biggest commercial bank.

The bank in not only a household name in Nigeria, but in other parts of the world, including: the UK, Dubai, China, Ghana, Sierra Leone and the Gambia.

Nr Ovia also did amazing things like developing the Civic Centre and Aquamarine Boat Club to exploit Nigeria’s burgeoning hospitality sector.

He built the Civic Towers, a 15-story office block that colloquially is referred to as Nigeria’s “Empire State Building”.

He also created Cyberspace Limited to provide internet services and Visafone Communications Limited to provide telecom services.

Visafone was later sold to MTN, Africa’s largest telco, for an undisclosed sum in 2015.

Due to his hardwork and innovation, he was conferred with the national awards of Member Federal Republic (MFR, 2000) and Commander of the Order of Niger (CON, 2011).