Nigerian businessman and founder of Diamond Bank, Pascal Dozie, has died at the age of 85.
The Imo-born entrepreneur reportedly passed away on Tuesday.
Dozie, a former Chairman of MTN also served as the Chairman of Pan-African University prior to his death.
However, his demise is yet to be officially confirmed by family as at the time of filing this report.
Dozie was born in 1939 in the Egbu village of Owerri.
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He was born into the family of Charles Dozie who was a Catholic catechist.
The Diamond Bank founder attended Our Lady’s School Emekuku where he obtained his First School Leaving Certificate (FSLC) before attending Holy Ghost Juniorate Seminary and Holy Ghost College, Owerri, where he obtained his West African Senior School Certificate Examination.
After obtaining his high school certificate, he travelled to London where he studied economics at the London School of Economics and obtained a BSc in economics.
Subsequently, he attended City University in London where he studied operational research and industrial engineering and obtained a master’s degree in Administrative Science.
Dozie began his career as an economist at the National Economic Development Office in the United Kingdom.
He was also a part-time lecturer at the North Western Polytechnic, London.
Between 1970 and 1971 he served as a consulting economist at the African States Consulting Organisation in Uganda.
He, however, left his job in Uganda in 1971 and relocated to Nigeria at the request of his mother
Following his return with his experience in Econometrics and Industrial Engineering he launched his first company, the African Development Consulting Group (ADCG) which had worked with companies such as Nestle and Pfizer.
He was subsequently hired by Clement Isong, then Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, to conduct some studies on the Co-operative and Commerce Bank.
In 1985, he was appointed Chairman of Progress Bank, which is now defunct.
Later that same year Dozie applied for a banking licence in order to help traders in South-Eastern Nigeria who were faced with banking problems.
This brought about the birth of Diamond Bank. At its inception the share capital of the bank was ₦10million ($28,000) with only 21 interested shareholders.
In 1990, he satisfied the requirements of the Central Bank of Nigeria to operate a standard bank and in 1991 the Diamond Bank began operations.
He was CEO of Diamond Bank from 1991 to 2006 when he handed over to his son Uzoma Dozie.
Also, Dozie was at one time President of the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
More details later…
