Micheal Ibru: African man who made millions from trading frozen fish
- Micheal Ibru was a celebrated businessman who walked in the path many feared as he made many fall in love with frozen fishes
- When he started the business, many mocked him, calling his product fishes that have been to the mortuaries
- After Ibru was able to convince people of the need to patronise his product, he made millions of naira from the venture
PAY ATTENTION: Click “See First” under the “Following” tab to see Briefly.co.za News on your News Feed!
Michael Ibru was one of the greatest men in the country who made it big by doing something novel. In 1957, he started producing and marketing frozen fish.
Face2face.com reports that when he started, it was an entirely new market as there was no taste for the product. That, however, did not deter him from breaking limits in the business.
It should be noted that an earlier effort by the Europeans to push the business in the country failed woefully. He did not allow the people's saying that he was offering “mortuary fish” to stop him despite the fact that he was in his early 20s.
With an astute mind, Ibru was later able to make Nigerians see why frozen fish was a good deal. He also set up his own distribution channel all across the country.
Source: UGC
Ibru’s success in his initial fish business made him go into other businesses and grew them into a big indigenous group of companies in Africa.
Ibru was born to a family of seven children in the 1930s. He excelled both in his academic performance and extracurricular activities.
His meeting with Jimmy Large when he was with the United African Company was a significant one as it helped him to come up with his own trading outfit called Laibru.
The skilled Nigerian businessman did not only venture into frozen fish business blindly, but he drew calculations from gathering that people’s demand for seafood was more than the need for fresh catches.
By mid-1960, the man became a celebrated millionaire businessman and he was ranking in 90 million naira yearly in the 1970s.
His business expanded into other ventures like banking (Oceanic Bank), publishing (The Guardian), and others. His family members also joined his business and made great exploits.
Enjoyed reading our story? Download BRIEFLY's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major South African news!
Source: Briefly News
Samantha Riddle Samantha Riddle is a former Mainstream/ Current Affairs Manager. She covered the breaking stories and SA news from 2018-2021. Currently, she’s working for The South African.
Kelly Lippke (Senior Editor) Kelly Lippke is a copy editor/proofreader who started her career at the Northern-Natal Courier with a BA in Communication Science/Psychology (Unisa, 2007). Kelly has worked for several Caxton publications, including the Highway Mail and Northglen News. Kelly’s unique editing perspective stems from an additional major in Linguistics. Kelly joined Briefly News in 2018 and she has 14 years of experience. Kelly has also passed a set of trainings by Google News Initiative. You can reach her at kelly.lippke@briefly.co.za.
