Man Crush Monday: Pascal Dozie

Pascal Gabriel Dozie is an entrepreneur and businessman. He is the founder of Diamond Bank, chairman of Pan-Atlantic University and Former MTN Chairman. Pascal 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 African States Consulting Organisation in Uganda. In 1971 after he quit his job in Uganda, he relocated to Nigeria at the request of his mother. 

After his return to Nigeria, with his experience in Econometrics and Industrial Engineering, he launched his first company, African Development Consulting Group (ADCG) which brought about Diamond Bank in recent time.

The company had worked with companies like Nestle and Pfizer. He was subsequently hired by Clement Isong, the then Central Bank of Nigeria Governor to conduct some studies on Co-operative and Commerce Bank. In 1985, he was appointed Chairman of Progress Bank which is defunct.

Later that same year Dozie applied for a banking license in order to help traders in the South-East who were faced with issues of banking. This brought about the birth of Diamond Bank.

At inception, the share capital of the bank was ₦10million ($28,000) with only 21 interested shareholders.

In 1990, he satisfied the terms of the Central Bank of Nigeria to operate a standard bank and in 1991 the bank began operations.

He was CEO of Diamond Bank from 1991 to 2006. Upon retiring, he was succeeded by Alex Otti who handed the leadership to his son Uzoma Dozie in 2014. 

Pascal Dozie was also a one time President of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. He currently owns shares in MTN Group and was Chairman of the company.

He later resigned as the chairman and was succeeded by the former NCC boss Ernest Ndukwe.