Nigeria's 2nd richest man takes delivery of $81 million Bombardier Global 8000

Abdul Samad Rabiu, chairman of BUA Group and one of Africa's wealthiest industrialists, has taken delivery of a Bombardier Global 8000 private jet valued at approximately $81 million (N110 billion), completing an acquisition process that began when he signed the purchase agreement with Bombardier executives in Dubai in December 2025.

Rabiu announced the delivery on social media, giving thanks to God for the new aircraft. The jet joins BUA Group's existing corporate fleet of a Challenger 350 and a Global 6500, giving the Nigerian conglomerate one of the most modern private aviation lineups of any African business group.

The Global 8000 is the fastest purpose-built business jet in the world, a designation Bombardier reclaimed for civil aviation after the Concorde's retirement in 2003. The aircraft tops out at Mach 0.95, approximately 627 miles per hour, and carries a range of 8,000 nautical miles, enabling non-stop flights from Lagos to New York or Dubai to Houston on a single fuel load. It is powered by two Rolls-Royce engines and certified by Transport Canada, the Federal Aviation Administration and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency.

Bombardier delivered the first Global 8000 to fleet launch customer NetJets on March 26, 2026, at its Laurent Beaudoin Completion Centre in Dorval, Quebec. Rabiu's delivery, completing an order placed six months earlier, positions him among the earliest individual owners of an aircraft type that is now entering service across the world's most discerning corporate aviation buyers.

The acquisition reflects the scale of BUA Group's global operational footprint and Rabiu's own intensifying international travel schedule. The group operates cement, foods, ports and energy businesses across Nigeria and has been expanding aggressively into the Gulf, Europe and other African markets. The Global 8000's ultra-long-range capability eliminates the need for fuel stops on the intercontinental routes that BUA's business now demands with increasing frequency.

Rabiu signed the purchase agreement on December 4, 2025, at BUA's Dubai office in a meeting with senior Bombardier executives. At the time, he described the acquisition as both a practical business tool and a reflection of the group's ambitions. His net worth currently stands at approximately $11.2 billion according to the Forbes 2026 ranking, a figure that represented a 120 percent increase over his 2025 valuation — the largest single-year wealth gain recorded by any African billionaire in the rankings this year — driven primarily by the 135 percent surge in BUA Cement's share price on the Nigerian Exchange.

BUA Cement has been at the centre of Rabiu's wealth creation over the past two years, with the stock outperforming the broader Nigerian Exchange which itself rose 81 percent over the same period. The company has announced plans to raise annual production capacity to 20 million tonnes through a new line in northern Nigeria, in partnership with a Chinese construction partner.

Beyond cement, BUA Group has invested more than $65 million of its own capital to reconstruct Terminal B at the Rivers Port Complex in Port Harcourt, and is pressing ahead with an integrated refinery project in Akwa Ibom alongside a dedicated gas-fired power plant. A $200 million corporate finance facility arranged by the Africa Finance Corporation and Afreximbank has further strengthened the group's balance sheet capacity for those capital-intensive projects.

The Global 8000 delivery comes as BUA Group enters what Rabiu has described as its most ambitious expansion phase.