Nigerian beverage heiress Kudirat Adegunwa-Balogun becomes ruling party's candidate for deputy governor of Ogun State

Kudirat Adegunwa-Balogun, chief financial officer and executive director of Rite Foods Limited, the Nigerian food and beverage company behind the Bigi soft drinks brand, has been named the All Progressives Congress deputy governorship candidate for Ogun State's 2027 election, thrusting a member of one of Nigeria's most prominent industrial families into the country's political arena.

Ogun Governor Dapo Abiodun unveiled Adegunwa-Balogun, 51, at an APC strategic caucus meeting in Abeokuta on Sunday, describing the decision as the product of extensive consultations with party leaders across the state. She will run alongside Solomon Adeola, the APC's governorship candidate for the 2027 contest.

Her appointment connects one of Nigeria's most recognisable consumer brands to a political contest in Ogun State, where Rite Foods operates its main manufacturing facility and from which her father's business empire was built over six decades.

Who she is

Adegunwa-Balogun holds a Bachelor of Science in computer science from the University of Lagos and an MBA in finance from Bayes Business School in London. She is a fellow of both the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in the United Kingdom. She has attended executive leadership programmes at Harvard Business School and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

She has spent more than 30 years in finance, corporate governance, manufacturing, business transformation and strategic leadership. At Rite Foods, where she serves as CFO and executive director responsible for finance and information technology, she has been a central figure in the company's financial management as it grew from a startup sausage roll manufacturer in 2007 into one of Nigeria's most competitive food and beverage companies.

The company and the family behind it

Rite Foods Limited was established in 2007 as a subsidiary of Ess-ay Holdings Limited, the conglomerate founded by her father, Dr. Sulaiman Adebola Adegunwa OFR. The company is headquartered at Adebola House on Opebi Road in Ikeja, Lagos, with its main production factory located in Ososa, Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State.

The company began with Rite Sausage Roll, a product designed to address the school snack market. When the sausage range took hold, the company moved into beverages, launching Bigi Carbonated Soft Drinks in 2016 in a direct challenge to Coca-Cola and PepsiCo in Nigeria's $4 billion beverage market. Bigi's strategy was built on volume over price. While Coca-Cola and Pepsi were selling 35 and 50 centilitre bottles, Bigi entered the market with 60 centilitre bottles at lower prices, drawing consumers in a recession-hit economy who prioritised quantity alongside quality. The strategy worked. Bigi quickly became one of the most recognisable soft drink brands in Nigeria.

The current portfolio spans five brand families. Bigi Carbonated Soft Drinks covers 13 flavour variants including cola, orange, lemon and lime, apple, tropical, bitter lemon and soda water. Bigi Table Water is the premium drinking water range. Fearless Energy Drink, launched in August 2017, disrupted the energy drink category by introducing PET bottle packaging when the segment was entirely can-based. Sosa Fruit Drinks is the company's fruit beverage range. Rite and Bigi Sausages remain its original product category. The company has attained Halal certification, enabling distribution into 117 countries globally, and holds ISO 9001 certification.

Rite Foods' day-to-day operations are run by Seleem Adegunwa, Adebola Adegunwa's son and Kudirat's brother, who serves as managing director. The family structure gives Rite Foods the operational continuity of a professionally managed business alongside the ownership concentration of a founding family enterprise.

The patriarch

Dr. Sulaiman Adebola Adegunwa OFR, Kudirat's father, began his business career as a photographer in 1963 when he founded Ess-ay Holdings Limited. The group's initial portfolio comprised Fototek Industries Limited, Photo Palace Limited, Photo Products Division and Prints Speciality Limited. Over six decades, he built Ess-ay Holdings into one of Nigeria's most diversified private industrial groups with interests spanning food and beverage manufacturing, investment holdings and real estate, including the landmark Adebola House at Opebi Ikeja where Spar operates.

Beyond manufacturing, Adegunwa served on the boards of notable Nigerian banks for 12 years, including as chairman of Sterling Bank Plc from 2007 to 2014. He was conferred with the national honour of Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2006. He is a recipient of honorary doctorates from Lagos State University and Olabisi Onabanjo University. He founded Sulaimon College of Education in Ososa, Ogun State. In April 2024, he was pronounced Asiwaju of Ijebu at a ceremony at the Awujale Pavilion in Ijebu-Ode. He hails from Ijebu Ososa in Ogun State, the same state in which his daughter has now been named the APC's choice for deputy governor.

He is described by Billionaires.Africa as one of Nigeria's leading beverage billionaires and has long been one of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo's most credible indigenous competitors in Africa's largest consumer market.

What the nomination means

Adegunwa-Balogun's emergence as a deputy governorship candidate is a significant crossing of lines between Nigeria's industrial and political classes. It is common in Nigerian politics for business families to maintain relationships with political structures, but direct candidacy at the deputy governor level by a family member who holds a senior executive role in an active manufacturing company is less common.

Ogun State is commercially significant to Rite Foods because the Ososa factory, which manufactures the full range of Bigi, Fearless and Rite products, sits within the state's territory. The state government's relationship with the manufacturing community it hosts is directly relevant to Rite Foods' operating environment.

Governor Abiodun described the selection of Adegunwa-Balogun as a demonstration of the APC's commitment to inclusive development, economic growth and prosperity for Ogun residents. She is described in the party's official statement as a passionate advocate for women's empowerment, youth development, entrepreneurship and institutional excellence.

The 2027 Ogun State governorship election will be contested against the backdrop of a state where Rite Foods is one of the most significant manufacturing employers and where the Adegunwa family's name carries both commercial and community weight stretching back generations.