Nigerian lottery magnate Kessington Adebutu's Wema and Vitafoam stakes exceed $300 million

Nigerians spent nearly five decades buying lottery tickets from Kessington Adebutu. He spent the proceeds buying a bank.

Wema Bank's audited accounts for 2025 record Neemtree Limited holding 11,872,844,847 ordinary shares, or 29.59% of the lender. Neemtree is a special purpose vehicle Adebutu incorporated in 2013 to accumulate positions in targeted companies, and it makes him the bank's largest single shareholder.

Valuing that holding is imprecise. Wema last traded at ₦34.10 on April 30, the same day it touched an all-time high of ₦36.00, and no more recent price is publicly available. On that close the stake was worth ₦404.86 billion, about $291.27 million at ₦1,390 to the dollar.

The position has been growing steadily rather than dramatically. Neemtree held 28.26% at the end of the 2024 financial year and 29.59% a year later. Brokers first noticed a strategic investor mopping up the stock in 2019, when the holding stood near 27.7%.

A second vehicle, SW8 Investment Limited, raised its stake to 26.87% from 17.08% across the same period. Between them the two entities account for 56.46% of the bank, against 6.23% held by government-related bodies.

The bank has repaid the patience. Wema reported pre-tax profit of ₦222.07 billion for 2025 on revenue of ₦420.61 billion, up 79.6%, with earnings rising 125.4% to ₦194.48 billion. It passed ₦1 trillion in market value for the first time in February and returned 67.2% over the first four months of this year, after a 146.7% gain in 2025.

Adebutu collected ₦14.84 billion, roughly $10.5 million, in gross dividends in April, after the bank declared ₦1.25 a share, its most generous payout in eight decades.

The second listed position is smaller and has moved faster. He holds 150,401,972 shares in Vitafoam Nigeria, a 10.02% stake, worth ₦29.30 billion, or about $21.08 million, at ₦194.80 a share.

Billionaires.Africa valued that same holding at $4.35 million in June last year. He has bought nothing since. Vitafoam opened 2025 at ₦23.00 and has since run 747% to near its all-time high.

Earnings drove it. The foam manufacturer closed its 2025 financial year with profit of ₦14.54 billion, an increase of 1,427% on the ₦952.2 million posted in 2024, on revenue up 34.8% to ₦111.38 billion. Currency losses that had wrecked the prior year fell sharply as the naira steadied. The company carries a market value of ₦292.40 billion and trades on about 11.6 times earnings, against a peer average near 39 times.

Adebutu is not even the largest individual holder there. Samuel Bolarinde, who ran Vitafoam until 2002 and chaired it until 2013, holds 12.03%.

Combined, and using the most recent price available for each, the two stakes come to roughly ₦434.16 billion, or $312.35 million, by Billionaires.Africa's calculation. The Vitafoam figure is current, the Wema figure is three months old, and the total therefore understates the position if the bank has held its level.

A third listed holding sits alongside them. Adebutu owns 69.9% of Arbico Plc, the construction company, giving him three positions on the Nigerian Exchange.

Premier Lotto, the business that funded all of it, was founded in Lagos in 1977 and became the dominant gaming operation in the country under the name every Nigerian uses instead, Baba Ijebu. It runs through more than 200 principal agents and 16,000 retail representatives, taking stakes measured in hundreds of naira at kiosks across Lagos and the southwest.

Adebutu was born in Iperu, in Ogun State, in October 1935, making him 90. He started work as a salesman. His son Ladi Adebutu stood as the People's Democratic Party candidate for governor of Ogun State.

He is still adding. At 90, with a stake in a bank that has more than doubled in two years, the vehicle he set up in 2013 bought more Wema shares last year than it held the year before.