Wealthy Nigerian industrialist Razaq Okoya moves to reopen idle Eleganza Lagos factory

Nigerian tycoon Razaq Okoya's Eleganza Industrial City Ltd. is preparing to reopen its idle factory in the Alaba-Suru area of Lagos, reviving a plant that once turned out coolers, plastic chairs and other household goods for the group.

The company said the factory was one of its major production centers and will serve as both a manufacturing and distribution hub once it restarts. It did not give a reopening date, saying only that preparations are under way and that it expects production to resume soon. It also did not say why the plant shut or how long it has been idle.

Eleganza said the restart is meant to expand production capacity, improve the availability of its products and bring manufacturing closer to customers and distributors in Lagos and nearby commercial areas. It told customers its quality standards would not change.

Searching for buyers

The move follows a push that began about a year ago to sell more of what Eleganza already makes. In November 2025, the company launched a nationwide drive for distributors and retailers in all 36 Nigerian states, saying much of its capacity sat underused because of distribution problems and a fragmented retail market. It promised partners steady supply and competitive margins, and said it would hire sales representatives across the country.

Eleganza Industrial City covers 35 hectares and employs more than 3,000 workers. The company has introduced more than 21 new product lines and also makes plastics, diapers, sanitary pads, furniture, beauty products, luggage and packaging for other brands under contract.

"Eleganza has always produced for Nigerians," Shade Okoya, the company's managing director and Okoya's wife, said at the time. "This is about accessibility, opportunity and partnership."

Nigerian manufacturers have been weighing more local production as a weak naira raises the cost of imported goods. Okoya has long argued that Nigeria should build industrial clusters like those that drove China's rise as a manufacturing power.

Okoya, 86, started out as a trader in Lagos and built Eleganza into one of Nigeria's best-known household brands, with interests that later spread into real estate. He is among the country's longest-serving industrialists, and his wife now runs the day-to-day business of the manufacturing arm.