Gbenro Adesina
Foremost industrialist, Chairman of Madandola Group and Parakoyi Of Ibadanland, Chief Bode Akindele has died this morning in Lagos at 87.
Chief Bode Akindele was born to Pa Joshua Laniyan Akindele, who was a Chief Tax Clerk for the whole of the Western Region and and his mother, Alhaja Rabiatu Adedigba, a wealthy Ibadan trader who was politically influential and noted to be the first woman to go to Mecca in Ibadan.
Chief Akindele’s business empire operates under the name Modandola Group Of Companies, named after his mother, with several business interests from maritime to properties, manufacturing, real estates, investments, finance and flour milling with its headquarters in the United Kingdom.
Among the subsidiaries of the Madandola Group are Standard Breweries, Ibadan, Diamond Foods Ltd, Ibadan, United Beverages Ltd, Ibadan, Associated Match Industry, Ibadan, merged with Ilorin, Port-Harcourt and Lagos to form a company with a large share of the Nigerian market and Standard Flour Mills in Lagos.
In his bid to empower youths and raise a crop of entrepreneurs who will shape Nigeria’s future, his foundation – Sir Bode Akindele Foundation – in collaboration with the Good Worker Ministries International, the University of Ibadan and the Federal University of Technology, Akure put together a programme known as the Bode Akindele Yield Initiative (BAYI), to turn millions of youths into innovators, entrepreneurs and leaders.
A philanthropist, Chief Akindele made the highest donation of N100 million to the Oyo State COVID-19 Endowment Fund recently.
He was honored with the Honourary Degree of Doctor of Letters from the University of Ibadan in 2018 at the Institution’s 70th Foundation Day.
Chief Bode Akindele is the father of one of Nigeria’s greatest fashion designers, Folake Akindele-Coker.
