Abdulkabir Adisa Aliu is a name that might not be synonymous with partisan politics; his boardroom expertise and excellent grasp of the Nigerian economic space have earned him a presidential clarion call.
Those who know have already passed a verdict of round-peg-in-a-round-hole on the appointment of the Group Chief Executive Officer of Matrix Energy Group, Aliu, as a member of the Presidential Economic Coordination Council (PEEC), an elite body of eminent Nigerians mandated to come up with sustainable ideas to bolster the nation’s economic governance framework and ensure robust and coordinated economic planning and implementation.
Aliu appointment has been adjudged as another masterstroke from President Tinubu, whose headhunting talents game is reputed to be among the best in Nigeria. There is no controverting the fact that President Tinubu has a knack for fishing exceptional brains to support and help actualise his visions, a trait that has been his winning ace from his time as Governor of Lagos State to when he led the opposition to unseat the then ruling government till now when he occupies Nigeria’s seat of power.
The high-power economic council, which is headed by President Tinubu himself, has Vice President Kashim Shettima as Vice-Chairman, and Senate President, Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, 12 key ministers and Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, representing the public sector as members. The unassuming but robustly cerebral Abdulkabir Aliu joined Aliko Dangote, Tony Elumelu, Abdulsamad Rabiu, Segun Agbaje and few others from the organised private sector. This national call might have heralded adulations and felicitations from far and wide for Aliu; he rather sees this as a life-time opportunity to roll up his sleeves and render his best to assist President Tinubu to chart a vibrant course for the Nigerian economy.
Aliu, over the last 20 years, has grown Matrix Energy Group from a modest supply and distributions operation to a fully integrated petroleum products marketing and trading company with clients and suppliers all over the world. Under his leadership, it took less than ten years of operation for Matrix to be listed as one of Nigeria’s 100 best performing businesses in Nigeria. He has proven himself a professional in business development and also possesses diverse competencies cutting across the spectrum of Engineering, Finance, Trading and Logistics. A visionary and leader of repute, Aliu is a humanitarian par excellence whose philanthropic exploits have provided succour and scholarships to tens of thousands of people and indigent students, respectively, through his Abdulkabir Aliu Foundation.