At the 13th edition of the BusinessDay CEO Forum held on Thursday in Lagos, Haresh Aswani, Managing Director of Tolaram Africa, in a fireside chat, disclosed that the company grew from selling Indomie to building a $1.5 billion deep-sea port because it needed to tackle real life challenges.
Aswani, represented by Adesuwa Ladoja, Managing Director/CEO of Lagos Free Zone, said that from modest beginnings in the 1970s as a trading business, the company has grown into one of Nigeria’s most influential investors, overseeing strategic infrastructure such as the Lagos Free Zone and the Lekki Port.
“From selling Indomie to building a port—people thought we were mad,” she said. “But it was because we were in the trenches with distribution that we understood what needed to be fixed.”