Nigerian businessman and chairman of SLOK Holding, Orji Uzor Kalu is a self-made billionaire with an estimated net worth of $1 billion as of 2015, according to Forbes magazine.
Kalu was born on April 21 1960 in Abia State, Nigeria. He studied at the Christ the King School Aba and Government College, Umuahia. He studied political science at the University of Maiduguri. He was expelled from the university for spearheading a series of student riots.
When he was 19, he took a loan of $35 from his mother and began trading commodities like rice, palm oil, salt, flour and sugar. Later he diversified into transportation and furniture manufacturing. He was a millionaire by the time he was 20. He became really rich when the Nigerian government awarded him lucrative contracts to import and supply arms and ammunition to the nation’s military and defense forces.
Kalu founded SLOK Holding, which today is a conglomerate with interests in banking, shipping, manufacturing, oil trading and media.
Kalu served as the governor of Abia State from May 29 1999 to May 29 2007. Prior to being elected governor, he served as the chairman of the Borno Water Board and the chairman of the Cooperative and Commerce Bank Limited.
Orji Uzor Kalu is married. Currently he lives in Abuja, Nigeria.
