Nurudeen Abba-Kyari Becomes Billionaire Rice Merchant

While many billionaire heirs spend their time squandering the frills and thrills of their fathers’ estates, Nurudeen Kyari, late Mallam Abba Kyari’s son, devises ingenious means to make a name for himself and establish his own business empire. No doubt, money chants its ornate poetry in Kyari’s treasure chest perhaps because he took the money shot – Cha ching! – time and over again, with the stamina of a warrior, and the agility of the quintessential marksman.

The son of the late former Chief of Staff (CoS) to President Buhari, Nurudeen, owns a rice mill. Like his father, he is evidently restrained and unostentatious but those who know him attest to his brilliance and enviable sagacity. Apart from being financially solid, Nurudeen is one of the young men pulling the agro-business strings in Abuja and the entire north with his hi-tech rice mill valued at a staggering N10 billion.

It would be recalled that three years into his father’s reign as Chief of Staff, Nurudeen established Virco (Velox Integrated Rice Company) Group, an agribusiness firm focused on the rice value chain in Nigeria. The company operates a four-tonne per hour rice processing plant in an industrial cluster in the Federal Capital Territory. It describes its flagship brand, Azyro Rice, as “one of the finest quality rice grains in the Nigerian rice market which grains are stone, chemical and dirt-free, and easy to cook with a result that is firm and non-sticky.”

Virco commenced operations with Azyro Rice production and distribution in February 2018 being milled by a third party until the establishment of its mill in September 2019. Sources say this would not have been possible without his late father’s influence and financial support.

Aside from its parboiled rice, the company is also involved in agri-business consultancy, the sale of black rice, a by-product of the rice milling process, which is separated during the milling and selection process for its slightly darker appearance that makes it unsuitable for the final packaging; and it also offers third party milling to clients who desire to mill their paddy in its rice mill facility in Abuja. A statement on the company’s website describes Virco as the ‘now and future of rice production and distribution in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa.’

Riding on his late father’s influence, Nurudeen nicked the multi-million naira contract to bag 5kg rice for Governor Rotimi Akeredolu’s campaign during the last Ondo State governorship election. He has done so for many other governors especially during the 2019 general elections.

Nurudeen is one of the four children of Kyari, reportedly Nigeria’s most powerful Chief of Staff ever. Kyari died in April 2020 due to complications arising from COVID-19. He was 67. In his late 20s, Nurudeen schooled at Port Regis, a co-educational preparatory school situated between the towns of Shaftesbury and Gillingham on the Dorset-Wiltshire border in Southern England, and Marlborough College, England. He is a 2013 Chemical Engineering graduate of the University of Edinburgh and also a First Class graduate of International Business with Finance and French at the Regent’s University, London