Chairman
Muazzam Mairawani
Founder and Group Chairman, MSM Group
A message from the Group Chairman
For every successful business, there must be great partners
MSM began in 2011 with a small observation: Nigerian farms were being sold fertilizer that did not do what the label promised. We decided to sell them fertilizer that did.
That instinct — find the gap, raise the standard, keep your word — carried us from farm inputs into haulage, from haulage into energy, and now into heavy industry and critical minerals. None of it was a plan drawn up in advance. Each business grew out of a relationship we honoured.
Today the Group announces a discovery on OML 98: an additional 126 million barrels identified by re-interpreting subsurface data we already held, taking the asset from 118 to 244 million barrels. Alongside it sit a cement flagship agreed with the Kebbi State Government and the power and shipping businesses that make both of them work. We are building across Africa’s two coastlines because the African Continental Free Trade Area has turned what used to be export markets into an extension of our home market.
For every successful business, there must be great partners. Reputation is the only asset we cannot rebuild.
About Muazzam Mairawani
Who is Muazzam Mairawani?
Muazzam Mairawani is a Nigerian entrepreneur who founded MSM Group in 2011 and serves as its Group Chairman. He guides strategy across the Group’s oil and gas, cement, power, shipping, agriculture, manufacturing and data businesses, and chairs MSM Frontier Capital Acquisition Corporation.
What is he building now?
Two flagships. OML 98, an onshore Nigerian oil mining lease where MSM reports reserves rose from 118 to 244 million barrels on a management estimate after re-interpreting existing subsurface data. And MSM Kebbi Cement, a US$600 million first cluster agreed with the Kebbi State Government in March 2025, designed to scale to 12 million tonnes per annum.
Where is he from, and where did he study?
He was born in Kano, Nigeria. He holds a BSc in Business Information Systems from Middlesex University London, and completed Diploma and Advanced Diploma courses in computing at Informatics Academy, Singapore.
What is he recognised for?
He is known for his entrepreneurial record. In August 2022 he was conferred with the SDGs Peace Ambassador award by the United Nations International Peace and Governance Council, at its Pan-African Leadership Symposium and Honours Conference in Abuja. The award recognised contributions to philanthropy and sustainable development, and efforts toward peaceful coexistence and inclusive governance across Africa.
Reported by LEADERSHIP, 27 August 2022.
Who makes the decisions at MSM Group?
Strategy runs through a leadership bench whose records can be verified independently: a former Minister of Finance of Nigeria and Executive Director of the World Bank Group; a former Managing Director of ExxonMobil Nigeria and Group Executive Director at NNPC; a former Group General Manager of NNPC Shipping; a former vice-president at PNC in the United States and Chief Audit Executive of a major Nigerian industrial conglomerate; and the 17th President of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations. Reserve certification, audit, securities filings and legal opinions sit with independent advisers outside the Group.