Background
Nzeribe was born in Oguta, Imo State on 2 November 1938 to a prominent Oguta family. He is the Ogbuagu, Osniji, Damanze Oyimba of Oguta. His second wife is the sister of Hajia Asabe Yar’Adua, wife of the late General Shehu Musa Yar'Adua, who was brother of President Umaru Yar'Adua.
He attended Holy Ghost College, Owerri, and then got a scholarship from the Nigerian Ports Authority in 1958 to study marine engineering in England. By 1960 he was selling life insurance to black immigrants in Britain. He met Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana that year and started to work for Nkrumah in public relations. He bought his first Rolls Royce a year later. After the fall of Nkrumah in 1966 he lost influence in Ghana.
In 1969 Nzeribe started up the Fanz Organization based in London, dealing in heavy construction, arms, oil brokerage, publishing and property investment, with much business in the Middle East and Gulf states. By 1979 Fanz had an annual trading turnover of £70 million. In Nigeria, Nzeribe built up Sentinel Assurance and other companies. In 1983 he spent N12m to win a Senatorial seat in Orlu. In 1993, he was a prominent supporter of the Association for a Better Nigeria, which backed General Ibrahim Babangida.
Read more about this topic: Arthur Nzeribe
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