Babawande Afolabi is the founder and CEO of Green Africa Airlines based in Lagos, Nigeria. His company has been in operation for over three years since its launch and, over time, has gained recognition within Nigeria.
Table of Contents
While the Green Africa Airline rings the tone to anyone familiar with airlines in Nigeria, many don’t know much about the founder and CEO behind the growing airline, Green Africa. He’s none other than Babawande Afolabi. In this article, we share some of the interesting facts and finds about the CEO, his cars, and his current net worth
Babawande Afolabi Biography
Babawande Afolabi hails from Ife, in Osun State, in the South-Western part of Nigeria. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Economics from Illinois Wesleyan University (2010) and served as student body president. He also holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business (2014).
While much is not known about Mr Afolabi’s personal life, the part of his life that has remained public is his career pursuit. Mr Afolabi interned at Morgan Stanley, an American reputable financial company, where he emerged as one of the 438 students selected for a summer internship at Morgan Stanley. An article published by Illinois Wesleyan University Magazine, 2002-2017, said Afolabi was focused on bringing microloans to Nigeria. According to the magazine, Afolabi applied for an internship with Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO), which places minority students with some of the nation’s top companies.
He’s the oldest of five siblings, whose mother was an elementary school teacher, and his father was a small-scale financial analyst. He said about booth parents, “They both instilled in me the knowledge that education can make things better. I must learn all I can and build my credentials so the financial institutions in Nigeria will truly understand how this can help. Before people change the world, they have to change themselves.”
Since completing his internship in 2008 at Morgan Stanley, Mr Afolabi has gone ahead to make incredible strides in his career pursuit, and it was through this means that his airline, Green Africa, was born.
Babawande Afolabi Career
Babawande Afolabi formed Green Airways after he returned to Nigeria, and currently, he holds the title of the youngest airline owner in Africa. However, Afolabi’s journey did not begin today; he has made strides that have now birth was is considered the most affordable airline service in Nigeria.
Before founding Green Africa Airways, Afolabi worked in the finance and airline industries. His experience includes investment banking for financial institutions and emerging market clients at Morgan Stanley and corporate strategy at American Airlines.
During his time as a student of Political Science and Economics at Illinois Wesleyan University (2010), he served as the student body president. Before graduating from Wesleyan University, Afolabi interned at Morgan Stanley, a reputable investment banking institution in America. After graduating in 2010, he furthered his education in Business, where he obtained an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business (2014).
Starting up Green Africa, Afolabi gathered his international investment financing background knowledge, enabling him to find the airline company that currently flies across Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Akure, Enugu, and Ilorin. His company, Green Africa, has also embarked on another goal of initiating another radical drive of training and offloading into the industry, over 1,440 aviation workers, including 200 captains, 140 flight dispatchers, 500 cabin crew, 100 engineers and about 500 other professionals in the next ten years.
Today, Green Africa’s Board of directors consists of industry veterans, including Afolabi’s former boss, Tom Horton, former chairman and CEO of American Airlines (Afolabi was a summer associate at American Airlines in 2013); William Shaw, current CEO of Interjet; Virasb Vahidi, former CCO of American Airlines; Wale Adeosun, founder and CEO of Kuramo Capital; and Gbenga Oyebode, founder and chairman of Aluko & Oyebode.
Also, Afolabi has set up Teatime Capital, a venture capital that is helping to invest in ultra-small businesses in Nigeria. Green Africa came into the Nigerian aviation sector with low-cost airline fares between N16,500 and N23,000, which is about a 50 to 70 per cent slash in average fares charged by other airlines. Although, there have been questions as to whether the prices will remain low.
According to Olumide Ohunayo, a member of the Aviation Safety Roundtable Initiative (ASRTI), he said: “I would not say the price they have started with will be permanent, it is an introductory offer, but you can be sure that if you pick the first three airlines in the country with the lowest fare in two or three months, Green Africa would be one of them.”
“They have started with a very low-cost aircraft; they are taking a smaller market that fits the Nigerian market, and if they build on that and get good maintenance organizations, continue with the same fleet, get better deals with the manufacturer of such aircraft, the maintenance and cost of operation would go lower, their fares will not increase,” Ohunayo added.
Babawande Afolabi Cars
While much is yet to be known about the cars Babawande Afolabi owns, he runs a company that owns several jets used for business purposes. In 2022, his company placed orders for 50 A220 -300s Airbus jets worth over $92 million.
Babawande Afolabi Net Worth
Babawande Afolabi is the founder and CEO of Green Africa and also the founder of the Venture Capitalist company Teatime Capital, and through these ventures, he has acquired a net worth that is estimated at $2.5 Million.
