{"id":"tonye-cole","type":"person","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/tonye-cole","language":"en","name":"Tonye Cole","name_en":"Tonye Cole","name_ne":null,"description":"Nigerian busunessman","headline":"Nigerian busunessman","also_known_as":[],"summary":"Tonye Patrick Cole (born 11 January 1967) is a Nigerian billionaire businessman, he is the co-founder and former Group Executive Director of Sahara Group an energy conglomerate with operations spanning the entire energy chain in Nigeria and neighbouring West African countries to East Africa and beyond. The Group operates in 38 countries around the world with over 4,000 employees and annual turnover of $11 billion. He was directly responsible for building the Group's global expansion and upholding her corporate governance principles, maintaining her status with global institutions like the World Economic Forum, where he was a key member of Partnering Against Corruption Initiative (PACI), The United Nations), where he was a pioneer member of the advisory board of the Private Sector Advisory Group for the UNDP Sustainable Development Group Fund (SDG-F), The African Philanthropy Forum amongst others.","summary_more":["In addition to founding and running one of Nigeria's largest energy conglomerates, he also spearheaded and developed work carried out for the Sahara Foundation globally. He continues working to inspire the youth of Africa through charities such as his NGO, Nehemiah Youth Empowerment initiative, which aims to influence change in Africa by bringing together young and emerging leaders to develop and implement practical strategies that will produce positive outcomes for millions and more recently, Behavioral Health Institute (BHI) that he set up for the study and management of behavioral health issues especially among the youths in Nigeria. In addition, he works closely with a number of foundations in Nigeria including the Down Syndrome Foundation, Slum-2-School Foundation, The Compassionate Center and various orphanages.","He served as a board member for Atlas Mara, Bloomberg TV Africa, Enactus Nigeria, Nigerian Chamber of Shipping and Digital Jewels. He is also a member the…"],"facts":[{"key":"born","label":"Born","values":[{"text":"11 January 1967","date":"1967-01-11"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q33523285#P569"}},{"key":"birthplace","label":"Place of birth","values":[{"text":"Abonnema","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4668297"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q33523285#P19"}},{"key":"citizenship","label":"Citizenship","values":[{"text":"Nigeria","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1033"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q33523285#P27"}},{"key":"education","label":"Education","values":[{"text":"University of Lagos","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1782980"},{"text":"University of Brasília","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1330634"},{"text":"Harvard Business School","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q49126"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q33523285#P69"}}],"office":null,"sections":[],"cited":[],"cited_from":null,"videos":[],"last_reviewed":null,"organizations":[],"same_as":["https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonye_Cole","https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q33523285"],"faq":[{"q":"When was Tonye Cole born?","a":"Tonye Cole was born on 11 January 1967 in Abonnema."},{"q":"Where did Tonye Cole study?","a":"Tonye Cole was educated at University of Lagos, University of Brasília, Harvard Business School."}],"related":[{"name":"Albert von Thurn und Taxis","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/albert-von-thurn-und-taxis"},{"name":"Daniel Och","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/daniel-och"},{"name":"David Bonderman","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/david-bonderman"},{"name":"Dennis Gillings","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/dennis-gillings"},{"name":"Doron Kochavi","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/doron-kochavi"},{"name":"Drayton McLane","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/drayton-mclane"},{"name":"Edgar Sia","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/edgar-sia"},{"name":"Edythe Broad","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/edythe-broad"},{"name":"Eric Sprott","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/eric-sprott"},{"name":"Heidi Horten","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/heidi-horten"},{"name":"Ira Rennert","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/ira-rennert"},{"name":"Julia Stoschek","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/julia-stoschek"}],"places_in":[],"nearby":[],"image":{"url":"https://diginpl.com/kb-img/tonye-cole-117dcfac89.jpg","width":500,"height":590,"license":"CC BY-SA 4.0","credit":"Chaunboi","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tonye_Cole.jpg"},"sources":[{"label":"Wikipedia (English): Tonye Cole","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonye_Cole","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"},{"label":"Wikidata item Q33523285","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q33523285","license":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/"},{"label":"Image: Tonye Cole.jpg by Chaunboi (CC BY-SA 4.0)","url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tonye_Cole.jpg","license":null}],"license":{"text":"CC BY-SA 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/","facts":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/"},"attribution":"Text from the Wikipedia article Tonye Cole, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page's text is shared under the same licence. Facts from Wikidata (CC0). Image: Tonye Cole.jpg — Chaunboi, CC BY-SA 4.0.","cite":"\"Tonye Cole\". DigiNepal. Last updated 31 October 2026. https://diginpl.com/people/tonye-cole. Retrieved 6 November 2026.","date_modified":"2026-10-31T11:28:20Z","facts_checked":"2026-11-06","alternates":{"html":"https://diginpl.com/people/tonye-cole","en":"https://diginpl.com/people/tonye-cole","ne":"https://diginpl.com/people/tonye-cole?lang=ne"}}