BELLA DISU Footprints of an Emerging Corporate Titan 

GLITZ PERSONALITY

Despite being the offspring of fame and fortune, Bella Adenuga-Disu, one of the daughters of Dr. Mike Adenuga, the multibillionaire chairman of telecommunications giant, Globacom, is expertly negotiating her way through a universe that has not always made space for women, charting her own course and fearlessly taking up a conspicuous space for herself. Inadvertently, the power and pull of her entrepreneurship attainments may be making space for a new generation of young women who are willing to interrogate their fears and achieve greatness, writes
LANRE ALFRED

Without much ado, Bella Adenuga-Disu epitomizes the saying that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. The daughter of Dr. Mike Adenuga Jnr, whose entrepreneurial ingenuity and vision gifted Africa Globacom – to bridge the communication gap in the continent, portray and project Nigerians and Africans in good light and spur them to achieve their dreams – Bella is gradually inching her way to the pantheon of global corporate titans, making history every hour to which she industriously adds page after page, volume after volume as if nature were holding up a monument to her exploits.

On January 1, 2021, Bella was appointed as the chairman of the Board of Directors of Abumet Nigeria Ltd, a full-service aluminium and glass solutions provider with 30 years’ experience delivering innovative high-quality aluminium and glass products and services within the Nigerian building construction sector. She replaced Dr. Bamanga Tukur, who faithfully served as the chairman and founding father of Abumet.

In an Instagram post, she wrote, “I am deeply honoured at the responsibility to lead this great company to new frontiers. Taking up this baton is easier because of the foundation laid by our outgoing board chair, Alhaji (Dr.) Bamanga Tukur CON. I look forward to a successful and impactful tenure with the executive management and my fellow directors.”
Bella will chair Abumet Nigeria Limited, which considers itself the reliable partner of choice for aluminium and glass products in Nigeria with its state-of-the-art factory in Abuja and strong partnerships with leading global suppliers and systems manufacturers.

If being a genius is genetic, then, it is no surprise that Bella has stepped fully into her father’s high-flying entrepreneurial shoes. Bella is blessed with beauty and her father’s razor-sharp intellect. Really, it is hard not to love her. She is the kind of daughter every father prays for: brilliant and business savvy. Yes, genius becomes the gene of the Adenuga clan. It seeps from one generation to the other, like the expensive but subtle fragrance worn by kings and coveted by minions living too close to royalty.

Being the daughter of a billionaire is enough fame already. But Adenuga Jnr’s daughters are not moulded like other billionaire’s offspring. They are decent and respectful. Bella knows how to hold her ground, tame business rivals, and avoid distractions capable of impeding the smooth roll of her exploits in every field of endeavour. Even as a billionaire’s daughter, Bella keeps a low profile and avoids any form of scandal that can jeopardize her name and that of her family. She is one young lady who has matured more than her age.

You could be forgiven for imagining that she was shepherded by her father who persistently counselled her that where strength fails, boldness at least will deserve praise. Hence, her inexorable dash for the summit of achievement in her business endeavors.
Bella is unusual. She exudes the savvy of the ancients, the type of spunk that spurred medieval Amazons to dare and surpass exploits that were the exclusive preserve of men.  She glows from the inside out; every brilliant shade of her persona, from her enthralling felinity to her assertiveness, conveys a sphinx-like allure. The woman is a fire starter no doubt; a stunning equivalent of a contemporary superwoman: posh and intelligent. A renowned icon of female power on the business realm, Bella is a star, a pioneer, and a workhorse with monumental focus.

These towering traits have led in no small measure to her speedy rise up the entrepreneurial ladder of commerce and acclaim. Her meteoric rise, according to a lot of her friends and business associates, is actually worthy of her exertions and diligence in her patient, steady march along the path of ambition and entrepreneurship.

She was a precocious 14-year-old when she was admitted into the University of Massachusetts, Boston. She has been at Globacom since 2004. Despite her father’s wealth and high profile job, she has a good head over her shoulders, shuns silver-spoon affectations, and even before her marriage in 2010, never dabbled in the debauchery prevalent among her peers. Bella, indeed, has put in the works and has earned everybody’s respect and love for her work ethic and effortless people skills.

Indeed, she has evolved from a shy young lady learning the ropes in her father’s company into the shot-caller at Globacom as the executive vice-chairman. Globacom is the flagship brand in the Adenuga billion-dollar empire and Bella is the face.
In her role as the executive vice-chairman, she has been representing her father across the globe, at international business meetings, interacting with global political and business leaders. Just recently, she was at the Africa CEO Forum holding in Kigali, Rwanda, where she was pictured in the same row with several African presidents. She later visited the Rwandan President, Paul Kagame, in his office, stating, “I commend President Kagame for his exemplary leadership and for the tremendous success Rwanda has achieved under him. Like President Kagame, I have no doubt that greater integration will lead to continental growth and a more prosperous Africa. Globacom is committed to Africa’s economic renaissance.”

Her utmost ambition, she disclosed in an interview, is to overtake MTN. One of the ways she hopes to achieve that is a deal she signed on behalf of Globacom with Vocalcom, a company that will harvest complaints made on social media about network issues in real-time and push the information to the appropriate department to fix.
“Now, that channel will feed directly into the call centre,” she said.

There is no gainsaying Bella exemplifies a totally modern yet timeless construct of audaciousness and femininity which manifests as a blend of dashing individuality, genius, and noble pedigree.  Yes, she is reputed to have inherited her dad’s back-breaking work ethic, saying, “We exchange work text messages at 3 am.” No wonder she was honoured recently with the ‘Chevalier dans l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres’ (the Order of Arts and Letters) usually given by the French government to recognize eminent artists and writers, and people who have contributed significantly to furthering the arts in France and throughout the world.

The award is given at three levels: Commandeur (Commander), Officier (Officer), Chevalier (Knight). Bella got the Chevalier (Knight), which comes with a medallion worn on ribbon on the left breast, for having shown an abiding commitment to important social issues and her “significant contribution to the enrichment of the French cultural inheritance.”
Aside from Globacom and Abumet, Bella is also a director at construction giant, Julius Berger Plc, where Adenuga has a controlling stake. She also owns Cobble-Stone Properties & Estates Limited, a property development, and marketing company, which has a robust portfolio of residential and commercial properties in Nigeria, handled and oversaw from conception to execution of the Mike Adenuga Alliance Française Centre, Ikoyi, Lagos.

The latter project was inaugurated by the French President, Emmanuel Macron who commended Adenuga’s love for the arts and investment in the centre, and Bella’s endearing enterprise. The company, in 2019, unveiled a 10-storey high rise called, ‘Sisi Paris’ comprising 18 units of luxury serviced apartments; nine three-bedroom apartments with a two-room BQ and nine four-bedroom apartments. It also has an expansive three-bedroom penthouse with a two-room BQ. Paris is the name of her daughter.