How Tayo Ayeni’s 63rd Birthday Soirée Dazzled Banana Island

On Sunday, December 28, 2025, Tayo Ayeni marked his 63rd birthday at his Ikoyi residence. With the setting being Lagos’ most patrician neighbourhood, the mood leaned festive, confident, and carefully staged. After all, the evening was to double as a celebration of Ayeni’s recent honorary doctorate.

The guest list read like a panoply of wealth and power. Aliko Dangote was there. Ogun State governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun proposed the toast. Senior politicians, financiers, and social fixtures filled the compound with a punctilious sense of arrival.

The dress code was Black and Bling. It worked. Diamonds caught the light. All-black tailoring gave the night a sybaritic restraint. Afrobeats carried across the water. Premium champagne flowed with a confidence that suggested it would not run out.

This follows a familiar pattern. Ayeni’s milestone birthdays have become social markers. His 50th and 60th set similar standards. Family celebrations have drawn comparable attention. In Lagos society, consistency of spectacle counts as its own currency.

Ayeni is best known as the chairman of Skymit Motors, a luxury automobile dealership he founded in his late 20s with N500,000. Today, the company posts annual turnover in the billions, serving high-net-worth clients and corporate fleets. His rise tracks Nigeria’s taste for imported prestige.

Beyond the spectacle sits a more mercantile story. His Italian education shaped his taste for luxury vehicles. His business instincts kept the operation tightly held and quietly expansive.

According to associates, philanthropy runs alongside indulgence. Ayeni mentors young entrepreneurs and speaks frequently about focus and discipline. The raffish exterior masks a methodical view of success, one shaped by patience rather than impulse.

The cake-cutting closed the night. Guests counted from one to 63. His wife, Adetutu, stood beside him. The moment felt convivial, almost modest, given the scale around it.

By morning, Banana Island returned to calm. What lingered was less the bling than the pattern it confirmed: in Lagos, influence first announces itself softly, then fills the room until no one doubts who convened it.