KEY POINTS
- BUA Foods proposes record N504 billion dividend for 2025.
- Rabiu’s 90 percent stake earns him $323 million gross.
- Profit after tax surpassed N500 billion in 2025.
Abdul Samad Rabiu, founder and chairman of BUA Foods, is in line for one of the largest single dividend payouts in Nigerian corporate history. BUA Foods has proposed a N504 billion distribution to shareholders for 2025, a figure that places it among the most aggressive dividend payers on the Nigerian Exchange Group this year.
The company will pay N28 per share, more than double the N13 distributed in 2024. With 18 billion shares in issue, the total BUA Foods dividend comes to approximately N504 billion.
Rabiu holds 16.17 billion of those shares, a stake of roughly 90 percent. His portion of the payout comes to approximately N452.8 billion, or about $323.4 million gross at a rate of N1,400 to the dollar. Nigeria’s 10 percent withholding tax on dividends would reduce his net receipt to approximately $291.1 million.
A standout year drives a standout payout
Furthermore, the payout reflects a 2025 that moved BUA Foods into a different financial category. Profit after tax surpassed N500 billion as revenue climbed to approximately N1.77 trillion across the company’s sugar, flour and pasta businesses.
The critical driver was cost relief: finance charges fell sharply after heavy foreign exchange losses from 2024 eased as Nigeria’s currency markets stabilized. Revenue growth combined with that cost reduction produced an earnings result that management chose to pass directly to shareholders.
According to Billionaires Africa, the progression over three years says something about the speed of the transformation. BUA Foods paid N5.50 per share for 2023, N13 for 2024 and is now proposing N28 for 2025.
What comes after a record payout
The immediate message from this BUA Foods dividend is clear: the company has the cash and the confidence to distribute at this scale. The harder question is sustainability. Part of the 2025 earnings improvement came from reversing currency losses that weighed on the prior year. If Nigeria’s macro environment turns, input costs rise or exchange rate pressure returns, the earnings trajectory could look different quickly.
Rabiu already controls major interests in cement and infrastructure through BUA Group. Finally, his $323 million gross dividend from a single listed food company in a single year is the clearest illustration yet of how founder-controlled businesses can convert concentrated ownership and strong profit growth into personal wealth at extraordinary scale.
