Chief Molade Okoya-Thomas, one of Nigeria’s most prominent and successful businessmen, is dead.

Okoya-Thomas was the chairman of CFAO Nigeria Limited, a Lagos-based industrial conglomerate engaged in the wholesale trade of automobiles, building materials, technical equipment, electrical equipment, and agricultural equipment.

Okoya-Thomas was born in Lagos on June 8, 1935 to late Hussam Okoya-Thomas and late Alhaja Suwebat Okoya-Thomas (née Gbajabiamila, Otun Iya Adinni of Idita Mosque).

He was a philanthropist and sports enthusiast who solely sponsored the popular annual Asoju Oba Table Tennis Championship in Lagos for more than four decades. He held the Nigerian national honor of Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic, and was a recipient of the Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur, the highest national honor given by the French to a foreigner.