Abdul Samad Rabiu, Nigeria’s second-richest man and the founder of BUA Group, is pushing his food manufacturing empire into one of Nigeria’s most strategically important consumer markets, relaunching BUA-branded rice into the Nigerian market through BUA Foods Plc as his son Isyaku Khalifa Rabiu takes charge of the group’s global procurement and supply chain operations.
The commercial reintroduction of BUA Rice follows years of dormancy in the brand’s rice presence in Nigeria, during which the group focused primarily on sugar, flour, pasta and edible oils under the BUA Foods umbrella. The return of BUA Rice to retail shelves has drawn widespread positive reactions from Nigerian consumers and social media users who welcomed the development as evidence that Rabiu’s group is extending its food price stabilisation efforts beyond wheat and sugar into the staple grain that sits at the centre of most Nigerian household diets.
The relaunch has been driven partly by the appointment of Khalifa Rabiu, Abdulsamad’s son and a Georgetown University McDonough School of Business graduate, as Chief Officer of Global Procurement and Strategic Operations at BUA Foods with effect from January 29, 2026. According to BUA Foods’ disclosure, Khalifa was centrally involved in the commercial re-entry of BUA Rice Mills, overseeing efforts that culminated in the successful reintroduction of BUA-branded rice products into the Nigerian market. He also established a 40-metric-tonne-per-hour animal feed mill and deployed proprietary digital platforms to improve visibility into consumer behaviour, sales performance and distribution across BUA Foods’ operations
