Lanre Sam Akinkunmi

Lanre Sam Akinkunmi (born April 30th 1989 in Kaduna) is a Nigerian serial entrepreneur and investor. He is the co-founder of the largest stand alone palm nut processing plant in Sub Saharan Africa. Golden Seed Ltd under Akinkunmi’s leadership and innovation has become one of the largest biomass producers in Nigeria. The company is also known for its relationships and exports to several power plants and industrial users spread across Europe, CIS and Asia.
Akinkunmi is known for his extraordinary work in the food and agro-allied industries. His innovative methods and approach to harness the potential found in raw materials is highly attributed. To bridge the gap in the Crude Palm Oil (CPO) production chain, Akinkunmi invested to create a 155,000 tonne capacity palm nut cracker which has turned out to be one of the major successes, earning him appreciation from the industry experts.
 
Akinkunmi aims at promoting a stronger oil palm industry in order to provide sustainable living to the small scale farmers where they are benefited with his large scale venture. Akinkunmi’s company Golden Seed supports over 2000 palm oil millers, almost two thirds of the Nigerian population living in villages. This company has brought in an influx of investments, consumption and exports in these rural areas which has created sustainable job opportunities for the people.
Akinkunmi for his extraordinary work has been published in several media outlets including The Guardian, NNN, The Business Day and The Nation.
== Early life and education ==
Lanre Sam Akinkunmi was born in Kaduna to Olusengun Akinkunmi and Dorothy Akinkunmi on April 30th 1989. Akinkunmi was raised in a middle class family, his father was an accountant at the Unipetrol Nigeria PLC and his mother worked at Peugeot Automobile Nigeria. Akinkunmi’s family moved to Lagos when he was about 3 years old. 
Akinkunmi went to the University of Lagos where he majored in banking and finance. When Akinkunmi was in college he learned the ropes of commerce by buying stocks in the banking consolidation era with a group of friends at the age of 16. By the age of 21 he started trading solid minerals like zinc and lead ore exports from Northern Nigeria to commodity houses in Geneva. 
In 2011 Akinkunmi joined PwC for the compulsory NYSC. He then went to pursue his master's degree in trade and finance at Cass Business School in London. 
== Career ==
In 2011 Akinkunmi joined PwC for the compulsory NYSC. PwC is an accounting organization comprising a network of firms spread across 157 countries. 
In 2017, Akinkunmi co-founded Ceres Oil with Ilkin Shahverdiyev. Ceres Oil develops Oil palm plantations across west Africa. Ceres owns two brownfield assets that cover over 500ha in Edo State including oil palm milling facilities. 
In 2019, Golden Seed Fats & Oil was co-founded by Akinkunmi which developed the largest SubSaharan palm nut processing facility that included over 2,000 small scale oil millers across Nigeria. Golden Seed Fats & Oil majorly deals in edible oils and focusing on the palm kernel oil value chain.This venture was started with the aim to overcome the non - availability of cracker equipment in Nigeria. In July 2020, Golden Seed Fats & Oil started Goldenseed Plantations with a focus on investing and acquiring large scale government owned plantations in PPP structures. This project was started with the motive of empowering small scale farmers of the West African countries.
Golden Seed Fats & Oils aims at helping the local farmers by facilitating social investments such as pre-financing for operations, harvesting, milling operations and after production. Akinkunmi’s firm is currently working on integrating its carbonisation stove to process palm kernel shells to charcoal as a means to service the cement industry.
== Personal Life ==
Lanre Sam Akinkunmi is fluent in English and Yoruba. 
== References ==
== External links ==
* Official website
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Category:Nigerian investors
Category:Nigerian entrepreneurs
Category:1989 births
Category:Nigerian company founders