By Moses Akaigwe
Chief Chinedu Benson Madubuko, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of De Chico Investments Limited, a Port Harcourt-based company, is indeed an accomplished entrepreneur with massive interest in the manufacturing and distributorship of a wide range of building materials, including aluminium profiles, stone-coated roofing sheets, and all types of ceiling cladding.
He began his business with a simple strategy of distributing building materials in five locations across Nigeria. The business has grown to become one of the building industry giants in the country.
Over the years, De Chico Group has grown to become a company that caters for the building material needs of various segments of the construction industry in different parts of the country. The company deploys modern strategies to meet the changing needs of the industry.
It dominates the market with state-of-the-art urban planet doors for aesthetics and security, urban planet stone tiles that protect the roofs from leakage and various types of water collector pipes.
Madubuko’s De Chico Investment Limited has not only impacted the economy in a positive way but also created direct and indirect employment.
It has also helped to sustain his many well known philanthropic and charitable gestures, as the company has robust corporate social responsibility programmes in each of its host communities.
One of the channels through which Madubuko executes his philanthropic gestures is the Zeph Care Foundation, a non-profit organisation.
Most of the direct beneficiaries are the less privileged through education, health care services, youth empowerment programmes and widows cooperative societies.
In 2021, Madubuko constructed and inaugurated 16 rural roads in Anambra State. As a way of encouraging other well-to-do indigenes of Anambra State to contribute their quota to the development of the state, he invited a number of other prominent indigenes to commission the roads. They include Factory Road, St. Jude’s Anglican Church/Amaebe Road, Umuogu/Power Station Road, Uruene Road, Uhuabosi Road, Amaebe/St. James Anglican Church Road, Ezeani Chinechendo Road and Ezeanum Road, among others.
Born in 1963, Madubuko hails from Ikenga community, Adazi Ani in Anaocha Local Government Area of Anambra State, where he holds the traditional title of the Ezeani Chinechendo. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Management Science from Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt.
It is for these accomplishments that The Sun Board of Editors chose Chief Chinedu Benson Madubuko for The Sun Entrepreneur of the Year award 2021.