Nigerian oil billionaire Benedict Peters donates 50 gunboats and drones to Navy

Nigerian oil tycoon Benedict Peters has donated 50 assault gunboats and drones to the Nigerian Navy to help tackle crime in the country’s waterways, This Day Live reported.

Peters made the donation through his Lagos-based company, Aiteo Global Group.

Peters is a Nigerian oil merchant and founder of Aiteo Group, one of Nigeria’s largest indigenous oil-producing firms. As of November 2014, he had an estimated net worth of $2.7 billion.

In April, through his Bravura Zimbabwe (Pvt) Limited, Peters moved to offset a $15-million debt that Zimbabwe owes to Amari Holdings Limited, a BVI-based miner founded by South African entrepreneur Mike Nunn.

His donation to the Nigerian Navy includes 21 gunboats, 14 operational patrol boats, seven houseboats, four airboats, four high-speed interception inshore patrol boats, long-range surveillance drones and four high-definition cameras.

According to Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo, the donation supports the Nigerian Navy’s 2021-2030 strategic plans on inter-agency and sub-regional cooperation.

“This is a milestone in our collaborative engagement with corporate, maritime stakeholders to rid the nation’s maritime environment of criminal elements and economic saboteurs,” Gambo said. “These platforms will enhance the navy maritime security architecture and bolster our maritime security operations effort.”

Aiteo

Aiteo is an international oil and gas company, with comprehensive, integrated capabilities in Nigeria’s upstream, midstream and downstream sectors.

The company is developing a pipeline of power-generation projects across Nigeria. It plans to transform the oil-rich Niger Delta into a power-generation hub and ultimately to tackle Nigeria’s power challenges through legacy investments in the gas-to-power value chain over the next five years.