Tonye Cole reveals how Sahara Group adopted foreign identity to win early contracts

Co-founder of Sahara Group, Tonye Cole, has revealed that the company initially adopted a foreign identity to overcome bias against young Nigerian entrepreneurs in the oil and gas industry.

Cole disclosed that Sahara Group was registered in the Isle of Man and operated as an expatriate company in its early years, with a fictitious British figure known as “Dr J” presented as the face of the business to improve its credibility with prospective clients.

Speaking on the Afropolitan podcast published on Wednesday, the businessman said the strategy was a response to what he described as the prevailing “colonial mentality” in Nigeria, where foreign-owned companies were often perceived as more competent than indigenous firms.

According to him, he and his partners, who were in their late 20s at the time, struggled to convince clients that they could successfully run a business in the oil and gas sector.

“We would go into offices and realise that if we went in as young 27, 28-year-old people and said that we own the company, the people sitting there would be looking at you as if, ‘Who are you? You can’t do that,'” he said.

Cole explained that after observing that most successful companies in the industry had foreign affiliations, the founders decided to register Sahara abroad and create the impression that it was led by an experienced expatriate.

He said they enlisted the help of one of their former teachers, who became the fictional “Dr J,” while they presented themselves as employees of the foreign company.

“We set up this company where we were representatives to ourselves, but we would just go there and say, ‘Look, we are staff.’ They felt they were helping young Nigerians working for an expatriate company,” he said.

Cole noted that the approach opened doors that might otherwise have remained closed and helped the company establish itself in the competitive industry.

However, he said the arrangement lasted only about three years before clients began asking questions about the mysterious “Dr J,” whose signature appeared on company documents despite never appearing in person.

Reflecting on the experience, Cole said it highlighted the structural barriers young Nigerian entrepreneurs faced at the time and the lengths they had to go to earn credibility.

He also recalled that his entrepreneurial journey began while studying architecture at the University of Lagos, where he and his partners started a business producing architectural models before later founding Sahara Group, which has grown into a multinational energy company with operations across several countries.