The bicycle parts trader from Burkina Faso who built a $9 billion banking empire
Billionaires Africa | 11.05.2026 17:59
In 1984, Idrissa Nassa was a young trader moving bicycle parts and consumer goods across West African borders. Nobody who watched him navigate that business could have predicted that four decades later, he would be standing on the stage of the Africa CEO Forum receiving the continent's most prestigious banking award. But that is what happened, and the journey between those two moments is one of the more remarkable stories in African finance.
