Pascal Gabriel Dozie, the Founder of the defunct Diamond Bank Plc and former Chairman of MTN Nigeria, passed away at 85, just a day before his 86th birthday.
Dozie, who also served as chairman of Pan-Atlantic University, died on Tuesday (today).
Born on April 9, 1939, he was said to have been suffering from an age-related illness.
Diamond Bank, which he chaired and handed over its leadership to his son, Uzoma, one of his five children, has since merged with Access Bank Plc.
Dozie was born in 1939 in Egbu village, Owerri, Imo State.
He was born into the family of Charles Dozie, who was a Catholic catechist.
He attended Our Lady’s School, Emekuku, where he obtained his First School Leaving Certificate.
He subsequently attended Holy Ghost Juniorate Seminary and Holy Ghost College, Owerri, where he obtained his West African Senior School Certificate Examination.
After obtaining his high school certificate, Dozie travelled to London where he studied Economics at the London School of Economics and obtained a BSc in economics.
Subsequently, he attended City University in London, where he studied operational research and industrial engineering and obtained a master’s degree in Administrative Science.
Dozie began his career as an economist at the National Economic Development Office in the United Kingdom.
He was also a part-time lecturer at the North Western Polytechnic, London.
Between 1970 and 1971, he served as a consulting economist at the African States Consulting Organisation in Uganda.
In 1971 after he left his job in Uganda, he relocated to Nigeria at the request of his mother.
In 1971 after his return to Nigeria, with his experience in Econometrics and Industrial Engineering he launched his first company, the African Development Consulting Group.
ADCG had worked with companies such as Nestle and Pfizer.
Dozie was subsequently hired by Clement Isong, the then Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, to conduct some studies on the Co-operative and Commerce Bank.
In 1985, he was appointed Chairman of Progress Bank, which is now defunct.
Later that same year Dozie applied for a banking licence in order to help traders in South-Eastern Nigeria who were faced with banking problems.
This brought about the birth of Diamond Bank. At its inception the share capital of the bank was N10 million ($28,000) with only 21 interested shareholders.
In 1990, he satisfied the requirements of the Central Bank of Nigeria to operate a standard bank and in 1991 the Diamond Bank began operations.
He was CEO of Diamond Bank from 1991 to 2006 when he handed over to his son Uzoma Dozie.
Dozie was also at one time President of the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
He owned shares in MTN Group and was chairman of the company.
He later resigned as the chairman and was succeeded by the former NCC boss Ernest Ndukwe.
Pascal was married to Chinyere Dozie and they have five children.
