Christopher Tagbo Onyekwelu (born 1898, date of death unknown) was a Nigerian businessman who played a pioneering role in developing an indigenous

recording industry A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, r ...

in the country. He was born in Nawfia,

Anambra State Anambra () is a States of Nigeria, state in Nigeria. It is located in the South East (Nigeria), South-eastern region of the country. The state was created on 27 August 1991. Anambra state is bounded by Delta State to the west, Imo State and Ri ...

and attended a primary school nearby.

Business life

He started trading in

palm kernel The palm kernel is the edible seed of the oil palm fruit. The fruit yields two distinct oils: palm oil derived from the outer parts of the fruit, and palm kernel oil derived from the kernel. The pulp left after oil is rendered from the kernel ...

during the early 1920s and sold most of the produce to the

Niger company Niger, officially the Republic of the Niger, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is a unitary state bordered by Libya to the north-east, Chad to the east, Nigeria to the south, Benin and Burkina Faso to the south-west, Mali to the wes ...

. He later plunged into other ventures such as trading in bicycle spare parts and ragoon rice but he later discovered that

expatriate An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. The term often refers to a professional, skilled worker, or student from an affluent country. However, it may also refer to retirees, artists and ...

firms were formidable competitors who had the potential, connections and resources to drive out their competitors. To find himself a niche, he started importing gramophones for the local recording industry. Expatriate competition was little as the industry was dominated by varied local artists and companies with limited official support. With the help of a few European companies he obtained the facility to help record vernacular tapes abroad. In a few years, he became one of the largest distributors of recorded tapes in Nigeria. After the end of World War II, most of his foreign partners who were located in Europe reneged on their distributional deals. Christopher then decided to build his own factory. However, it took a long time before the factory became a reality and with the help of the German radio engineer

Werner Becker Werner may refer to: People * Werner (name), origin of the name and people with this name as surname and given name Fictional characters * Werner (comics), a German comic book character * Werner Von Croy, a fictional character in the ''Tomb Rai ...

the factory was built up and the first recordings were made in December 1958 - January 1959. In 1961, he formed a joint venture with

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...

which became one of the largest records distributors and manufacturers in Nigeria.

References

Sources

*Tom Forest, ''The Advance of African Capital: The Growth of Nigerian Private Enterprise'', University of Virginia Press (August 1994). Igbo businesspeople 1898 births Year of death missing 20th-century Nigerian businesspeople {{Nigeria-business-bio-stub