Who is the Toronto millionaire who recently gave $150,000 to residents in the Danzig public housing complex?

Akanimo Udofia, 43, a Nigerian born CEO and Harvard University grad who lives in Yorkville, seemingly popped out of nowhere when he appeared at City Hall a few weeks ago for an event announcing his donation.

Dressed in a chic dark suit and polished shoes, the tall man with the deep voice told the meeting, which included several local city councillors and the CEO of Toronto cheap jerseys Community Housing, that he was moved to give the money after being by images and news he saw of this summer shooting on Danzig St.

are all parents we cannot continue to just fold our hands and watch this happen, he later said, referring to the slayings at the barbecue in Scarborough that killed Shyanne Charles and Joshua Yasay and wounded 23 others July 16.

Udofia money, which is being allotted over three years, is slated to be used for initiatives at Toronto Community Housing Danzig St. development, such as new computers and Internet access, after school programs for young people, and scholarships. medical professionals, including doctors and nurses, to be flown to Nigeria to help treat 400 patients in Akwa Ibom State, where his family is from.

I (attain more), I think the only natural thing to do is give, Udofia says, explaining the motivation behind his philanthropy.

Nigeria is one of the world largest oil producers. Lagos born Udofia got into the oil business as a young man; he took over from his father as CEO of Desicon Engineering Ltd., a firm that conducts engineering, procurement and construction services for Nigeria oil and gas industries.

The company provides services to international oil giants such as Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron, and has $100 million worth of contracts with the businesses and interests it deals with, according to its website.

Udofia is also the Nigerian director for ENI Saipem, a massive oil and gas cheap nfl jerseys operation based in Italy.

Udofia, who brought his wife and three daughters here about three years ago, has made Toronto his base, but flies back and forth to Nigeria frequently, often with stops in London and other European cities.

He says 95 per cent of his business revenue and income continues to flow from Nigeria and West Africa generally.

Fabian Nwaoha, president of the Nigerian Canadian Association of Greater Toronto, doesn know Udofia personally but says there are other Nigerians like him in Canada. Skilled professionals employed in Nigeria oil industry as investors, contractors or engineers, for example, are coming here while maintaining ties to the African country.

can do Wholesale NFL Jerseys your business from any part of the world, Nwaoha said in an interview.

Nigeria, Africa most populous country with 162 million inhabitants, has seen its share of violence. Thousands have died in sectarian clashes, particularly attacks led by Boko Haram, a militant Islamist group influenced by Al Qaeda.

The southern state of Akwa Ibom has had serious problems with violent kidnappings, many related to local politics.

come from Africa and Nigeria, I seen sad occurrences and incidents. So for me, (giving to Danzig residents) was another opportunity to reach out to the less privileged, Udofia explained in an interview.

When he presented the money at city hall, he said: want those present here, who as far as I concerned have a privileged life, to act as role models to each and every one of them (in Danzig). later added: not enough to just say it happened over there (in that neighbourhood). We have a lot of challenges in the world today a lot of us aren paying attention to the less privileged. Ray Lewis, the group executive director, said the money was used to purchase computers for a library in the group community centre.

lot of our kids don have access to computers and the Internet, so it was a useful and practical gift, Lewis said.

A close friend in Toronto who attended university in Nigeria with Udofia in the 1980s said that guns and gang membership were the furthest things from their minds as students.

were all busy in university, you know what I mean? The challenge was who was going to outperform whom with our grades, said the friend, who works in the financial industry.