Meet The American Billionaire Sponsoring Chibok Schoolgirls

An African American billionaire, Robert Smith, is sponsoring the education of 24 Chibok schoolgirls in American University, Yola, in Adamawa State.

His identity was revealed yesterday by Garba Shehu, senior special assistant on media to President Muhammadu Buhari, at an interaction with journalists in Abuja.

The billionaire, Mr. Shehu also revealed, is offering to take responsibility for the 21 girls freed in October and all the others who will hopefully be eventually set free.

He is a 54-year-old businessman, who attended good American colleges such as Cornell and Columbia universities. At Cornell, he picked a bachelor of science in chemical engineering and an MBA at Columbia. He lives in Austin, Texas.

According to a short bio written on him by Forbes, he was the son of PhD holders and was bussed across town to his school in the early days of desegregation.

“He later convinced Bell Labs when he was in high school to give him an internship typically only available to college upperclassman by calling them weekly for five months.

“Smith quit Goldman Sachs to open his own private equity shop, Vista Equity Partners, in 2000.

The company is said to be worth over $26 billion.

“Neuberger Berman bought a stake in the $16.9 billion (assets) Austin, Texas firm, best known for fixing up enterprise software outfits, in July 2015,” Forbes reported.