| Honorific Prefix: | Chief |
| Abdulwahab Iyanda Folawiyo | |
| Honorific Suffix: | CON |
| Birth Date: | 1928 6, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Lagos, Nigeria |
| Nationality: | Nigerian |
| Education: | Management |
| Alma Mater: | University of North London |
| Occupation: | Founder, Yinka Folawiyo Group Nigeria Limited |
| Spouse: | Princess Abbah Folawiyo |
| Children: | Tunde Folawiyo (son) |
Chief Abdulwahab Iyanda "Wahab" Folawiyo, CON (16 June 1928 – 6 June 2008) was a Nigerian businessman and philanthropist.[1] In 1957, he founded Yinka Folawiyo & Sons, which has become the parent company of the Yinka Folawiyo Group of Companies.[2] [3] He was born in Lagos to Pa Tijani, a wealthy local merchant, during the British colonial era.He attended the University of North London in 1951, where he read Management, specialising in Ship Brokerage. He returned to start Yinka Folawiyo & Sons, an import and export business. Folawiyo was also the first African-descended Principal Member of the Baltic Exchange in London.
Folawiyo established Yinka Folawiyo and Sons in 1957, a business that later grew to have interest in various sectors of the Nigerian economy. Initially, Folawiyo and Sons developed relationships with building and construction material firms in various Eastern European countries.[4] The group imported cement and sugar from the former Soviet Union, then later introduced building materials from Romania and Bulgaria into the Nigerian market. In 1967, the firm was incorporated as a limited liability company. When Folawiyo and Sons' revenues increased, the firm began chartering vessels to bring in commodities including cement, building materials, frozen fish and fertilizer.
To provide logistics support for the firm's trading operations, the group established Maritime Associates (International) as a vessel chartering, clearing and forwarding company. The company was later invited to bid for shipment of agricultural produce from Nigeria to Europe. In 1972, the group established Green Lines shipping company when demand for chartering of ocean liners increased. M.V. Ahmadu Tijani, a 10,826 dead-weight ton carrier was purchased in 1973 as the first ocean liner. By 1980, the firm owned six vessels and had joined the UK/West Africa Lines Joint Service and the Continental West Africa Conference. In the 1970s, regular service was provided between Hamburg/Antwerp and Lagos. The firm later acquired M.V. Bello Folawiyo and M.V. Yinka Folawiyo in the mid 1980s.
As a philanthropist, he was active in several social and religious (particularly Muslim) endeavors. He funded the establishment and construction of mosques throughout the country, including both the Lagos Central and Surulere Central mosques in Lagos and the Sultan Bello Mosque in Kaduna. He also funded the Bab Es Salam Home for orphans in Lagos.[6]
He died in the early hours of 6 June 2008, at his residence in Queens Drive, Ikoyi, Lagos, at the age of 79 surrounded by his family. He was buried, by Muslim dictates, on the same day in the Central Mosque's burial ground meant for imams of the mosque; only two other people besides Folawiyo, Imam Ibrahim Otun and Imam Murah, are buried in the cemetery.[7]