Chinedu didn't wait for applause. The rankings were noise; what mattered was action.
Ghana came first.
Through Imperial Real Estate, he finalized a joint venture with Accra's city government to build affordable housing estates linked directly to new transport corridors. Imperial Communications followed, securing a license within weeks thanks to his reputation and media storm. His launch announcement in Accra drew tens of thousands—ordinary citizens already familiar with his name through Nigerian media.
"They said it was impossible," a Ghanaian journalist remarked, "but Obasi has brought a Nigerian company here, and people are cheering."
Côte d'Ivoire came next.
Imperial Restaurants opened its first West African franchise in Abidjan, pairing local Ivorian flavors with Nigerian innovations. Imperial Transport deployed new buses linking Abidjan to Yamoussoukro, painting the Imperial crest across highways. Within three months, Imperial's name was on lips across the Francophone belt.
The African press began to write of "Imperial West Africa," as if it were already a regional institution.
Ireti and Tunde noticed something brilliant in Chinedu's moves: he wasn't overwhelming new markets with everything at once. Instead, he planted "anchor subsidiaries" first—transport, real estate, communications—each creating loops that fed the others.
It was exactly how he had grown in Nigeria, but now on a continental stage.
As the African Union summit approached, commentators speculated.
"Obasi will be tested," one Kenyan paper wrote. "It is one thing to dominate Nigeria, another to speak for Africa."
But when AU delegates reviewed the briefing reports, they saw numbers: new jobs, new estates, new infrastructure, already happening in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. Unlike other tycoons, Chinedu would not arrive empty-handed.
He would arrive as a man whose footprints were already spreading across borders.
The night before his flight to Addis Ababa, Chinedu stood on the balcony of his Lagos mansion, lights of the city reflecting in his eyes.
"Tomorrow," he thought, "I don't just speak for myself. I speak for every African who believes we can own our future."
Behind him, his aides prepared documents—maps of roads in Osun, solar farm sites in Enugu, transport grids in Ghana. Evidence that when Chinedu spoke, he delivered.
And so, by the time his plane lifted off, the continent was already whispering a new title:
"The African Builder."