Sir Anthony was a businessman, investor, philanthropist and a former council president of the Lagos Stock Exchange.
He was born on June 11th, 1907 in Kinshasa, Zaire of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and he died on May 26, 1991 in Lagos, Nigeria.
Anthony at a young age, after few years in Congo, moved to Lagos for his education. He attended; St Peter’s School Faji, Methodist Boy’s High School, Ijebu-Ode Grammar School, CMS Grammar School, and Baptist Academy, all in Lagos.
He later traveled to Germany and England to study palm oil making and later established M. de Bank Brothers, a general merchant firm originally trading in Palm Oil and then patent medicine. After both businesses were not very successful, he switched to importing watches, clocks and fountain pens. At one time, he was the third largest seller of fountain pens in Nigeria after UAC and the United Trading Company.
Bank Anthony’s business began to pick up at the onset of World War II when prices rose in the country benefiting traders like him who had large reserves of goods before the inflationary pressures.
In the 1950s he brought in a few European firms to Nigeria and was one of the earliest Nigerians to become chairman of a European company when in 1950, after introducing an Italian firm to the Nigerian market, he became chairman of the Italian Construction firm Borini Prono and Company. The firm was later involved in the construction of the Ijora Causeway, Benin-Asaba road and the Sapele-Onithsa road.
Anthony acquired shares in a few companies during his business career including Weide Nigeria Limited that dealt with completely knocked down electrical parts, an Italian partnership called Motor Parts Industries, a plywood business venture in Cross River State and the Nigerian arm of May and Baker, Pressed Metal Works.
