Juwon Lawal (born 22 October 1979) is a Nigerian businessman and energy executive. He founded Africent Group, renamed Crestal Group in 2025, and serves as its group chief executive officer and as chief executive officer of JuWonOil LLC. His business activities have included petroleum-products trading, marine-fuel supply, shipping logistics and agro-processing. In 2020, the International Association of World Peace Advocates named him Eminent Peace Ambassador.
Early life and education Lawal is from Yagba East Local Government in Kogi State. As a teenager, he worked in his father’s palm-kernel-oil business during school holidays and weekends. After his father’s death in 1999, he became more involved in the business and subsequently provided consultancy services to people establishing small- and medium-scale palm-kernel-processing businesses.
He studied Business Administration at Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, and later earned an MBA from the same institution. In 2025, he graduated from the management development programme of Imperial College Business School.
Career Lawal entered the energy sector in 2005. In 2007, he incorporated Stevepel Energy Resources Limited, which operated in the petroleum sector. He later engaged in maritime logistics through S.T. & L. Bunkers Limited, a supplier of marine fuels and related services.
From 2009, S. T. & L Bunkers Limited supplied automotive and industrial lubricants as well as marine fuel. Its activities were later continued under ABD Fuels Plc, where Lawal served as managing director by 2012. In a later interview, Lawal said that vessels used by the company were lost in January 2010, after which the business was restructured.
S8 Contractors & Company Limited later continued some of the activities formerly undertaken by ABD Fuels, focusing on logistics-support services for the petroleum industry.
Between 2016 and 2019, Lawal served as a senior trader for Winson Oil Trading Pte Ltd in Singapore. According to the maritime publication Ship & Bunker, his work at Winson Oil Trading and S.T. & L. Bunkers included bunker supply.
From Africent to Crestal Group In 2017, Lawal established Africent Group as a holding company for businesses operating in energy, maritime services, agro-processing and other sectors. The group operated companies in Nigeria, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates.
Its businesses included AfricentOCL UK, Africent Industries, and Eleven Ocean Limited, established in 2023, whose reported activities included mining logistics, drilling services, and infrastructure development. Its operations also included KreekAfrica, an online freelance marketplace launched in 2020.
In November 2024, AfricentOCL UK was renamed JuWonTankers UK Limited. The company’s registered activities covered energy brokerage, shipping and transport-support services.
Africent Group was renamed Crestal Group Limited in February 2025. Lawal remained group chief executive officer. The reorganisation consolidated several of Lawal’s businesses under the Crestal Group name.
JuWonOil In September 2024, Lawal established JuWonOil LLC in Houston, Texas. Ship & Bunker reported that the company was the exclusive Texas distributor of Q8 marine lubricants.
Recognition and others In 2013, Lawal received the Young Entrepreneur of the Year award at the Global Excellence Recognition Awards. He was also reported to have received the organisation's Businessman of the Year award in 2020. That year, the International Association of World Peace Advocates also named him an "Eminent Peace Ambassador". He served on the Forbes Business Council from 2020 to 2022. Lawal is a regular contributor to business perspectives in Africa.
References