Origin
Jaffer G. Somji was the father of Nizar, president and CEO of the Jaffer Group. Jaffer was born in 1930 in Tanzania, the son of Indian immigrants pursuing a better life outside of their native land. Dedicated to the betterment of his family and community, Jaffer served in both religious and administrative capacities.
His tireless labour in his small restaurant in Dodoma enabled his three children to escape an increasingly tumultuous political situation in East Africa to pursue higher education in the UK and Canada. The perseverance and entrepreneurial spirit shown by Nizar’s father was a defining inspiration in the success of Matrikon, the Edmonton-based company Nizar founded and built to a leading global industrial intelligence supplier that was purchased by Honeywell in 2010.
As a testament to his father’s influence, and early passing in 1982, all the businesses Nizar operates today carry the Jaffer name in homage to the man whose perseverance and dedication to providing a better life for his family typifies the ‘Canadian Dream’ shared by so many.