Samuel Benjamin Thomas

Samuel Benjamin (Akube) Thomas (fl. 1833 – 1901) was a Sierra Leonean entrepreneur and philanthropist who amassed a large fortune from which he left a substantial endowment for the establishment of an agricultural college. Thomas later developed a keen interest in practical agriculture and possessed the wealth to turn his views into reality. Upon his death, he left a large endowment for the establishment of the first agricultural college in West Africa to train students, not only in the liberal arts or Christian theology, but also in the theory and practice of agriculture.