A dominant figure in the economy of many West African countries and especially Nigeria, he was awarded the title of Babalaje of Egbaland by Alake Ladapo Ademola.
In 1920, he took up a job opportunity in Nigeria working at a trading post in Nwaniba, Akwa Ibom State.
Leventis then formed his own company and started out as a produce buyer, partly financed by some British cotton manufacturers.
He was assisted in the new venture by his brother C. P. Leventis, who organized the Nigerian branch in 1942, and a friend, G. E. Keralakis.
Within a few years, the Nigerian company expanded its business line from cotton exports to merchandise trading and secured new sources of supplies.
He developed a friendship with Archbishop Makarios III, who appointed him Cyprus' ambassador to UNESCO and awarded him the medal of St. Barnabas.
It has a primary focus on the cultural heritage of Cyprus and Greece, especially reflected in its collections of Cypriot antiquities displayed in several museums around the world, its restoration of cultural monuments, and its sponsorship of scholarships for postgraduate work in several fields including archaeology and agriculture.
[5] In 1987, the A. G. Leventis Gallery was opened in the British Museum to display Cypriot antiquities from the early Bronze Age to the Roman era.
[10] The earliest records of his family go back to the 18th century, when a young ancestor had traveled to the Peloponnese to join the abortive 1770 uprising against Ottoman rule (known to history as the Orlov revolt).