How This Couple Grew This Mighty Food Outlet,Tantalizers Into One Of Nigeria Fastest Growing Fast Food Chain

Folu & Bose Ayeni are co-founders of Tantalizers, Nigeria’s fastest growing fast food chain with Folu Ayeni, CEO of Tantalizers. In 1997 when they produced the blueprint for their business, Ayeni and his wife, Bose, knew the odds were against them. Raising the start-up capital of N2.5 million seemed a wishful thought, going by the reputation of Nigerian banks in giving loans to business start ups. They were not disappointed. Banks shut their doors on them, but they held unto their dream. Today, these same banks spruce up their sweet-talking business executives and send them after Ayeni, offering all kinds of financial support.

At the beginning, when they took their proposal to their bankers, their bankers told them they did not finance such businesses. They never gave up hope. They persisted until the then Prudent Bank (now Skye Bank) decided to take a chance on their dreams. This paid of handsomely.

Today, Tantalizers has more than 30 outlets nation-wide and are now looking beyond Nigeria. We plan to expand to the West Coast, South Africa and the United Kingdom.

The husband and wife team run Tantalizers, which is low listed in the Nigerian Stock market as a public limited liability company. The International Finance Corporation (IFC), and arm of the World Bank in February 2010 granted $7Million in loans and took $1.5Million equity in Tantalizers to help take the company to the next level. This will be used to upgrade about 15 outlets and build more new outlets. From looking for a N2.5million start up capital in 1997, the husband and wife team has grown a company which has become a national brand and institution in Nigeria.
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The Tantalizer Story

My grandma sold rice, mum sold rice, and I also do because my teacher advised me to stick to family business…

“In my final year in the business school, there was this lecturer some of us asked what kind of business to go into after graduation.

“Because we had this fantastic MBA certificate, he looked at us and smiled, saying “if you are not Bill Gates, if you have not invented something that you can patent immediately, I will advise you to go into a business that your mother or father did successfully. Now apply your newly acquired knowledge from the MBA class and make it a better business. That was the opening comment of Mr. Folu Ayeni, Managing Director Tantalizers Nigeria Limited in a discussion.

That is why today I am selling rice and beans. My mother sold rice, my grand mother sold rice and so I am selling rice. So don’t go into business unless you have competitive advantage. That is what you have and other people don’t have and that becomes your strong point.

When we started Tantalizers, we invested N2.5 million and information at my disposal from our auditors is that our gross profit is about N4 billion for the financial year which will be published in few weeks time, but how much did we invest in the business when we started?

It is usual for SMEs to blame the infrastructure, the lack of knowledge on feasibility study, the banks and a host of other things considered to be limitations.

Ayeni said, I have seen a lot of Small and Medium Scale Entrepreneurs (SMEs) go down with wonderful ideas, just because of the short sight limitations. Limitations of finance, collateral etc. and what I want to tell such people is that: You don’t win a lottery by wishing, you win lottery by first buying the ticket, like every other person that is expecting a win. You might or might not win but the first step is to buy the ticket.

SME Operators

I am not going to blame the governments over lack of infrastructure, or the banks for lack of finance options for the SMEs, though I still have an ongoing battle with the banks. No doubt, the government is not making anything easy for the SME. Take a look at the state of the infrastructure in the country, which is in the worst possible way.

What are the goals of the SME operator in Nigeria, what are the responsibilities an SME operator needs to take up to be successful? The Nigerian entrepreneur; is just like a goal keeper who was asked why did you allow so much balls into the net, his response was “ “whenever the opposing side striker shoots the ball towards the net, the ball turns to three balls and I don’t know which one to catch and that is why we were defeated with so large a margin.

The coach now responds that: “if you had just caught just one of the three balls, we will be able to register it. That there were actually three balls and two landed in the net while the keeper was able to catch one of them and here is the evidence but now that you have caught none, your story sounds unbelievable. That is just the way a typical Nigerian entrepreneur paints the challenges facing his or her success.

But if you play your role properly as an SME operator then you are probably going to end up succeeding, and that will enable us to focus on the bank and the government who are not playing their roles adequately in developing the SME project in Nigeria.

Tantalizers’ Experience

The Tantalizers’ experience is real because I went through the mill. What I am going to say is not something I got from one SME bookshelf, but practical life experience. The summary of it all is that we survived by the grace of God. It was not everything I know now that I knew then. If I had known half of what I know now things would have been much easier.

Go and start, don’t talk about finance, start first and everything starts with an idea. Money in most cases follows good idea and that is the reason you must start first. Don’t wait until you are sure of a loan without collateral. If you are waiting for that you may never start anything.

Selecting Business

Look into your environment, look at what you can do that is very good, a lot of people choose a line of business just because they saw somebody succeeding in that line of business and they join the fray without knowing what actually is going on in the business. You see somebody establish business and you don’t know if it is financed with money from 419 deals, you also open a similar business. The objective is not to make profit but to launder money, so you must first know and understand the business you want to start.

Do an objective appraisal of the business and know if is it easy to start the business, and extent of capital needed. I know someone who wanted to start a consultancy outfit, he came to Victoria Island to hire an apartment and furnished it to taste without a single client, and six months later he was bankrupt because he had no single client to call a customer. He could not get a single consultancy job to do and all his investment went down the drain.

He failed because before the business started he had a bloated overhead which the business cannot sustain. As an SME, start small and don’t build unnecessary overhead into your budget. Allow one person to play several roles. When we started my wife was the managing director and the production manager. She wakes up about 5am to go to Mile 12 to buy tomatoes and other raw materials. She will be back in Festac before 8 am, then we will prepare the meal, get to the cash point and by 9 pm she will do the account. Those days we made about N11, 000 everyday.
Subsequently, we started putting in structures though crude and rudimentary.

Plan Growth

If you are successful in one outlet then you must build another, but look before you leap. That you are successful in one area does not translate to automatic success in another area, so there is need to plan for what you are going to do. This is where wisdom is necessary. If you are opening business in a new location you must look at the business environment from the angle of your strength and weakness there. If your weakness outweighs your strength and you must be there, then you must strategies on how to penetrate the market or you may run into problem.

Buy Expertise

You can’t know everything or do everything. You cannot do the job of four persons. The major problem of the SME is keeping proper account books. We clocked 10 last year and it is still one of our problems. We get accounting software and people don’t still know how to use it, rudimentary bookkeeping for some SMEs is not there. All they do is sell some and consume some of the product they sell and there is no way you can break even like that. Start the business and put yourself on a salary from the out set. Separate your finances from the finances of the business.

Checking Fraud

You have to lead from the front. If you don’t want your workers to steal from you as the owner of the business, don’t steal from yourself. Do you know that some people steal from their own company? It is simple. When you ask your procurement manager to inflate the cost of importing your products and at the end of the day your staffers decided to sell part of the product because its not moving and you are annoyed, why are you annoyed you have already stolen, so if others are stealing they are just following your example. Once you lead from the front then you would have succeeded in establishing a culture and the culture wil transcend the whole organisation

Reference:Sun Newspaper Sept 2008

Raymond Dokpesi – Daar Communications, AIT's Story

Born on 25th October 1951 at Ibadan, Oyo State, to the Dokpesi family from Agenebode in Edo State he attended Ebenezer African Church School, Ekotedo, Ibadan; Loyola College, Ibadan; Wyzsza Szkota Morska Gdynia, Poland; and University of Gdansk Sopot, Poland. Born without a silver spoon, Dokpesi started early in life when he had to help his mother sell rice and dodo at the age of 16.

As a pioneer student of the present University of Benin, then Midwest Institute of Technology (MIT), it was difficult to raise the initial 10 pounds loan to deposit as tuition fees. The Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, gave him a scholarship to a Polish university.

With a first class Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Engineering, a Master of Science degree in Marine Transport Engineering and a Doctor of Economic Science degree in Marine Transport Engineering Chief (Dr) Raymond Anthony Aleogho Dokpesi worked as an Assistant Lecturer at University of Gdansk Poland and had the dream of becoming a professor before he met Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who invited him back home in 1978. He then joined the Federal Ministry of Transport.

In 1984, he set up the African Ocean Lines with Chief M. K. O Abiola, General Shehu Musa Yar A’dua and Alhaji Bamanga Tukur. In 1989 he resigned from the company to go solo. His venture into broadcasting when he discovered a gap in information dissemination in the process of his tour of local governments during a political campaign.

And so on on August 16, 1994, Ray Power 100.5 FM was born. In April 1999 a second channel, Ray Power 2, 106.5 FM commenced operation, before then African Independent Television was already on air. AIT on 20th September 2004 launched it’s satellite television network United States of America.

A pioneer, Raymond Dokpesi, chairman of Daar Communications is the first Nigerian to start a private shipping company and the first individual to own television station. The initial funding came from Daar Investment Holding Company, the founder, Chief Dokpesi and a consortium of banks led by Union Bank Plc.

It was not an easy for the communication house, as it has to wait for six years after incorporation to start operating. Also the Sani Abacha regime closed the station down almost immediately after it opened it doors. Then in 2000 the consortium of banks decided to withdraw from its original agreement of financing the station. In 2003 its Abuja office was also gutted by a mysterious fire.

AIT is now viewed across many states of the federation. AIT International transmits throughout the continent of Africa, throughout the Mediterranean, the Americas as a whole, the Caribbean and Europe. AIT is listed in the Nigerian Stock market.

This Is Super Story:How Cosmas Maduka of Coscharis Group Moved From Being An Underage Apprentice to A Multi-Billionaire

In today’s Nigeria, the name Cosmas Maduka is synonymous with Coscharis Motors. And why wouldn’t it be since the bearer of the name is the multi-billionaire Chairman/CEO of Coscharis Group of Companies and sole distributor for BMW in Nigeria.

Dr. Cosmas Maduka’s success is one that everyone knows of, but let’s go through his journey to success together.

Cosmas was born in Nnewi in Anambra State into poverty. At age four, he lost his father and had to resort to hawking bean cake (Akara) and climbing palm trees before the age of five, to assist his mother. Three years later, when things seemed to get worse instead of better, he was sent by his mother to his maternal grandparents in order to lessen her task of providing for him and her other three children. At age seven, little Cosmas was withdrawn from Elementary Three to serve as an automobile apprentice to a maternal uncle in Lagos.

Talking about this, he says “My maternal uncle lived at Ebutte-Metta in Lagos and had a store at 88 Griffy Street, near Oyingbo Bus-stop. He took me to work as an apprentice for him, and people laughed at me and questioned what I could learn at my age.

The uncle Cosmas was to learn from had no home of his own but was squatting with a friend, hence, Cosmas had to sleep at the store while his uncle locked him in and went home with the keys to the store.

Cosmas was born into the Catholic faith, however, he had deserted the faith as a young man. He was later to find back his Christian faith when a friend invited him to the Redeemed Christian Church of God at Ebutte-Metta while still in Lagos. It was here he found again his Christian faith and was not ready to let it go again.

The answer to those who doubted Cosmas’ ability to learn the trade was that at age nine, he had effectively mastered his craft and would, on behalf of his Uncle, travel alone to Nnewi to purchase items. At the age of 14, his boss was so confident in his abilities that he sent him to work in one of their branches at Sokoto and later, at Nnewi, where he was born.

All through this time, there was no contract binding himself and his Uncle together. This was later going to cause a fatal setback for him, or the launch pad into his success, depending on how you look at it.
 

In 1975, while still at Nnewi at the age of 14, Cosmas had a church camp he had to attend. His boss came into town on the fourth day and on discovering his absence, sent for him and his elder brother. Upon their arrival, he gave him N200, asking him to go concentrate on his new found faith. That was how his service in the employ of his Uncle was terminated.

Talking about the event, Cosmas recalls “It was done to punish me, but having known a little about God, I looked at him in the eyes and said, `God hardened the heart of Pharaoh to show His might in the land of Egypt. I served you well, and I don’t deserve this. But if this is what you have to offer me, five years from today, you will be amazed at what you’re going to see out of this”, he painfully recalls.

With this setback, Cosmas embraced a positive attitude. Talking about this, he says, “I’ve always been very positive from my childhood and this often made people laugh at me to scorn. I still recollect those days at Oyingbo Bus-stop when school children would mock me, and I would tell them I was going to be better than them in six years. I do not know why I was so confident, but the truth is that my mother inspired and encouraged me always.”

After his dismissal from his Uncle’s employ, Cosmas teamed up with his elder brother who had concluded his apprenticeship and was ready to set up a company, Maduka Brothers, selling spare parts. This partnership was not to last as they later had to part later due to ideological differences, leaving him with a capital of N300.

It was with this capital that he started his own enterprise of coming to Lagos to buy goods. He had his first breakthrough when he went to Boulous Enterprises to purchase motorcycle spare parts. It was here that he stumbled on a new innovation called motorcycle crash ban. He bought several of this and then removed the address of Boulous from the carton so that others would not know where he bought them from.

Recalling the incident, Cosmas says“I sold everything the next day and joined the night bus again to Lagos to buy more. I did that four times in one week and my capital rose from N300 to over N3,000. I settled down in marriage at age 19, and I ventured into importation with the little capital I had. Lo and behold, I received the wrong consignment and therefore, had a serious setback which left me indebted even to my landlord for months. My shop was also locked.”

This major setback notwithstanding, Cosmas was willing to start over, hence, he searched out a scale which he got as a wedding gift, took it to the market, and from everyone who climbed it, he got 10kobo. Upon knowing what her husband went out to do each day, his wife cried and then decided to pick up a job to support the family.

With proceeds from the scale enterprise, he was able to team up with a friend, David and they set up a company called CosDave. His partnership with David also had to end due to ideological differences which led him to finally set up the popular Coscharis Motors, now Coscharis Group of Companies. Speaking on the idea for the name, Cosmas says “Coscharis is a combination of three letter words from my name and that of my wife, Charity.”

For Coscharis, the real breakthrough came when in 1982, the Nigerian government decided to grant import licenses to 10 Nigerian companies and Coscharis was one of those selected. From then up till now, the company has continued to expand, and as of date has several subsidiaries.

From his experience, Cosmas advises: “You can start any mean job as a stepping stone to where you want to be.”

We can also glean this one lesson that it isn’t about where you start from, but where you end up. 

Reference:CP Africa

How Deji Akinyanju Built Chicken Republic From Scratch To A Multi-Billion Naira Business

After 16 years in the United Kingdom, Deji Akinyanju returned home to found one of Nigeria’s most successful food retailers.“I felt driven to go back and make an impact,” he said on his decision to return home.”It was at the time of transition from military rule to democracy and I wanted to help build an entrepreneurial private sector.”

Today, 42 year old Akinyanju heads one of Nigeria’s fastest growing retail chains valued at about $120 million. With about $2 million (N320 million) in seed funding raised from family and friends, he initially had a franchise deal with Chicken Licken, South Africa but quickly established his own brand Chicken Republic. In 2003, he opened a bakery outlet, Butterfield Bakery (a South African brand), which soon became Nigeria’s largest bakery. Deji also own Reeds Thai Restaurant in Lagos and the St. Elmos Pizza franchise in Nigeria.

According to him, “we revolutionised the concept of buying international brands into Nigeria. Ever since then, new brands have come into the market. And we set the standard, changed the eating experience for Nigerians and introduced a friendlier, world-class ambience into food.”

He says that the market is being driven by the youth. “They want to associate themselves with modern brands and modern ways of eating.”

Since founding Chicken Republic he has grown it to over 70 outlets. When asked by CNBC earlier this year on how his business ventures became successful, he said, “When I started, I didn’t have much experience. If you have passion, the rest is easy to learn, but you can’t teach somebody to be passionate.”

However, success came with its burdens and challenges. In the early years, his company acquired quite a bit of debt to fund its expansion. “We had a strong cash flow but we also had obligations to banks and the business wasn’t profitable. We spent a lot servicing our debt.”  In 2008, his company raised an additional $30 million to finance its expansion plans.

 

According to him, “There is still no strong brand across West Africa, so for instance if you were to go to Ghana you will find three stores run by a particular brand and if you were to go Ivory Coast, you may not find that brand in Ivory Coast, so we have this entire West coast market.”

Deji eventually plans to open three hundred Chicken Republic stores in Nigeria and a thousand Chicken Republic stores in Africa before 2013.

“Nigerian brands want to be global brands,” he says. “And why not? We have a lot of foreign brands in our market. If you apply the right principles, it doesn’t matter where you come from— you should be able to fly anywhere.”

“We strongly believe that with all the tools, in funding and human resources, and proper backing in business, we certainly can do 300 to 500 stores in this country, because we see that there is a younger population, we all know that we have may be 70 percent of our population under the ages of 18, and is a growing population, a lot more people are eating out, so that cultural change is happening daily.”

This year, Food Concepts (parent company of his food retail brands) signed a $20 million investment deal with the International Finance Corporation (the IFC), to improve its safety and corporate standards, and to expand into Ghana.

In true entrepreneur style, despite his many ventures, Deji this year ventured into chicken farming, opening a chicken farm 200km out of Lagos. He aims on becoming the country’s largest poultry distributor. “There is an unbelievable shortage of chicken in the country,” he says. “The Nigerian market is three times as big as South Africa’s yet South Africa’s largest chicken factories produce 3 million birds a week. In Nigeria it is just 100,000.”

Reference...CP Africa

 

How Kehinde Samson,The Sweet Sensation Food Outlet Brain Grew It From Nothing To Something

 

Kehinde Kamson, Founder of Sweet Sensation Confectionary Limited, a successful chain of quick service retail restaurants in Nigeria has an inspiring story every budding African entrepreneur or aspiring entrepreneur can learn from.

Her story is proof of how one’s passion can grow into something larger than one’s self and can become a source of livelihood for hundreds and even thousands of Nigerians.

Sweet Sensation was not her first business venture. She had earlier started a “little shop” called “Fishmongers” while working as an accountant at an oil service company  where she sourced for fish among fish mongers around Lagos. She operated this business for five years but the business fell through as she discovered it was not sustainable.

She decided to instead start a pastries and cakes business which would tap into her childhood love for baking and cooking. She named this business, Citicate – the City Caterers.

Through Citicate, she catered for functions and continued to run it while keeping her full time job as an Accountant. According to her, she would wake up early in the morning at about 3am and then afterwards would deliver her pastries to various clients before heading off to work.

Eventually she quit her full time job to run Citicate full time when its demands became unbearable. She began supplying her cakes and pastries to University of Lagos where she says her pastries were quickly becoming popular especially Medilag, the University of Lagos Medical School. Soon, she began supplying to UTC and Leventis and then eventually, Mr. Biggs. This was a major win for her small but growing business and was part of the inspiration that encouraged her to found Sweet Sensation.

According to her:

Mr. Biggs inspired me beyond imagination. It was not just the boost in my sales but the impressions I had as I watched on a daily basis their sales staff counting away loads of cash. I must confess I found that cash counting sight very inspiring!… The cash counting at Mr. Biggs went on the whole day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. My prayer point became,  “Lord, make our money counting session be as long as Mr. Biggs!”

Four years after supplying to Mr Biggs, she decided to establish her own brand. This was how Sweet Sensation was born.

She started Sweet Sensation at a shed in the backyard of her family home where she set up a small bakery. She then moved to what she calls, “her first shop” which was the security/gate house at her father’s house in Ilupeju. Here she sold solid cakes, ice cream, rice, chicken and some Chinese food. Her young business expanded rapidly and she soon yearned for yet another shop. This led her to found the brand’s second outlet in Victoria Island.

Though other brands such as Tantalizers and Tastee Fried Chicken (TFC) soon joined the quick service retail space, she strove to differentiate her brand by focusing on creativity, specifically on menu diversity and the ambience of Sweet Sensation outlets.

Despite the growing competitiveness of the space, she set up yet more stores in Opebi and Ogba in Lagos.

How she funded her business

According to her, in the early days she didn’t rely on loans to fund her business. However, she took a loan of about N5 million during the fourth year of running the business and subsequently at different stages henceforth to fund the business’ expansion. She ploughed back the business’ profits and lived an austere lifestyle to support the business’ growth.

Challenges

Like many business owners in Nigeria, Kehinde Kamson faced many business challenges while growing Sweet Sensation. Key among these was standardizing the business’ processes and recipes. It was also difficult to deal with challenges peculiar to the NIgerian business environment such as poor power supply. She also suffered from pilfering issues among staff. Most crucially, in 2009, she faced regulatory issues when the  National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) queried the company for falling short of regulatory standards in one of its branches. Though she insists that this was a false allegation, this was a trying period for the business as it impacted public perceptions of the brand.

Lessons learnt

Now in its 18th year of its existence, Kehinde Kamson’s founding of Sweet Sensation into a successful and well known brand offers many lessons to Nigerian entrepreneurs.

In her recently published book, Pots, Pans and Spoons,  she dispels several entrepreneurial myths that she thinks aspiring entrepreneurs should be skeptical of. Check out some of them below:

1. That you need a great deal of money to start a business

2. That you need to start big and with a bang

3. That you need a lot of contacts to start a business

4. That the business will be profitable within the first year

5.That all you need is hardwork

6. That all you need is a great idea, business plan and a feasibility study report

7. That you cannot have a well rounded life as an entrepreneur who wants to succeed

8. That when you start a business you must expand immediately

Kehinde Kamson is an inspiring African entrepreneur worthy of emulation and we hope you pass her story on.

Reference...CP Africa 

The Grass To Grace Story Of Mr Samuel Adedoyin Of Doyin's Investments Nigeria Limited

Hello how are you doing today hope very good,sincerely speaking yesterday was a hell of work for me at my school that was why I was unable to make any post at all...Also Happy Happy New Month...May the blessings of God abide and stay with us this month even into the new year 2015 IJN...Amen

Today I bring you this story about this Nigerian Entrepreneur I read some couples of years ago that really moved my cheeks...yeah read for yourself its about Mr Samuel Adedoyin of Doyin Group,its a household name in the Nigerian business Environment.

Samuel Adedoyin was born in Lagos on December 4, 1935. He spent his early childhood at Agbamu, a small village near Oro, in Kwara State, Nigeria, where his parents hails from. After completing Standard Four at St. James School, Ilorin, Kwara State, he left for Lagos at the age of 11. In Lagos, he joined his father, Prince Solomon Olaosebikan Adedoyin, who traded in bicycle parts, tools and some other wares.

Determined to leave the shores of Nigeria for greener pasture, the young Samuel left for Apapa port where he struck a bargain with some sailors to be stowed in a cargo compartment on a ship bound for England.

His luck ran out when he was found at Takoradi port in Ghana. Still determined not to return home, he begged to serve as a houseboy to the Ghanaian Immigration officer who discovered him. His commitment and hardwork so impressed his master that when he requested for a two pound sterling assistance to start up a business, the master quickly obliged him. Thus he started hawking beef in Ghana. From beef hawking he ventured into sale of exercise books. With savings from these two businesses, he moved into newspaper distribution, becoming an agent of Asante Pioneer. He so combined distributing newspapers at dawn and hawking beef in the day that he was able to save little money with which he rented a shop where he started selling keys, hinges, padlocks and bolts.

After three years at the age of 15, he decided to visit his parents in Nigeria. His parents refused him going back to Ghana and that left him with no option but to farm, which was the main occupation in the village then.

In 1951, with a solid a track record of a returnee and well respected by the community, he was nominated as councilor. From the proceeds of his maize harvest from his farm that year, Adedoyin returned to Lagos and plunged full-time into trading. He settled for selling holiday bags and umbrellas, which he bought in large volumes from Indians, Lebanese and Europeans, using the name “Jeko Yemi Kale Oluwa” (Let me be prosperous all my days, O Lord). At 19, he had built a 25-room apartment in Mushin, Lagos State, which he rented out. He also bought a second-hand Volkswagen car. By his 21st birthday, he diversified into the sale of ball-point pens, garments, umbrellas and other popular goods. At 26 years old, he had built his sixth house in Lagos.

In 1965, when he was 30 years old, he registered Doyin Investments Nigeria Limited. Rather than continue to import bags, umbrellas and shoes, he decided to go into production. He traveled to Italy to order for five Singer sewing machines. The company became the first indigenous firm to produce handbags and umbrellas. In 1980, he diversified into electronics with the assembly of the Samsonic range, a name derived from Samuel.

By 1995, the Doyin Group made up of 16 companies had reached about N2 billion turnover. From 40 workers he employed when he started manufacturing, the group has over 5,500 workers, excluding suppliers and distributors. The Group comprises, among others, Global Soap and Detergents Industries Ltd., Consolidated Foods and Beverages Ltd., Stafford Chemicals industries Ltd., Doyin Industries Ltd., Doyin Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Doyin Investment (Nig) Ltd., Doyin Motors Ltd., Doyin Properties, amongst others.

Samuel Adedoyin’s businesses are managed by his children, whom he groomed and passed on business and management skills to them, coupled with sound education from schools at home and abroad, education he himself never had.

Samuel has had his fair share of business setbacks. One of such setbacks was the liquidation of City Express Bank during the banking sector consolidation of 2005. Another was the sale of his chemical plant in Agbara. The plant, the first of its kind constructed at a sum of N2 billion to produce alum for water treatment plants and sulphuric acid for usage by agencies like Power Holding Electric Company, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, the National Fertilizer Company and some private manufacturing companies, had to be disposed of for a meager N100 million due to low patronage.

He has given scholarships, tarred roads in both Kwara and Lagos States and has provided water and electricity supply, post office and hospitals for many communities. His contribution has attracted recognition locally and award globally. From associations, professional bodies, and government agencies, he has received such awards like Officer of the Federal Republic (OFR), National Productivity Merit Award, Freedom of the City of London, ECOWAS Gold Award, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah International Award for Excellence in Enterprise amongst others.

Culled From Financial Freedom Inspiration