Managing Director of Zyetechcom Integrated Services Olayinka Ajao recently built a lecture theatre for Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH). The institution later awarded him the honourary degree of Doctor of Technology (D.Tech). Ajao, who will soon turn 50, talks about his professional achievements and journey from Ogbomosho to the heights. Excerpts:
HAT inspired your philanthropic gesture?
Well, I can say this started from my parents, my late mum and dad. It was not that my dad was extremely rich. But from the little he had, we knew how he gave money to all his siblings and family members. So we grew up to know that it is good to give.
So, it is in-built. We were born into giving. It doesn’t mean that we have a lot. Many people think Olayinka is a multi-billionaire and that is why he is doing this. No, I can tell you that the money we will use to build the lecture theatre for the use of LAUTECH students is not even available but I know I will do it one way or the other.
I remember that shortly after I got married in 2006, we adopted three churches that we give two bags each for their vulnerable members. Today, the six bags then have turned into 30 bags. There is no year we don’t give up to 100 bags of rice both in Lagos and Ogbomosho, among many other things we do.
So, in 2021 as a way of formalising our giving, we registered Jolade and Adeyi Foundation (JAF). Jolade is my late mother’s name while Adeyi is my late father-in-law’s name.
I am just a guy that loves people feeling comfortable around him. I don’t like people suffering. People don’t even ask me before I act. It comes naturally and I am lucky to have a wife that shares that heart of giving as well.
Every year at her birthday, the foundation selects a number of people equal to her age and give them N50,000 each. She was 43 on May 26. That means 43 people benefited from that gesture. When I see some pictures of what people do with the money, I marvel.
The pastor of the church in Ogbomosho where my father attends will follow up with every single individual that benefitted from the gesture and send pictures of what the women are doing with the money. It made me understand that despite the value of the naira today, N50,000 still means a lot to many people in the country.
What trajectory has your professional life taken?
I started my life as a child that loved Mathematics. I remember being called Baba Maths back in secondary school. All the gifts and prizes for the subject always came to me. So from there, I moved to Federal Government College.
In the previous school, I was like a champion in the midst of dullards. So when I moved to Federal Government College, my first result was 39th position out of 43. That was very disappointing. It was not that I failed. I didn’t fail any of the subjects. But where I would score 70 and thought I had done well, some other guys would score 80, 90. So that helped me to start reading more.
From there, I moved to read Electrical/Electronics at the Federal Polytechnic Offa. That’s my journey into the professional life now as I continued with Electrical/ Electronics at LAUTECH. I was more into IT until I got a job with MTN.
Getting into MTN, I was a technical support engineer. In the bid to challenge myself, I hustled to change my department to radio frequency, planning and optimisation, and that was when the real career began.
I was one of the team of guys that planned all the telecom sites in the North between 2001 and 2004. Any tower that was built in Abuja, Kaduna, Kogi, Plateau, anywhere in the North, I was involved in planning those sites. We determined where they should be built, the height, the direction of each of the antennas, and we activated other sites.
From MTN, because I wanted more, I moved to Motorola. Motorola is a vendor environment, not operator like MTN. Not long later, I left to join Helios Towers. That’s where I had a kind of a bit of change in career, because instead of going to radio frequency planning and the rest, I moved into infrastructure planning, because Helios Tower is a colocation company; they just house equipment for all the operators.
I was the head of network planning there. I spent five years with them before I formed my own company, which is in line with what Helios was doing. We build our own towers, though not on a scale as big as Helios.
Starting out on your own must have been challenging…
In this life, when you start some business based on partnership, there are always challenges in that you can’t know how truthful a partner may be until he is caught or until you are able to pick some stuff. I noticed my partner then was stealing money. When we wanted to build towers, he would connive with some other guys and start collecting money from the contractor. In the process, they built a couple of substandard towers and those towers eventually fell.
It was a big crisis then which was a big challenge for a young company to have their towers falling. That slowed us down a bit. So the only thing I can do for such a partner is to part my ways with them if he can’t be trustworthy.
Those who know me know I’m not the type that would get involved in any shady deal. I have never done it, and that’s why I preach to people, you don’t need to steal to make money. Even if you are in government, you just do the right things. As long as you are in your chosen field, try to excel there and be outstanding, then money will come, because as you are getting better in the field, you are creating value. You can’t create value without money coming in return. It may not be immediate, but sooner or later it will come.
On the philanthropic side, some people will tell you they want to do something, they will submit business plan but when they get a support grant, they will divert the money. That could be very disappointing when they come back to ask for more. I let them know that they can’t get it twice because I am not a politician or Father Christmas. The little one that I have is what I share and there are several people on the queue, so you may have to go back to the queue again.
It’s been very challenging doing charity work. Some people will probably when they hear that you gave assistance to someone now feel entitled that I should have given them instead. I have tried to solve that problem by creating a welfare unit so that people and requests will stop coming to me directly. I also involve some like minds that may contribute to the purse as well for the use of the foundation.
How do you balance professional commitments with your philanthropic pursuits?
People that know me understand my stand on issues. I separate my business from family members and friends because I don’t want to disappoint my clients. The houses we are building are for sale. If there’s any issue on those houses, it will be difficult for anybody to buy. It could be too hard on family members because they will start calling parents, aunties and uncles. So, it’s better if they need money and I can afford it, I will give you the money to go and sort yourself out and leave my business.
What does the recent honorary degree you were bestowed with mean to you?
LAUTECH was the school that gave me an honorary degree and I will be the second alumnus to be so recognised in the university’s 35-year history. As you know, honorary award is given to people that have made an impact in their chosen field and in the community where they live. For me, all I have been doing is living a life of impact through some of my philanthropic gestures. I never one day thought that this could become a story that would be read on a stage.
I never did all I have been doing because of an award; it never crossed my mind until I was called early this year. The Vice Chancellor and some management staff came to my office to check what we are doing and how we got to where we are.
Did you ever imagine you would come this far?
I started life from Ogbomosho in Oyo State, had my primary and secondary education there before proceeding to Federal Polytechnic, Offa. We were the pioneer set then. From there I went to LAUTECH, after which I served in Abuja and I was one of the lucky ones that joined MTN as pioneer staff. But as a young man, I was a bit restless. I spent just three years and resigned to join Motorola. I spent four years as well in Motorola and I got married.
The money I was earning was not enough and then I moved to Helios. From Helios I started a company. Though the company has been in existence, it was not active until 2013. The company grew until few years ago when we decided to sell some of the assets and I moved into real estate.
Talking about your experience at LAUTECH, how has it influenced who you are today?
I passed through the school studying Electrical/Electronics. There’s no way we can remove God’s blessing and grace from our life. Even though we struggled in school, looking back now, the only way we can thank God is by giving back to the society that made us. The job I got in MTN, I can tell you it was a course that was taught in 500 level that helped me to answer one of the questions during the interview.
Imagine leaving NYSC camp and within one week you are getting a job in MTN that was just starting out then. LAUTECH impacted so much on us and the little we can do to repay the gesture is to do whatever we can to add more value to the institution and sustain the legacy.
