Like some of their older compatriots currently making waves in the business world, some young enterprising Nigerians are already brewing great business ideas, building empires and getting noticed. For the second year running, Nigerians are featuring significantly on the renowned Forbes’ Under 30 Initiative list. Assistant Editor Yetunde Oladeinde chronicles their exploits.
Aliko Dangote, Mike Adenuga, Folorunsho Alakija and Femi Otedola are names that ring a bell when you talk about thriving business empires and mega fortunes in Nigeria. But that spot is by no means an exclusive preserve of this group of people, as some enterprising young Nigerians are gradually making statements and inching their ways, as it were, nearer this spot. This much was revealed in the latest Forbes’ Under 30 Initiative.
The Forbes’ Under 30 Initiative is a list of Africa’s brightest and most ambitious young entrepreneurs. From an initial 800 nominations, 14 of the names on the final list also featured on last year’s list, while also throwing up 16 new rising stars to watch. Of this final list of 30, are six Nigerians, whom The Nation celebrates in this edition. We take a look at their sources of inspiration, sacrifices made, challenges, as well as turning points.
With ages ranging between 20s and 30 on the dot, they stand out doing things they are passionate about and making fortunes in the process. Rather than waiting for white collar jobs or any kind of paid employment, they took their destinies in their hands, initiating and exploring ideas that have blossomed into multi-million naira enterprises.
In the pack, you find Edose Ohen, owner of Glazed the Doughnut Café, Houston’s first 24-hour doughnut bakery set to make $1.2 million in revenue this year. He is also the boss at Alfa O and O Networks, a fixed wireless service based in Benin City, Edo State. Asked what the recognition means to him, Edose says: “Actually I was surprised; a few of my friends nominated me and once I saw the news on twitter, I was truly shocked. It is an honour to be recognised.”
Next you want to know how this would affect what he is doing and he answers this way: “It doesn’t. I have high expectation for myself and my team and we are focused on meeting those expectations.”
Ohen goes on to talk about some of the challenges he has encountered in the process. “I think it goes without saying that building any business is a challenging task. Getting the necessary permits, transportation logistics and power have been the biggest challenges for me.”
But in spite of the challenges, there are a number of memorable moments too. Some of them, he says are “Working with my team. Meeting new people and having our customers pleased with our services and products have been the most memorable.’
Mark Essien is another surprise feature on the list. From nothing, Essien has put together the largest hotel booking website. The online portal allows users from all over the world to book rooms from a selection of 6000 hotels. So far, the company which is just about three years old has raised more than $250,000 in fund from Spark Fund amongst other investors. Scroll down memory lane and you find that it was just a website in the first year. So how did the miracle happen?
“Hotels.ng started off by me purchasing lists of hotels. The entirety of hotels that were available in any known dataset that was available in public or in any government archive was about 1500 in Nigeria. I listed them all on the site and put the site up. Only 100 of those hotels had pictures. The pictures were scraped from the hotel websites.’
It got more exciting and Essien moved to Nigeria in October 2012. “I moved to Nigeria to try to build a business out of this hotel booking website. I landed, rented a flat in Calabar and convinced a friend of mine, Charles, to join the project. I and Charles hit the streets of Calabar and started snapping photos of the hotels in Calabar. Soon we had the largest online list of hotels in Calabar.”
Great idea but none were bookable at that point. “We coded a booking form one day and bought a company phone. We turned on the booking form and put the phone number on the site. We received 20 bookings for hotels in various parts of Nigeria that day, and had 100 missed calls on the phone. We could not book the hotels yet and we barely had time to address all the queries we received, so we took the number back off. We kept the booking form, but nothing would happen when people booked.”
Then the opportunity he has been waiting for came. “Some time later, Jason Njoku wrote me a message on Facebook that he was starting an investment company called Spark and that he wanted to invest in Hotels.ng. I went to Lagos, we had a 30 minutes meeting on a hot balcony together with Bastian, then I returned to Calabar. The next day, they made an offer. A bit of negotiation and in January 2013 Hotels.ng received funds from Spark.”
In the first one year, Essien used the investment money to build Hotels.ng into a company. “We had 15 full-time staff, 5 contract staff and more than 70 ad-hoc staff. Those 70 people went everywhere in Nigeria and got hotels on our site. We had 5080 hotels on the site. We have full pictures for 4000+ of all those hotels. We have addresses and driving instructions for all these hotels — we have massively accelerated the move of an African industry online.”
The total value of the bookings that we have done for hotels in Nigeria on our website alone is currently 2.3 million USD. That value was generated without spending any money marketing the site. By its very existence, it is useful and people patronize it without us needing to tell them to use it.
By the end of the year 2013, we hit $40k in monthly revenue. Everyone always on the outside tries to show how their start-up is doing awesome and taking over the market and all what not, but that’s not how it is on the inside.
The past two years have been like climbing a mountain — blindfolded. To do what we are doing, there is no roadmap. There is no book teaching how to create something that has never existed in this market before. So it was all experiments and trial-and-error. I never knew what would work and what would not, so we would need to spend to test out different things to find what seems to work well. And even when you find something that works, you need growth, so you need to find what works even better.
From composing the teams, deciding how to approach hotels, getting people across 36 states in Nigeria, figuring out how to book hotel rooms with hotels without internet, and even the small stuff like getting our own internet working, it has all been a journey of uncertainty.”
Uche Pedro, founder of BellaNaija.com also made the list. Interestingly she also made the list last year. That same year, she was named a Diamond Woman of Vision by Tiffany Amber and Diamond Bank. What was the secret to BellaNaija success?
“The fashion landscape when BellaNaija started in 2006 was vibrant. New crops of designers such as Jewel by Lisa and Lanre Da Silva Ajayi were blossoming, while icons like Tiffany Amber kept pushing things up a notch! It was so exciting and it still is.”
At that point, young Uche had just graduated from the Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario. “I was resuming my first ever post-graduation job with Shell in a few weeks, so I had some time off. It was never planned. I just started it spontaneously. Even the name (Bella Naija) was an on-the-spot decision that blossomed into what we have today. After Canada, I lived in London, UK for a year and then moved to Nigeria.”
She informs that: “Bella Naija’s vision is to provide relevant African content online to inspire! To be honest, it is really challenging but I am up for it! When I moved to Nigeria, I did not move with ‘rose coloured glasses.’ I knew the issues and prepared for them by crafting a solid business plan and PRAYING! Every decision I have made regarding Bella Naija and every single bit of success I attribute to God and I am very grateful. The priority is to keep delivering quality online content to our readers.
BainStone is Bella Naija’s parent company and it was founded in 2009. “There are 3 main divisions: Online Media which is what BellaNaija.com falls under, online Marketing and a Bespoke Consulting Unit. We have so many talented people who are looking for an outlet to express themselves. The internet is the perfect avenue.”
Interestingly, Abiola Olaniran, founder and CEO of Nigerian gaming company, Gamsol, is also on the list yet again. He also made it last year. Twice lucky you would say, but again, it is obvious that the young man sure knows his onions. The company which was founded in 2012 is making waves. It has backing from 88mph, a Kenyan seed fund. Determined to make a difference, Olaniran and his team worked on a number of innovations and today they have over 9 million downloads in their kitty.
Last year, five young Nigerians made the list. One of them is Ola Orekunrin of the Flying Doctors fame. Her vision basically is, ‘to revolutionise the provision of emergency healthcare across Africa. To get the right patient to the right facility within the right time frame.”
The young lady in question was born, raised and trained in the United Kingdom and she graduated as one of the youngest medical doctors in England. Determined to improve the healthcare delivery system in Nigeria, she set up the flying doctors in Nigeria, setting a pace as the first in West Africa. Passion, facilities and a proper structure helped to the take this dream to great heights.
Interestingly, the death of her younger sister of sickle cell anaemia spurred Orekunrin to set up this capital intensive and delicate business. “She was always in and out of hospitals but eventually died for lack of the availability of air ambulance. This more or less propelled my interest in medicine because I really wanted to make a difference in the same way doctors had done to her. Setting up the company was a direct result of my fascination for helicopters, trauma medicine, motor accident kinematics and pre-hospital medicine. I knew it was something that I had the skills and experience to do,” she says.
The flying doctors dream eventually metamorphosed to reality and it basically provides critical care transportation solutions to both the private and public sector by selling yearly air ambulance cover plans to states, companies and individuals. “The first time an air ambulance service was suggested for Nigeria was in 1960 and nothing was done about that idea. Having studied the models in Kenya, Libya, Uganda and India, coupled with my growing passion to help improve the healthcare system in Nigeria, which I believe is poor, I became even more determined to bring a similar service to Nigeria.”
In Orekunrin’s team, you have the General Manager, Joy Etokudo, a lawyer who oversees the day to day running of the organisation. In addition, Etukudo also helps develop strategies for growth and expansion, as well as improve the company’s services and business relationships.
Those who coordinate the medical arm of the business with Orekunrin are the senior flights physicians. These are senior anaesthetists and intensive care experts with certificates in Aviation Medicine. These men and women are products of rigorous and detailed in-house course with hundreds of hours of in-flight working experience on various air ambulance missions both within and outside the country.
That is not all. They also have extensive experience in performing critical procedures like intubation, central line insertion and other forms of invasive monitoring whilst in the air. One of the selling points for Orekunrin is that the team is strategically located across the country such that guarantee on response time can be met no matter the location of distress call.
The second female recognised in the 2014 edition was Affiong Williams of Reel fruit, then a 29-year old. According to Williams, Reel fruit was founded in March, 2012. The emerging fruit processing company carved a niche for itself packaging; branding and processing quality locally made fruit products. The first product is a range of dried fruit snacks and nuts.
The products are currently stocked in over 80 stores in Nigeria and is an award-winning brand, winning both an international Women in Business competition in the Netherlands, as well as an SME exhibition tagged Creative Focus Africa in Lagos.
Her desire now is expansion and putting her nut business on the world map. In addition, she is also working very hard trying to raise capital to build a factory on the outskirts of Lagos this year.
Scroll down the list and you find Bankole Cardoso’s name, also written in gold as one of the under 30 most promising entrepreneurs in the country. The 28-year old entrepreneur has a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Boston College and has worked in financial services at PwC, as well as in private equity with the Carlyle Group before moving back to Nigeria in July 2013 to lead Easy Taxi Nigeria.
Even though Bankole Cardoso, the founding CEO of Easy Taxi Nigeria, a Rocket Internet backed start-up is no longer in the saddle, he also made the list in 2014 with the outfit. Last year was actually tough for Cardoso, his mother Stella Ameyo Adadevoh died of the dreaded Ebola Virus Disease. The strategies used made him stand out from other entrepreneurs in that age bracket.
“As an entrepreneur with a knack for building things, I saw a need for a stable, reliable and safe means of transportation and I decided to do something about it. This prompted the birth of Easy Taxi Nigeria, a service that has over the past eighteen months and counting, catered to the inherent need of change in the Nigerian taxi culture and as such, remains the foremost taxi requesting service available in Lagos and Abuja.”
He adds that: “Having birthed and weaned Easy Taxi Nigeria to a stage where I believe it can stand strong and I do not have to personally monitor the day to day activities of the business, we are looking for someone who will ensure Easy Taxi Nigeria remains the number one taxi requesting service as I move on to face a different challenge. This doesn’t necessarily mean I will not be affiliated with Easy Taxi any more, I always will be and as hard as it was a choice for me to make, the time has come for me to take the next step and work on to other projects.”
Prior to this, Cardoso had worked in an accounting firm in New York; thereafter he joined a private equity firm called The Carlyle Group, also in New York. “And all the while, I yearned to come back home and start a business. Even though I studied and was working abroad, I wanted to do something more and make impact. Entrepreneurship was what I was interested in, and it was only in Nigeria I was interested in doing it. There where options for me to be a banker or an accountant but what I was more passionate and interested in was on how I would nurture a brand.”
Interestingly, a personal experience gave birth to this laudable idea in December 2012. “I was working in New York at a time and I came home for Christmas. It was frustrating because I didn’t have a way to get around and I wasn’t very comfortable using any taxi. There were various technologies that help individuals to have access to public transportation without hassles back in New York.
When I went back, I started speaking to taxi drivers there to see how the service is improving their businesses. And I learnt they were convinced that it had helped them so much. That was why I began thinking on how I would set up such service also and I firmly believed that it was something I could introduce and develop in my country. I called back home and spoke to taxi drivers in Nigeria to inquire if they would be interested in the service. It was not easy explaining it to them but I was convinced that the service would work.”
Rex Idaminabo, founder of African Achievers Awards also got the nod. Said Idaminabo, “It is quite humbling, I must confess. It came to me as a shock and I was also excited. It is a call for me to do more for my nation and the continent as a whole, especially seeing some young entrepreneurs who don’t know how to start up their own business; finding better ways to ensure that they start their own business.
There are three very important things I always think about during my entrepreneurial journey. First is hard work; then determination and consistency. I think I have been doing that. If you have a vision, you must keep moving. If there are opportunities across the door, force the door or break it open. Failure has never been in my dictionary; if you fail the first time, keep on trying; second time, keep trying and never give up. So, that has always been my watchword during my journey and while building up the African Achievers Award.”
The Achievers Awards is about appreciating Africa and its people. “We need to devise a way of encouraging quality, good and positive leadership in Africa. Different countries host the event every year just to keep encouraging Africans through the messages we uphold and dream of our continent. The achievers award is not for Nigeria but for the entire Africa.”
Iyin Aboyeji, 23 also made the list this year, making it his second time in two years. He is the co-founder of Andela, a global talent accelerator that trains young intelligent Africans to be world class developers and then connect them with top employers around the world, looking for top technical talent.
Andela’s backers include facebook, Ebay and AOL. “I studied Legal Studies and Economics at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. I was born and raised in Nigeria and graduated from the Loyola Jesuit College, Abuja, Class of ’07. I am very passionate about development economics, publishing, international advocacy, Nigerian politics and technology, amongst a lot of different things. I also worked on a project called Bookneto that is sure to change the face of education.”
Twenty eight year old Emeka Akano also made the list. Akano and his co-partner, Chinedu Onyeaso made a difference with the company founder 2BE, matchmaking services for business owners in Africa in a unique way. Like the online dating arrangement, a deal is just a click away. These two young men are not strangers to entrepreneurship. Just before this, they had co-founded Entarado, a web development company empowering small businesses with web and mobile solutions.