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Nigeria is blessed with many excellent capitalists and rich industrialists who personal multi-billion greenback conglomerates with belongings in extra of trillions of naira and who collectively make use of 1000’s of Nigerians throughout their varied enterprise operations thereby contributing remarkably to the dimensions, scope and course of our nation’s financial system.
Notable amongst these lot are Aliko Dangote, founder and chairman of the Dangote Group, which holds large-scale pursuits within the commodities, agriculture, actual property and petroleum sub-sectors of our financial system, and is now ranked by Forbes journal as Africa’s richest man with a net-worth of US$20.8 Billion, as at November 2013, Otunba Mike Adenuga, the telecommunications magnate whose operations now span throughout the West African hub and who’s price US$4.3 Billion, as of March 2013, in addition to the youthful Femi Otedola, founder and CEO of Forte Oil Plc, who was ranked by Forbes in 2009 with a net-worth of US$1.2Billion.
Nevertheless, amongst these enviable lot, none is as inspiring, for me, as Jimoh Ibrahim, the 46 12 months previous lawyer turned oil baron from Ondo State, South-West, Nigeria, who himself is now stated to be price some lots of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}, and is the founder of a giant conglomerate in Nigeria, which has pursuits within the insurance coverage, hospitality, oil and fuel and media sectors of the Nigerian financial system.
Not like Dangote or Otedola, Ibrahim is a person who had a humble starting as he was born and not using a silver spoon and got here from a really tough background with a whole lot of deprivation in his rising up days. Reportedly from a polygamous household, Ibrahim managed to, in opposition to all odds, get hold of admission into the College and ultimately graduated as a barrister at legislation from the College of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo College in 1991.
So whereas the Dangotes and Otedolas of this world had the privileges of being born with silver spoons (Dangote, being from a rich Northern industrial household and Otedola, the son of a former civilian governor of Lagos state), Ibrahim had no such luxuries however had an intense want and a powerful conviction to develop into profitable in life, concluding in his thoughts that getting a College diploma held the one promise to a greater life and a rewarding future.
The story of this nice entrepreneur is one which I believe that each younger Nigerian and aspiring entrepreneur should pay shut consideration to because it might function the a lot wanted inspiration to large strides in enterprise in addition to nice accomplishments in life. After acquiring his Bachelor’s diploma in legislation from OAU, Ibrahim noticed that ready to amass working expertise as an legal professional by interning at a longtime legislation agency, as is frequent apply amongst many younger legal professionals in Nigeria right now, might take a few years so he determined to specialize on taxation, which was an space of curiosity to him throughout his undergraduate days and even the topic of a few of his dissertation papers.
With this wealth of data on the apply of taxation in Nigeria, Ibrahim, in contrast to many contemporary College graduates in Nigeria a few of whom imagine securing a paid employment first after graduating from college may very well be the one approach to charting a profitable future, set out by conducting trainings and workshops on taxation for native and state governments and later the federal authorities of Nigeria, turning into within the course of a nationally acclaimed tax marketing consultant.
Honing his experience within the areas of tax administration, reform and monetary administration and later acquiring his Masters levels in Public Administration and worldwide taxation from OAU and Harvard College in America respectively, Ibrahim was at one time chief govt marketing consultant to the federal authorities of Nigeria on petroleum tax fee, assortment and monitoring, member, Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, marketing consultant to the IMF on tax reform in Croatia and Lithuania and likewise a key member of the group that designed tax reform for the state of Bangladesh.
Needles to say that by the point he turned 30, whereas a few of his friends should have been looking for jobs, Jimoh Ibrahim was already a multi-millionaire! So when he determined to arrange his conglomerate in 2003, after failing woefully in an try and develop into Govt Governor of Ondo State on the platform of the previous All Individuals’s Social gathering (APP), he was properly armed with a wealthy expertise of how enterprise works in Nigeria, how authorities coverage is formulated and applied and how one can increase adequate capital to start out a enterprise.
For a lot of budding entrepreneurs, what are the teachings to study on constructing nice companies from the journey and technique of Barrister Ibrahim? For me, considered one of such is that when planning to start out a enterprise, going out to lift all the capital required might not be essentially the most paramount factor and should even quantity to placing the cart earlier than the horse, generally.
It is because, in a rustic like Nigeria, dreaming of elevating capital to start out a enterprise utilizing financial institution loans or debt fairness, with out having grown the enterprise to a considerable state the place sound monetary administration and bold progress plans could be adequately demonstrated to the monetary establishments or angel buyers, might seem to be a mirage!
Wanting on the phenomenal progress of a few of Mr. Ibrahim’s enterprise ventures, one is eager to notice among the rules which he has imbibed, which have contributed in no small measure to the expansion of these companies right now. A few of these embody sound monetary administration, persistence, brief, medium and long-term planning, efficient utilization of credit score in addition to immediate compensation of such credit score when taken.
Nevertheless, whereas Barrister Ibrahim’s ardour for constructing and rising giant enterprise organizations that would offer gainful employment for 1000’s of teeming Nigerian youths whereas positively impacting our financial system have to be recommended, it stays to be seen what’s the clear company social accountability (CSR) thrust of a few of these companies and the way they search to higher lives and affect folks and communities, aside from by simply creating employment.
It’s attention-grabbing to notice that whereas many giant companies and giant-sized companies in Nigeria like these of Ibrahim, Dangote or Otedola, make a number of earnings by means of the patronage of the generality of Nigerians and even repatriate such earnings house at little or no price, within the case of multi-nationals, solely few of them do little or no to present again to society by means of scholarships, schemes and life-changing programmes that may profit the entire of the populace. Only a few Nigerian rich capitalists or industrialists personal notable foundations like those arrange by Invoice Gates, the world’s richest man and founding father of Microsoft and his spouse, in addition to these established by outstanding American businessmen like Henry Ford or John D Rockefeller.
One other necessary level worthy of be aware amongst Nigeria’s most profitable businessmen is an absence of a system or construction the place satisfactory mentoring could be offered to construct an ecosystem of nice entrepreneurs and noteworthy younger businessmen in Nigeria. To this finish, many budding entrepreneurs are sometimes left confused about how one can go about setting their companies, what instruments to make use of and what to discard and how one can faucet into the brains of many of those nice entrepreneurs which have gone forward. It’s by means of efforts like this that nice Nigerian entrepreneurs like Ibrahim, Dangote, Otedola or Adenuga can depart a worthy legacy as a result of so far as many Nigerians are involved, the legacies of some these males nonetheless stay largely unclear if not outrightly unknown or undefined!
E mail: eapgold@gmail.com, Twitter: @ ayomidepraiseng
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Source by Emmanuel Ayomide-Praise
