Boss Of The Week

Pascal Dozie: A Garland For The Banking Diamond

Published

5 years ago

April 20, 2019

Eric

By: Promise Oshewa

The business of banking has a lot to do with integrity; the stewardship of money and the power of credit creation reside in the realm of conservatism and discipline.

Pascal Dozie is one man whose career in banking has been strictly guided by these principles. He has become a banking diamond that will certainly last forever.

Playing within the defined rules of the game hasn’t been that easy to enforce in the Nigerian banking industry but Dozie seems to have toed the path of self regulation in his own style of corporate governance and understated lifestyle.

He is that has always been ruled by diligence and driven by tenacity in his quest to accomplish a great purpose. This foundation formed the strong backbone that has given his most well-recognised business, Diamond the track record that has kept in at the top for decades.

Born on April 9, 1939, Dozie grew up in a typical village setting in Egbu, Owerri when the enforcement of discipline in children’s upbringing was a shared duty in society irrespective of whom the child belongs.

Besides, his father was a devout Catholic Church Catechist and a Court Interpreter. He therefore imbibed the culture of discipline that shaped him up for the great accomplishments later in life.

He had his primary and secondary education in Imo Stated before heading to the famous London School of Economics, where he earned a degree in Economics and then proceeded to City University in London where he obtained Masters in Administrative Science, specialising in Econometrics and Industrial Engineering. He also attended University of Seattle in the United States.

He worked as an Economist in the United Kingdom and also taught part time at North Western Polytechnic, London. He has expertise in project preparation, coordination and management which took him to several countries in Africa and Europe.

After his education, he was keen to return home but that was when the civil way really raged. His two brothers had joined the Army so he went instead to Uganda.

According to him, “It was a very traumatic period for us. Bombs were going off everywhere and you didn’t know what was the truth. People were being shunted from one place to another and at times I didn’t even know where my own mother was,”

He was in Uganda between 1970 and 1971 where he served as a consultant at the African States Consulting Organisation in East Africa and returned to Nigeria in September 1971 when the war ended.

Pascal Dozie then set up his own consultancy, the African Development Consulting Group in Lagos, Nigeria.

He was very fortunate to gather a lot of consultancy contracts from big companies including Nestle and Pfizer. He later founded and is a Non-Executive Partner at African Capital Alliance.

Diamond Bank idea came to Pascal, when as a careful observer, he identified the problem that Igbo businessmen were facing at the time.

In the 1980s, traders from the Eastern part of Nigeria were carrying huge sums of money in cash to Lagos to buy goods and transact other forms of businesses.

This of course exposed them to risks of attacks by robbers and in deed some lost their lives in the process.

Dozie then thought of mechanism of collecting the cash in the East and by electronic transfer pay them in Lagos. That was the seed that led to the establishment of Diamond Bank.

Therefore, Diamond bank was conceived as a solution provider to an identified problem from inception unlike many banks that emerged simply because entry restrictions into the industry were reduced.

Dozie saw an opportunity there and explored it as an entry niche into banking and wove a financial service around it. It was a simple idea, according to him but it opened up the road to riches. “I wanted to establish a technology-driven bank where the staff knew they are there to provide efficient, courteous service. I wanted a bank that would be creative and I think we succeeded”, he said.

Even the establishment of the bank was also a testament to his tenacity and belief.

While the bank began operations in 1991, it had been in the pipeline since 1985 when Dozie applied for a banking licence. “Here I was, somebody who did not have money, yet wanting to establish a bank”, he recalled. It was the will to accomplish that eventually made the way. At the time he applied for a banking licence, the minimum capital requirement was N10 million. Before he could raise the money from intending shareholders, the capital requirement was raised to N20 million.

While Dozie was looking for additional people to approach to raise the additional N10 million, some of the initial subscribers began to withdraw. That delayed the licensing of the bank for about five years.

When the bank began operations, it was from the 3rd floor apartment of his office in Victoria Island with 20 people and $5million. His disciplined approach in managing Diamond Bank, appears to have been shaped by his role as a director of the Central Bank. He grew the bank from the scratch when most companies would not deal with a bank less than three years old. The Diamond Bank’s team then went to town to persuade the unwilling as to why the bank should have their deposits.

Despite the high competition in the banking industry of the early 1990s, the industry then was underdeveloped. Telecommunications services were poor and that posed a major hindrance to improving service delivery efficiency in banking halls. The underdevelopment itself was an opportunity, as Dozie saw it. “The question was how to improve and add value to the banking sector. The problem was obvious, and a solution was needed”, he said.

Dozie’s strategy paper found that solution to the indentified problem lay in the realm of technology and that made it shift into the electronic banking field as the way for the future.

“We had to improve the system of fund transfers and reduce transaction times for businesses, which is what we did. We introduced electronic fund transfers and the first debit cards. Now we have full mobile services, from transferring money to checking a balance”. Dozie positioned Diamond Bank in the forefront of technological innovation, he spurred ICT-centred banking that has now transformed the business beyond recognition. Forbes once described him as, “Rolling Stone that’s never at loss.”

At the time that Dozie stepped down as Chief Executive Officer in 2006, the bank had grown into one of Nigeria’s major banks in the post consolidated banking operations.

A year before that in 2005, he nearly lost it all when the Central Bank of Nigeria mandated that all banks must hold a minimum of N25 Billion in share capital and Diamond Bank at the time had N6.4 billion.

The Dozie family had to list its shares of the bank to raise the needed capital which meant he lost a large stake of the business.

In terms of treading difficult paths, Dozie had his dose. One of such was the entry of MTN to Nigeria.

When he was approached by MTN from South Africa to raise 40 per cent funds needed to set up its subsidiary in Nigeria, many of his friends were skeptical and rebuffed him.

Dozie noted that it was very disappointing because “You have a good project and you are turned down. You start to question yourself and start to question your head”

He was able to raise enough for a 20 per cent stake and that turned out to be a very wise decision with the success of MTN in Nigeria.

Though the Dozie family will get two access bank shares for every shares they own, no doubt that when the history of the new Access Bank in written, the name Pascal Dozie who joined the octogenarian club this year will feature very prominently.

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Boss Of The Week

The Consummate Entrepreneur, Kola Adesina

Published

18 hours ago

September 7, 2024

Eric

By Eric Elezuo

His trajectory to the top is an enviable story of perseverance, focus, commitment and attention to details. He is a clear symbol of opportunity created, opportunity taken and opportunity adequately utilised. His name is Chief Kola Adesina, the Group Managing Director, Sahara Power Group, a leading international energy (power, oil and gas) and infrastructure conglomerate.Born on August 12, 1964, Kola Adesina, embodies the advantages of what education can do, taking his strides in academic excellence from day one. Even till the present, he is still pursuing the greater good of education, directly and indirectly.

An entrepreneur of international repute, the managing director of Sahara Group, former Chairman of Egbin Power Plc, and board chairman of Ikeja Electric, is a toast among the teeming number of Nigerian philanthropists. He basically stands out.

Adesina earned both his B.Sc degree in Insurance and M.Sc degree in Business from the prestigious University of Lagos. He furthered his education by obtaining executive programmes at Harvard Business School and The Wharton School of Advanced Management Programme.

Adesina’s steides into the world of the As began immediately after his undergraduate days as he joined Insurance industry to Kickstart a career that was to blossom to classical height. He later joined Sahara Group where he moved up the ladder due to his selling skills.

At Sahara Group, he led various projects which included the nationwide strategic management of the supply chain of Fuel to the Emergency Power Plant of the defunct National Electricity Power Authority (now Power Holding Company Nigeria Limited), the Majestic Oil delegation on the acquisition of the Sierra Leone Refinery and also managed the Crude Oil contract of the Group in Côte d’Ivoire where he also served as the Director of Infrastructure, responsible for the acquisition of strategic assets in Africa.He served as a member of the Presidential Committee inaugurated by President Jonathan on the Accelerated Expansion of the Electricity Infrastructure in Nigeria, which culminated in the unbundling of PHCN successor companies. He also chairs the board of Ikeja Electric.In 2022, he was crowned as Vanguard Private Sector Icon of the Year.

According to a narrative volunteered by his organisation, the billionaire industrialist is a consummate entrepreneur with experience that traverses the academia, finance, energy, trade and diplomacy. He’s a Director at Sahara Group, a leading international energy (power, oil and gas) and infrastructure conglomerate with operations in over 38 countries across Africa, Asia, Middle East and Europe.

Kola currently leads the vision of Sahara Power Group aimed at bringing energy to life by deploying diversified power sources to light up lives, businesses and sustainable interventions in Nigeria and across Africa. Kola specifically oversees the Group’s affiliates including Ikeja Electric, the largest privately owned power distribution business in South Saharan Africa (SSA), Egbin Power Plc – the largest thermal plant in SSA (with 1,320MW installed capacity with ongoing expansion plans to increase the capacity over two-fold, providing a quarter of the total generating capacity in Nigeria) and First Independent Power Limited.

Kola combines his years of management and business diplomacy experience into creating and executing innovative strategies for governments across sub Saharan Africa in the energy sector. Kola is a much sought after resource person on energy related issues, especially the power sector in Africa and is also a frontline speaker at conferences across the globe.

He is passionate about empowering young people and takes great pride in mentoring youths to seek creative ways of galvanizing their energies for sustained excellence and productivity. Mr. Adesina is a pan-Africanist, a seasoned entrepreneur and avowed promoter of the Pan African Dream of regional integration and trade.

Am accomplished family man, Kola Adesina holds a B.SC (Insurance), M.SC. (Business), Masters in International Law and Diplomacy and is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Insurance.

Boss Of The Week

The Impressive World of Indefatigable Investor, Adetola Nola

Published

2 weeks ago

August 24, 2024

Eric

By Eric Elezuo

Here’s the story of a man, who read his way out of poverty. A man, who is known by a dictum not common to ordinary mortals; the dictum of perfection. It is nobwonder that he is credited with the say, “I am a perfectionist, and I take nothing short of excellence”.

His name is Adetola Nola. He is athe Chief Executive Officer at Veritasi Homes and Properties, A.R.N Farms and Commodities Limited, which he founded and signed off to build one of the largest rice milling plants in West Africa; Asteric Asset Management, and Baraka Energy Lithium Processing Limited. Nola’s image looms large, and he is just 34.

Nola is a typical example of the ‘real’ Nigerian youths, who are steadily proving that the not too young to run mantra is not just about politics, but spreads across every facet of human endeavour, chiefly among which is entrepreneurship.

It is therefore, not a surprise that before the age of 30, the star brained thinker, determined achiever and never-say-never entrepreneur, who has conquered the world of real estate, agriculture, mining and asset management giant, is already ruling their worlds, giving back to humanity and creating leverages that are already making the world a much more better place as well as pave the way for upcoming youths to bring their dreams to reality.

Nola is a standard measure for administrative competence, and the fact anyone can achieve greatness if they set their minds to it.

Born 1990, Adetola Nola, is unarguably an excellence-driven and innovative real estate entrepreneur with positive energy and experience instrumental in redefining success in the Nigerian real estate industry. He does not only boast of these energies, but steadfastly put them to work and has reinvented a whole new strata of home management, estate development and all round provision of affordable housing for every class of humanity, Nigerians more especially.

A well-read intellectual, Nola is a Bachelor of Engineering degree holder in Chemical Engineering from the prestigious Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. He has not left anything to chance as regards improvement educationally as he has just concluded an MBA (Masters in Business Administration) degree at the Metropolitan School of Business & Management, London.

His strong leaning on education and in continuous learning have created in him a need not to rest on his oars, prompting him to attend many capacity development courses, including Strategic Management & Leadership courses at the London Metropolitan University, Finance and Management Courses at the London School of Business & Finance; and numerous seminars locally and internationally. Little wonder he tells anyone he cares to listen that “I read my way out of poverty”.

Ever since he ventured into entrepreneurship, Adetola Nola has not looked back; he has not allowed himself to be weighed down by the vicissitudes surrounding business establishment and grooming, and has consequently, raked in extraordinary achievements under the age of 30, prompting the magnanimous Forbes to recognise him among the Forbes Africa Under 30 Class of 2019, when he was 29.

Reacting to his selection, Nola noted that “It is an honour to be part of this list that features so many great people. Forbes has done a great job compiling and ensuring the credibility of this list since inception, and it is a leading resource for entrepreneurs, like myself.”

The CEO is an epitome of impressive leadership, corporate management skills, and rich top management experience. His expertise, knowledge and experience span sales, marketing, real estate investment, property finance, real estate advisory, management, leadership development among a long list of business and entrepreneur oriented endeavours.

From a mere start up, Nola kick-started his real estate career. He began as a real estate sales consultant with Grenadine Homes, where he recorded a plethora of successes in closing property deals. Every pie he puts his hands is on becomes a done deal. His ingenuity won him a trip to Dubai while at Grenadine. He reported that once he sold shoes so well to a client that the client felt he could sell real estate, and there arose his interest in real estate.

In 2017, after facilitating projects for other real estate companies, he founded his own company, Veritasi with just one staff – his secretary. But his style of leadership, rooted in eye for details and profits, the company recorded over N2 billion in revenue in less than two years of operation. In his modesty, he attributed the feat to the company’s vision of solving the housing problems of middle-income earners in Nigeria.

From the proverbial mustard seed, the company has grown to boast of over 12,000 real estate consultants, 1300 Veritasi Realtors and 18 full-time staff, today. This is a magnificent leap by all standard.

Nola has remained undaunted in his pursuit of the golden fleece or the green pastures even as he encountered untold entrepreneurial hassles. It has been reported that the man, who today has a Midas touch, has failed severally in business, but his sight on the ultimate goal, kept him going. And today he is a success story. A point of reference, and a veritable instrument with a passion to see and help other businesses grow.

“All the other businesses were learning grounds for us. They failed, but they taught me a lot of things. Because when I started Veritasi, I understood business dynamics and a lot of other things. I am trying to resurrect one or two,” he said.

The entrepreneur’s experience in growing businesses from the scratch to fruition is predicated upon his ability to have either founded or co-founded five other companies, including Noah and Nola Incorporated, Pineapples Luxury Retail Store and Couture 89 amongst others. He is also the current Founder/Chief Strategist Officer of Nola Travels. It is worthy of note that Nola founded this particular business with the sole aim of helping unemployed graduates. That explains how kindhearted he is, and can always be!

Walking in the footsteps of great African entrepreneurs like Tony Elumelu, Nola has a wholesome ambition of raising at least 200 successful African entrepreneurs who will, in turn, create employment and the circle continues. He has, as a matter of fact, been training batches of at least forty realtors and entrepreneurs on business and financial intelligence in his office every Thursday since November 2018. He also helps friends and family members to analyse their businesses, just as he assists the same friends and family members to see to the fruition of their businesses.

In all, Nola has analysed over 40 businesses, and still counting, for close friends and family members in the same way he has helped in restructuring about 20 of these businesses free of charge.

His corporate social responsibility has grown in leaps and bounds, affecting lives and giving hope to as many that he has come in contact with. He is presently championing the emergence of smarter communities with green energy in Nigeria while developing and providing properties that are timely in delivery, cost-effective, energy efficient, and durable. He is also a strategic investor with investments in the automobile industry, fashion and agriculture. His catalogue of palliatives for the good of his people has remained green even as he is still a very young man.

Nola is a thoroughbred inspirational speaker as well as a resource person in many affairs of life. While impacting his community, he has acted as a resource person at many learning and discourse sessions. He has also spoken in many local and international conferences including University of Mazda, Abu Dhabi and Property Investment & Homebuyers Show, London and others.

In his quest to further affect humanity, he has partnered with a number of NGOs with the aim of eradicating poverty and establishing a positive legacy. His belief in entrepreneurship has given him leverage to solve the challenge of unemployment and poverty in Africa. He has therefore, created platforms where people can work and learn to build companies of their own.

AWARDS AND ACCOLADES

Nola is not new to awards considering his humongous achievements. He has to his credit multiple local and international awards among which are Most Enterprising Student from Obafemi Awolowo University; Most Innovative Staff from Grenadine Homes; Best Intern in Operations from NNPC; Young Real Estate CEO Speaker from Property Investment Show, London and Fastest Growing Entreprenuer from Grapevine Real Estate.

Nola is a force to reckon with, and had started from the earliest of stages to create the accolades that follows him today, even at his youthful age.

THE PRESTIGIOUS CAMBERWALL ESTATE, LEKKI

Recently, Nola’s company unveiled an ambitious site and services scheme in Lekki, called Camberwall Estate. This magnanimous project is coming just after the Star City Garden in Ibeju-Lekki was first released. The estate consists of service plots.

A must buy and home to every lover of affordable luxury, Camberwall, a homely estate, which is located along Eleko Beach and opposite Amen Estate in Ibeju-Lekki Council, is a few minutes drive to Lagos Business School, and proposed airport. There is no doubt that it is an investor’s delight.

Speaking about the estate, Nola said it is a residential haven designed to provide affordable experience in a conducive and serene environment. He added that the estate is designed to accommodate modern state of the art facilities like interlocked road, clinic and security beautiful landscape, drainages, street lights, and estate club houses.

That is not all, it comprises a central designed architectural piece of accommodation, which provides residents with an ideal believe of tranquility and modern convenience. As part of his innovations, he is replicating noiseless and smart homes in Nigeria.

Nola does not only have a Midas touch in business, he is a stickler to excellence, decorum and the best of services. Little wonder he rolled out the drums to celebrate staff and clients as the year 2021 wound down in a most elaborate end of year party. He is by all means the class of technocrats capable of turning the economic fortunes of the nation, Nigeria around, and needs to be giving a chance.

A typical Epicurus son, Nola is a lover of good things including splendid food, neatly and smartly tailored apparels and worthy vacations to ease the stress and rejuvenate the mind.

Welcome to the impressive world of the indefatigable investor, Adetola Nola!

Boss Of The Week

Meet Nigeria’s Next CJN, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun

Published

3 weeks ago

August 18, 2024

Eric

By Eric Elezuo

During the week, the National Judicial Council (NJC), in line with popular anticipation, recommended Justice Kudirat Motonmori Kekere-Ekun to President Bola Tinubu for appointment as the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN).

On confirmation, Kekere-Ekun will become the second female to become Nigeria’s head of the judiciary, after Aloma Mariam Mukhtar, whose tenure ran from July 2012 to November 2014. She will replace Justice Kayode Ariwoola, who will formally bow out on August 22.

The NJC also recommended 27 candidates for appointment as judges of state courts and one as Kadi of the Sharia Court of the FCT, Abuja.

A statement by the spokesperson of the NJC, Soji Oye, said the recommendation was made at the Council’s 106th Meeting presided over by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, held on August 14 and 15.

The statement read: “The NJC also “recommend twenty-seven (27) candidates for appointment as Judges of States Courts and a candidate for appointment as Kadi of the Sharia Court of the FCT, Abuja to their various State Governors and Mr President.

“NJC recommends Hon. Justice Kudirat Motonmori Kekere-Ekun, CFR as the Hon. Chief Justice of Nigeria and Twenty-eight (28) others as Judges of various Courts.

“The National Judicial Council at its 106th Meeting presided over by the Hon. Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, held on August 14 and 15, 2024, recommended Hon. Justice Kudirat Motonmori Kekere-Ekun, to President Bola Tinubu, for appointment as the Chief Justice of Nigeria.

“This is imperative as Hon. Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, will formally bow out of office as the Hon. Chief Justice of Nigeria next week Thursday on August 22, 2024.

“Council also recommend twenty-seven (27) candidates for appointment as Judges of States Courts and a candidate for appointment as Kadi of the Sharia Court of the FCT, Abuja to their various State Governors and Mr. President as follows:

Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN)

Hon. Justice Kudirat Motonmori Kekere-Ekun, CFR

Six Judges, High Court of Kwara State

Olawoyin, Ibijoke Olabisi, Abdulrazaq, Fatimah Funsho, Folorunsho, Oba Muritala, Dikko, Yusuf Adebayo, Adeniyi, Oluwatosin Adenike and Osuolale-Ajayi, Temitope Olalekan

One Judge, High Court of Kaduna State

Zubairu, Murtala Ja’afaru

Four Judges, High Court of Benue State

Kor, Vincent Tersoo, Ikwulono, Maigida Maimuna, Adagba, Nguhemen Julie and Tor, Damian Tersugh

Two Judges, Customary Court of Appeal, Benue State

Onche, Ogah Inalegwu and Igba, Theophilus Terhile

Eight Judges, High Court of Rivers State

Onyiri, Frank, Ugoji, Victor Chinedum, Obomanu, Godswill Vidal, Oguguo, Rita Chituru, Fubara, Alatuwo Elkanah, Kokpan, Bariyima Sylvester, Obu, Ibietela Innocent Madighi and Wifa-Adedipe, Lesi

Six Judges, High Court of Ondo State

Daomi, Williams Adebisi, Fabuluje, Adewumi William, Ogunwumiju, Mobayonle Idowu, Demehin-Ogunbayo, Inumidun Happiness, Kpemi, Ojufisintei Justinah and Adegoroye, Olufunke Adeola

One Kadi, Shariah Court of Appeal, FCT, Abuja.

Muhammad, Lawal Munir

“All recommended candidates are expected to be sworn-in after the approval of the NJC recommendations to the President and their respective State governors.”

Justice Kekere-Ekun joined the Lagos State Judiciary as Senior Magistrate II and rose to the position of the State High Court Judge. She served as Chairman of Robbery and Firearms Tribunal, Zone II, Ikeja, between November 1996 to May 1999. She was appointed to the bench of the Nigerian courts of appeal in 2004 before her appointment as Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in July 2013.

Kekere Ekun was born on May 7, 1958 in London, United Kingdom. In 1980, she received a bachelor’s degree in Law from the University of Lagos and was admitted to the Nigeria Bar on 10 July 1981, having graduated from the Nigerian Law School before she proceeded to the London School of Economics where she received a master’s degree in Law in November 1983.

In October 2022, a Nigerian national honour of Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR) was conferred on her by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Kudirat joined the Lagos State Judiciary as Senior Magistrate II and rose to the position of the State High Court Judge. She served as Chairman of Robbery and Firearms Tribunal, Zone II, Ikeja between November 1996 to May 1999. She was appointed to the bench of the Nigerian courts of appeal in 2004 before her appointment as Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in July 2013.

In 2020, Kekere-Ekun was on the seven-member panel that sacked Imo State governor Emeka Ihedioha and declared that the winning candidate was Hope Uzodinma of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who originally came fourth in the election results. Ihedioha described the verdict as “unfair, unjust and does not reflect the voting that took place during the elections”.

Kekere-Ekun is expected to bring a new lease of life to the judiciary towards restoring its dignity and respect. Her tenure Kickstart on August 22 when Justice Ariwoola will bow out of office.