Founder/CEO at JMSF Agribusiness Nigeria - Adding Value, Increasing incomes & Growing the Economy.
Honestly, we CEOs and Founders(entrepreneurs) need to talk more about our struggles, challenges and failures. There is a lot to learn from them to make us better and help the younger ones avoid some pitfalls. My major highlight of this story about HBO is the writer's use of the language " he failed miserably ", but HBO picked himself up and went on to achieve greater things. Hmmm. Are you an entrepreneur in Nigeria, Africa? have you failed before? let us share our failures so we learn and do better. From HBO's story, we can see that our chosen path is not for the faint hearted. I remember dabbling into hospitality via my agribusiness earnings in NW Nigeria. It failed for reasons outside of my control. We can call that externalities perhaps in economics or may be risk analysis was not water tight. lesson learned and I moved on. Diversification was the target and it was a sensible idea because the opportunity was there but silly thing like religion and ethnicity killed that venture in that part of Nigeria. I was happy I demonstrated my appetite for risk to invest so I will do better next time I choose to do this again. Do you have an experience to share? Let us read from you in the comment section fellow entrepreneurs. We all need to talk about the difficulties and not only the goodies. #learningfromfailures #JMSF #Diversification #investments #opportunities
Writes about Investing, Business & Markets in Africa. Public Markets |Private Markets | Tech + Finance | Founder | Investor | Writer.
This Nigerian investor bought a bankrupt govt bank in the 90’s. Turned it around and sold it for $250 million in 2005. And now manages his family office with $600+ million in assets. Meet, Hakeem Belo-Osagie The Teacher. Hakeem is teaching the next generation of business leaders. Passing down wisdom from his 40-year business career. Born in Nigeria. He moved to the UK at 3. When his parents moved there for further education. At that tender age. He had his 1st taste of racism. Some of the students in his class Didn’t want to walk with him to/from school. As a result, he grew up shy & bookish. And was nicknamed Mr. Encyclopedia. They moved back to Nigeria when he was 8. Where he went to primary & secondary school. He initially wanted to be a lawyer. But that changed to working for the government. Inspired by Nigerian public servants of the day. He left Nigeria at 16 for Wales. Where he did his last years of high school. At UWC Atlantic College He then went on to University of Oxford. To study PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics) In his quest to be a public servant. Then University of Cambridge To study law. As if that were not enough. He joined Harvard Business School To do an M.B.A And was the only African out of 800 students in his class. Upon graduation. He received 47 rejections out of his 50 job applications. And decided to move back to Nigeria. To work for the govt. Becoming the lowest-paid member of the 1980 Harvard MBA class. He started as a Special Assistant. To the Presidential Adviser on Petroleum and Energy. Then later Special Assistant to the Minister of Petroleum and Energy But after a lot of changes in govt. He left to start CTIL in 1986. An energy consulting firm. CTIL was a great success. And shortly after he started KMC, a finance house. Which failed miserably. This failure was instructive. And HBO picked himself up. To start FSDH Group in 1992. A financial services firm that was a success. In 1994. With Nigeria privatizing its govt-owned banks. He sensed an opportunity. Buying 51% of UBA Group from the govt for $15M. After the acquisition. He realized the bank was bankrupt. So he set out to turn around the bank. Cutting down bad debts. Laying off staff and improving operations. He sold his UBA stake for $250M in 2005. In 2012, HBO set up Metis Capital Partners. A family office. To focus on investing and philanthropy. And today, Metis Capital Partners is a titan. With 📈 Portfolio of 20+ companies across Africa. 💰Investments of $600+ million into African businesses Metis is invested in Andela, Jabi Lake Properties and more. HBO sits on the board of The Brookings Institution , Council on Foreign Relations He is a Senior lecturer at Harvard Business School & 1 of the top sponsors of African scholarships. What are your thoughts on HBO’s story? Let me know in the comments. 👇 Join my newsletter for more stories on business and investing. https://lnkd.in/d-mDKYRT
