1. What have you found most challenging as a leader?

At the start of this business, the biggest challenges I faced were building a strong team and professional credibility that would position the company as an industry leader- especially in Africa. To the glory of God, we achieved both milestones within the first decade of our operations. However, as the business expanded - from a single office with less than 5 staff, to over 10 offices, in 5 countries with more than 300 staff, my greatest challenge has been the perpetual need to reengineer our processes.
The objective being to ensure that we remain competitive and profitable in today’s dynamic business landscape. We also continuously aspire to lead in the frontier markets where we operate. As an entrepreneur in Africa, I expect and embrace challenges. No matter how insurmountable they seem, I see every challenge as an opportunity for me and my team to become better and build better services for our clients.
Nigeria as a frontier market, presents a myriad of opportunities for individuals bold enough to confront the unique challenges present here. Moreover, Africa as a whole is also an untapped landscape, brimming with potential due to its large population and growing market. Hence, despite the challenges, I’m always excited about our past achievements and the opportunities that lie ahead of us.

2. How did you become a leader? Can you please briefly tell the story?

We started in Kaduna with one office and less than 5 staff. Today we have other offices in Nigeria with about 200 project staff at the peak. Add the staff in our sister companies, and representative offices in Kenya, Sierra Leone, the Gambia and South Africa and we have close to 360 staff. The company has grown because we have remained focused on responding to the needs of the market with excellent and efficient solutions. I share the board of a microfinance Bank and own over 25 % of the Bank.
I also sit on Boards of Corporations in Kenya, Sierra Leone and South Africa. The newest addition to our flag is Angola. At a time, our delivery office was moved to London. This was before we improved on our ICT capabilities in Abuja Office. Our business model has been successful, and we thank all our strategic partners. Additionally, an important point that triggered the growth of the company was our foray into strategy development and achieving international certifications and collaborations.
In Nigeria, we started by turning our competitors to collaborators. Our International Certifications make us the best in every market where we operate. The first of these was the ‘Making Microfinance Work (MMW)’ certification from the International Labour Organization, ITC-ILO, which licensed us to provide training across Africa. Building on this foundation, we forged a partnership with the Centre for Microfinance Leadership, a division of Women's World Banking in the USA, to offer leadership development programmes in microfinance. Our efforts then led us to the School of African Microfinance in Mombasa, Kenya, where I currently hold the position of Executive Course Director.
As a country Director of ACDI-VOCA International, we are privileged to benefit form the experience of leadership of an organisation working in 133 countries in the world. Through these experiences, we have emerged as a prominent advocate for microfinance strategy in Africa, amplifying our voice in the field.

3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

Some days are different and could be crazy. I wake up to ask myself the first question. Where on this planet am I today?
However, below is a summary of my typical workday.
Morning Routine:
6:00 AM - Wake up. After which I study my Bible and pray. God has been my pillar and I find it helpful to do this first thing in the morning
7:00 AM - Review top priorities for the day. Set personal and professional goals.
7:30 AM - Have a healthy breakfast while chatting with family
8:00 AM - Hold a brief meeting with executive assistants to discuss the day's schedule and important updates.
8:30 AM - Engage in strategic thinking and planning for the company's long-term goals.
9:00 AM - 11:00 AM - Block off this time for uninterrupted, focused work on high-priority projects, strategic initiatives, or critical decision-making tasks.
11:00 AM - 11:30 AM - Dedicated time for checking and responding to urgent emails, addressing any pressing matters.
11:30 AM - 12:00 PM - Stay updated on industry news and publications, reading relevant articles and reports to stay informed. Lunch Break:
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM – Have a light lunch, either with colleagues or some personal downtime. Afternoon Routine:
10. 1:00 PM - Attend scheduled meetings with department heads, executives, or external stakeholders to discuss key initiatives, progress updates, and address any challenges.
2:00 PM - Collaborate with teams on important projects, providing guidance, and ensuring alignment with overall business objectives.
3:00 PM – 4:00 PM – Conduct performance reviews, analyze market trends, and assess the company's performance.
Evening Routine:
5:00 PM - Dedicate time for networking, attending industry events, or participating in professional development activities.
6:00 PM - Reflect on the day's accomplishments, identify lessons learned, and set priorities for the following day.
7:00 PM - Engage in personal activities, spend quality time with family, and relax.
11:00 PM - Disconnect from work-related activities, unwind, and prepare for a restful night's sleep.

4. What's a recent leadership lesson you've learned for the first time or been reminded of?

The most recent significant leadership lesson I’ve learned is this:
“Investing in your team multiplies your productivity and impact.”
Although I learnt this lesson early on, as our organization expands, the importance of this lesson becomes clearer. Regardless of the brilliance of my ideas, their successful implementation ultimately hinges on the caliber of the team working alongside me.
Reflecting on our collective accomplishments, I am glad that I have consistently prioritized investing in the growth and development of our staff. They are the invaluable assets that have propelled us to reach extraordinary milestones and instill us with the confidence to embrace the challenges of an unpredictable future. This was why it was possible for us to manage 37 Project Monitoring, Reporting and Remediation Offices in Nigeria for over six years. At the peak, we had over 600 staff on this project.

5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your leadership so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?

One book that has had a profound impact on my leadership so far is “How Toyota Became #1: Leadership Lessons from the World's Greatest Car Company” by David Magee
Some of the leadership lessons I gleaned from that book include:
- Toyota's philosophy of continuous improvement (making small, incremental improvements in all aspects of business to achieve long-term excellence), which has been instrumental to its success.
We subscribe to this approach both internally and when executing project for our clients. For instance, internally, we ensure that staff are recruited not just for their skills but also for their passion for learning and improvement. This has helped us attract top talent who appreciate the wealth of knowledge available within the team and strive for excellence in their roles.
- Toyota places great importance on showing its employees that they are respected and valued. In my organization and all its affiliates, we ensue that staff have creative control, a conducive working environment, competitive remuneration, succession planning, and the opportunity to build successful careers within the organization. These efforts amongst others help our staff see that they are valued, and their efforts are the reason for our organization’s success.
- Long-Term Thinking: Long-term thinking (the Toyota way) has helped me build an organization with a resilient organizational culture, foster trust with our stakeholders and lay a firm foundation for sustainable growth, despite economic uncertainties.

6. If you could only give one piece of advice to a young leader, what would you say to them?

There are four important ways we build leadership capacity within our organization:
1. Fostering a Mindset of Continuous Improvement: Staff are encouraged to challenge the status quo and seek out opportunities for improvement, both for our organization and for our clients. This mindset helps staff to build leadership skills that empower them to stay adaptable, innovative, and responsive to evolving business needs.
2. Long-Term Perspective: We recognize that leadership development is a continuous process that requires patience and investment. Hence, we prioritize developing leaders who can contribute to the company's long-term success.
3. On-the-Job Learning: We believe in learning through hands-on experience. This provides many opportunities for employees to gain practical knowledge and skills as they work on real-world projects and face diverse challenges. It also allows potential leaders to develop a deep understanding of the business and its operations.
4. Focus on Core Values: We endeavor to instill our core values of integrity, excellence, client-centricity and continuous learning. These values serve as guiding principles for decision-making and behavior, shaping the leadership culture within our organization.

7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a leader, so far?

One meaningful story I love to share is one that highlights the importance of the work I and my team do. One night, a Board Chairman called me and requested that I help train his management team urgently because they had all decided to resign. When we conducted our mandatory institutional assessment before the proposed training, we discovered something surprising—the Board Chairman himself was the reason for the unhealthy work culture that made his management team want to drop the ball. This is why I always tell my mentees: When you pray for a good job, also pray for a good work environment that will not lead you into depression.
I like sharing that story because it highlights how the work, we do helps organizations and institutions overcome the challenges hindering them from achieving their own corporate goals. Hence, every time I address my team, stories like these are one way I remind us all that our work matters. The results we get for our clients are the proof we need to keep doing great work, despite the challenges. Another story is the challenge we have with regulators at a time. Because some competitors did not know our business model, they got envious. Writing frivolous petitions insinuating that our corporate governance structure was not strong. We are grateful to God that we came out better and stronger. Be it in Data Capture and Identity Management for governments or Agricultural Value Chain Development or even Development Finance, our organisation is the loudest voice in Africa.