An entrepreneur par excellence, Ibukun
Awosika’s feats are not commonplace. With business interests in
manufacturing, retail and bank-way security systems services, Awosika,
is without doubt a heavyweight in her field. The Chairman, Board of
Directors of First Bank Nigeria Limited, she is also the founder and
Chief Executive Officer of The Chair Centre Group.
The companies in the group include: The
Chair Centre Limited, Sokoa Chair Centre Limited, Furniture
Manufacturers Mart, TCC Security Systems and Cubes and Boxes Limited.
Through the years, all the firms have earned a pride of place in the competitive global business space.
The bespectacled business leader
presently dedicates her time to building an army of strong-minded
moguls. As such, she is a regular speaker at forums including the After
School Graduate Development Centre, where youth employability and
enterprise issues in Nigeria are addressed.
Born to a Nigerian father and a
Cameroonian mother, she acknowledges the role they played in raising her
to become the woman that she is today.
“Seeing my drive as a young
entrepreneur, my father used to say, ‘I have given birth to this one,’
and if anything happened, he was always present to assist me even if it
meant selling his house to pay up any debts I may have incurred along
the way. He never discouraged me.”
At 54, it is safe to say that the
multiple award-winning entrepreneur and the first Nigerian recipient of
the prestigious International Women Entrepreneurial Challenge Award as a
nominee of the United States Department of State, is living her dreams.
Not one to throw in the towel, the resilient employer of labour says against all odds, she became successful at all she does.
“When you are pursuing your dreams and
trying to leave a legacy, you will find help. As a young girl in my
twenties and in business, no bank was willing to lend me money. I became
frustrated working day and night, not because I didn’t know what to do
but because I couldn’t meet the needs of clients due to the fact that I
did not have adequate machinery.
“I soon got help from people who
believed in my dreams; I finally got access to all the loans I needed.
So, I went around some furniture companies that were shutting down and I
bought a lot of used machines from them. That increased our capacity to
meet up with our customers’ demands.”
From following her dreams and passion,
she was invited to chair a number of corporate and not-for-profit
boards. Awosika, who also sits on the boards of Digital Jewel Limited,
Cadbury Nigeria Plc., Convention on Business Integrity and the Nigerian
Sovereign Investment Authority, is a member of the Nigerian Economic
Summit Group. She was also the Chairman, FBN Life Assurance Limited, FBN
Capital Limited and Kakawa Discount House Limited.
While some of her peers had yet to have
an inkling of their career path, the University of Ife now Obafemi
Awolowo University, Ile-Ife Chemistry graduate and Global Executive MBA
of IESE Business School, Barcelona-Spain alumna, had hers all figured
out early in life.
Her career teed off at Akintola Williams
& Co. where she plied her trade as an audit trainee during her
National Youth Service Corps programme. She also had a three-month stint
at Alibert Nigeria Ltd, a furniture company, as a showroom manager.
Thereafter, she resigned her position to
set up her own furniture manufacturing company, Quebees Ltd, when she
was 25. This furniture company subsequently evolved into The Chair
Centre Ltd.
In hindsight, the resolute CEO did dream
big but didn’t envisage coming this far. She says, “I didn’t have an
agenda that I wanted be on boards of several companies at this time. It
came as matter of life and reward as all I was doing was trying to build
businesses a certain way. First Bank Nigeria Limited is the largest
employer of labour in the banking sector in Nigeria. We have in our
employ over 18,000 people and that is why we are truly a national icon.”
Asked to speak about some of the
milestones her firm has reached since inception, her face lights up with
an instantly recognisable look of fulfillment.
“I derive so much pleasure walking into
an office that we furnished a long time ago and see our furniture
looking nice; I get this joy and satisfaction that money cannot buy. I
love to walk into your home and say, ‘I sold this chair to you 10 years
ago’ and my clients affirm that it is still functional.
“The Chief Executive Officer of Stanbic
IBTC Holding Company, Sola David-Borha, once told me that a sofa I made
for her in my first two years in business was still in her possesion.
The sofa is about 26 years old, so, when we celebrated our 25th
anniversary we went to shoot the sofa in her home because we were
documenting some of our products.”
As the owner of several business concerns, Awosika, is no doubt a busy woman and understandably so.
She says, “I live on the plane and I am
not scared of flying. Whenever I am on a flight, I have a lot of time to
re-evaluate and take a lot of critical decisions. My staff are also
used to me alighting from a plane basking with ideas and calling them to
suggest same. I know my strength and I can see or smell an opportunity
10 miles ahead. I am innately proactive and I am also an ideas machine.”
Awosika also believes in staying true to her personal values and virtues even in business.
“I can guarantee that you won’t last
long in business if you cut corners. When I started the furniture
business, I had people who started about the same time as I did. There
are people in the furniture industry I call government children; once
their people go out of power, their businesses cease to exist. I am
content with the little I make because I made it the right way and
sometimes you need to fight for survival,” she reveals.
Beyond monetary gains, Awosika’s
spiritual, social life and health are equally important to her. She
refers to them as meaningful prosperity and is concerned about how they
affect the lives of others.
A classic dresser, on this day she is
clad in a well-tailored dress and dressy shoes to match. She says of her
role as a wife and mother: “Success for me means also winning as a wife
and this means to help my husband be the best while he supports my
dreams and desires.”
Armed with an amazing wealth of
knowledge, she gives an insight into some of her beliefs. “I am consumed
by the fact that I want my business to survive when I am gone otherwise
I would have wasted my life. I started business in my twenties, so why
would I work so hard for so many years and not build a legacy?” She
says.
In conclusion, the doting mother of
three sons spares some succinct advice for business owners: “You must
understand that you are not indispensable to your business because you
are not God. You are not the most important person in your business, the
guys who work for you are just as important as well.You must learn to
respect them and the value they bring into your business. You can’t pay
them peanuts and pay yourself all the money.”
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