Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / From Harare to Lagos: Billionaire Battles in Africa's Biggest Markets

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From Harare to Lagos: Billionaire Battles in Africa's Biggest Markets · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to the show. Taking today's episode outside
• 0:05
  of the hospital, the same hospital that I was at yesterday
• 0:10
  while my family friend, she's doing OK, surgery was well, so
• 0:13
  she's recovering, I'm OK. So since I'm in the car, Lord,
• 0:16
  expect to hear some interruptions in the background.
• 0:19
  Now, the goal of this show is free business education.
• 0:22
  So if you're looking for that kind of thing, sales, marketing,
• 0:25
  you know, all sorts of things business related, then you're in
• 0:28
  the right place. You can stay here on the
• 0:30
  podcast. No need to run away.
• 0:31
  This is not a podcast that is going to tell you about the
• 0:34
  ailments of people in Nigerian hospitals.
• 0:37
  Nope, that's not where about. So if by the time we're done
• 0:40
  with the podcast, you find this thing to be valuable, share it,
• 0:42
  promote it and talk about it so that your friends and family
• 0:45
  members in Nigeria and abroad can benefit from the questions
• 0:48
  that we tackle. They can do that by subscribing
• 0:51
  Spotify, YouTube, Apple, or any player of your choice.
• 0:54
  And if you, dear listener, have any sales and marketing
• 0:57
  questions, then bring them to me.
• 1:00
  You can call, you can SMS, you can WhatsApp me on 08064662140.
• 1:07
  Now today on the show, I have my very first retraction on the
• 1:12
  podcast. I think that's what it's called
• 1:15
  anyway, retraction. That's when, you know, you put
• 1:17
  something out in the press, but then you didn't do your research
• 1:20
  and you know, maybe you miss Yan and you know, you just pull a
• 1:23
  retraction to say that. Look, people, I know I said this
• 1:26
  on so and so did, but I beg no Vex.
• 1:29
  I was wrong. So you know, this is the correct
• 1:31
  information. So that's what I'm going to do
• 1:33
  on the podcast. Now, for those of you who've
• 1:36
  been listening for a while, you remember that podcast episode I
• 1:38
  was talking about some of my guys.
• 1:40
  I was talking about Chairman Moore, a Sudanese born
• 1:45
  billionaire, you know, correct big boy who was some of my
• 1:48
  inspirations, you know, back when I was a youth, you know,
• 1:50
  back in the military era into like Obasanjo first time.
• 1:54
  So back when I was a young youth.
• 1:56
  Now these are the kind of people that inspired me.
• 2:00
  Also spoke about Moabudu. That's the, you know, the, the
• 2:06
  other more the Nigerian media exec and then who else?
• 2:12
  So I think I made a podcast episode where I spoke about like
• 2:15
  3 billionaires and I can't remember the point of the
• 2:19
  episode, but I do remember that at some point I credited
• 2:25
  Chairman MO. That's the Sudanese born
• 2:28
  billionaire. I credited him with starting a
• 2:32
  mobile, a mobile telecom company that would eventually become
• 2:38
  Econet Wireless and you know, all of that.
• 2:41
  But I made a mistake. I got my things mixed up.
• 2:45
  So Chairman Moore, yes, did start a a mobile telecom company
• 2:52
  which would have significant business interest in Nigeria,
• 2:56
  but it actually was another African billionaire.
• 3:01
  This guy now is boss, boss Strive.
• 3:04
  You know, by the way, when I say boss or chairman, you know,
• 3:06
  that's not what people call them without just me putting it
• 3:09
  there. But I'll use their full names.
• 3:11
  So Strive Massey Wire Massey Yuwa.
• 3:15
  Sorry, Strive Massey Yuwa. He actually is the one who
• 3:18
  started a mobile telecom company that would eventually become
• 3:22
  Equinet Nigeria. And you know, on and on and on
• 3:25
  and on. Well, of course, it was easy for
• 3:29
  me to get both of them mixed up because you know, they're both
• 3:33
  billionaires, they're both not Nigerian.
• 3:35
  And then they also, not only did they study something similar in
• 3:39
  uni, they also ended up starting telecom companies and they both
• 3:43
  had interest in Nigeria. So in my brain, I just got
• 3:46
  everything, I just got everything mixed up in the
• 3:49
  episode. But still, let me just issue my
• 3:52
  retraction. I decided to go and do research
• 3:55
  and print everything out. So I want, I want a mission this
• 4:00
  time. And I'm beginning to think then
• 4:03
  in the future, if I'm talking about sales and marketing, yes,
• 4:06
  I know that anything I say about sales, you know, that one is
• 4:09
  100% correct. I don't need to cross check.
• 4:11
  Yeah. But when I'm going to be talking
• 4:13
  about factual things, you know, talking about people who existed
• 4:16
  or what they did, I think I'm I'll go and do some research and
• 4:19
  print it out now. So, so that will not miss Young
• 4:22
  either that one with a higher production assistant at some
• 4:25
  point so that everything on this podcast is going to be correct.
• 4:29
  So let me now, for those of you who didn't listen to that
• 4:33
  episode, let me just give you a summary about the two
• 4:36
  billionaires, because you know, growing up military era into a
• 4:43
  Basenjo first time, you know, that period.
• 4:46
  These were some of the people that were my there's lots of
• 4:50
  advice to follow them like that like that, because I never, you
• 4:53
  know, we didn't have social media back then.
• 4:55
  Internet was not really Internet was not a thing.
• 4:57
  It's not even a matter of not really a thing.
• 4:59
  There was no Internet in Niger basic because Internet was not
• 5:02
  even until like maybe a bass and like second term, I can't
• 5:05
  remember. So, but these are the people
• 5:07
  that used to hear stories about, you know, big boys, you know,
• 5:10
  doing things and what kind of inspiration for some of us to
• 5:16
  get into business and do some adventurous stuff.
• 5:18
  And of course, it is my hope and my prayer.
• 5:21
  And when they end up not just like them, but eclipsing what
• 5:25
  these people have done. So it's my hope and my prayer
• 5:27
  that some of us on this journey now listening to this podcast
• 5:31
  right now that this is where we're going to end.
• 5:33
  So let me get straight into it. So now Bros, Bros Strive, real
• 5:36
  name Strive Massey Yiwa. Now I heard on the podcast that
• 5:40
  the reason why his name is Strive, that's STRIVE is because
• 5:44
  he's Mumsy who was a born again Christian, wanted the boy to
• 5:47
  strive to greatness, so she named him Strive.
• 5:50
  So if that's the case, then those of you Nigerians who are
• 5:53
  named good luck, you know, promise excellence, what else?
• 5:59
  Victory. You know all those names, you
• 6:01
  know, it's my prayer that that name will catch you.
• 6:02
  So just that Strive strove for greatness is my prayer that if
• 6:06
  your name is victory, you end up victorious.
• 6:09
  If your name is good luck, good luck, we'll always follow you.
• 6:11
  If your name is what again excellence, you shall be
• 6:14
  excellent all your days. So he was born on the 29th of
• 6:19
  January 1961. So my guy is, you know me small
• 6:22
  like 2 decades. Then he's the founder of an
• 6:26
  executive chairman for Eucanate Global and then Cassava
• 6:30
  Technologies. He spent while he was an
• 6:35
  entrepreneur for about four decades.
• 6:37
  He started and invested in businesses across Africa,
• 6:40
  Europe, India, Latin America, Middle East, New Zealand, UK and
• 6:44
  USA. So you can see that the boy try,
• 6:46
  hasn't he really try then? OK.
• 6:49
  He had one company, Mascom Wireless in Botswana.
• 6:55
  I think before that he how he started making some major bar
• 6:59
  was when Zimbabwe got independence and then Robert
• 7:04
  Mugabe's government was coming in.
• 7:06
  They were investing a lot in infrastructure, you know, roads,
• 7:12
  what else? Roads, electricity, what else?
• 7:16
  Communications infrastructure. So he started a he started doing
• 7:20
  contracting work basically as a government contractor.
• 7:23
  And that's how he made some of his some of his money.
• 7:26
  But you know, the guy became born again later on.
• 7:30
  So he tried to do business in a certain way.
• 7:33
  Let me just put it this way. Apparently my guy strive my see
• 7:37
  you at refused to drop money as he refused to give bribes and it
• 7:41
  turns out that that was his undoing in Zimbabwe and also in
• 7:45
  Nigeria unfortunately. So where was I?
• 7:49
  So he started doing government contracting work, then Mass com
• 7:52
  Wireless in Botswana and then Econet Wireless in Zimbabwe.
• 7:57
  And that was the company that would eventually invest in
• 8:00
  bringing GSM infrastructure to Nigeria.
• 8:05
  Econet wireless now it is called Airtel.
• 8:08
  So if you have Airtel, then the guy who is responsible for you
• 8:15
  using your headline is Strive Massey.
• 8:18
  You are Zimbabwean born, businessman, entrepreneur,
• 8:23
  philanthropist and billionaire with a capital B.
• 8:26
  Although some people say it's a small billionaire.
• 8:28
  You know, I don't understand people when they say small
• 8:30
  billionaire, big billionaire. Like somebody I said all
• 8:33
  language is a billionaire. The person was like that.
• 8:35
  What do you mean say is he not a billionaire?
• 8:37
  They say no, there's not a billionaire, that when we say
• 8:39
  billionaire, we need billion in dollars, we don't mean billion
• 8:42
  in naira. I said, so Dangote is only
• 8:43
  billion in naira. They say yes, no, there's no
• 8:45
  billion in dollars. And then I heard that is big
• 8:48
  billionaire and then the small billionaire.
• 8:50
  So apparently people like Strife Massey was, since his net worth
• 8:54
  is only about 1.2 billion. They say it's a small
• 8:58
  billionaire because there's some people whose net worth is, you
• 9:00
  know, 20 bill, some people who their own net worth is like 100
• 9:03
  bill. So apparently there's big
• 9:04
  billionaire, the small billionaire.
• 9:05
  But anyway, yeah, I don't mind. Let me add her that 1.2 beyond
• 9:09
  class 1st and I'll take it from there.
• 9:13
  Then I see. What else?
• 9:15
  OK, so his wife Sitzi. You know, this is the thing I
• 9:20
  love about Nigerians. As in you go here.
• 9:21
  Sorry, not Nigerians. African as in you go here.
• 9:23
  Names. As in is the correct name.
• 9:25
  Her name is Sitzi. Hope I'm pronouncing it well.
• 9:28
  TSITSI, the Co founded Higher Life Foundation and Delta
• 9:35
  Philanthropies so they were investing in education OK
• 9:40
  supported the education of over 300,000 African children through
• 9:45
  scholarships. So this is part of the guys,
• 9:50
  this part of the guys born again background as As for his mom,
• 9:53
  she was born again. Eventually he became born again
• 9:55
  even now married, born again as well.
• 9:57
  So yeah, this is some of the good that they chose to do.
• 10:01
  By the way. So those of you are listening to
• 10:02
  this podcast now also nice guys finish last or good girls finish
• 10:06
  last and all that kind of stuff like, oh, I'm born again.
• 10:08
  I can never succeed in Nigeria. You know, it's it's not a
• 10:14
  giving, it's not a giving. So from what I heard about
• 10:17
  strives hustle so far, like it was tough.
• 10:20
  Imagine doing business in Zimbabwe.
• 10:22
  Everywhere you go, people say you should drop envelope.
• 10:24
  The same must do Ghana must go, you must drop this.
• 10:26
  You must see somebody. You must appreciate somebody and
• 10:29
  he refused to appreciate people, but you know, he still made it.
• 10:32
  And the gist that we used to hear, well that I heard back in
• 10:36
  the day when I was a youngster was when he tried coming into
• 10:38
  Nigeria with the whole Econet wireless thing.
• 10:41
  That part of the reasons why the whole thing didn't work was he
• 10:44
  also, you know that you know that his hand is a car gum that
• 10:47
  he does not drop anything, he won't see anybody, he won't
• 10:50
  facilitate anything, he won't appreciate anybody.
• 10:52
  You know, he wants his own is just, you know, let me do my
• 10:55
  business and go. So anyway, in his business he
• 11:00
  faced a lot of struggles basically when he was trying to
• 11:04
  break into this whole Econet wireless thing.
• 11:07
  You know, in Zimbabwe, you know how like in Nigeria we had Nitel
• 11:10
  and Nitel owned the rights to everything.
• 11:12
  So in the same way Zimbabwe, them, they had their own Nitel
• 11:16
  or whatever the thing was called and they refused to give the guy
• 11:18
  a license. He applied in 1993 so that he
• 11:22
  could establish a mobile telecom company and Zimbabwe them sorry
• 11:27
  Mugabe them they said no why not give you a license that we hold
• 11:31
  the license for everything. You cannot come and do anything
• 11:34
  in this country. Of course you know strive now
• 11:36
  incoming vex because he was thinking you guys have the
• 11:39
  rights to all these things but you're not doing anything with
• 11:41
  this thing now so just give me license.
• 11:43
  Let me go ahead and do this mobile company now.
• 11:46
  So they refused. So the gist was that some people
• 11:54
  in the government say, you know, if you drop by, if you drop
• 11:56
  this, if you drop envelope, come and greet me, come and show our
• 11:58
  appreciation. Guando Ballet that, you know,
• 12:00
  sort you out. So he refused.
• 12:02
  Instead, he went to court and that's where his problems with
• 12:05
  Mugabe started. Gabby's like, who are you like
• 12:09
  small boy, you want to come And you know how it is now in this
• 12:12
  part of the world. The same thing in Nigeria now,
• 12:14
  you know, when somebody's on top, when somebody is the
• 12:16
  president, you know, you're a relative, nobody, you know,
• 12:20
  carry them to court or you, you want to air your grievance.
• 12:23
  You know how it can be now like you're a small boy, you won't
• 12:25
  respect your elders. So anyway, they started looking
• 12:30
  at Strive and you couldn't as a threat to the government.
• 12:34
  In fact, some people said at some point Mugabe was claiming
• 12:36
  that Strive was ACIA operative or be something, something like
• 12:40
  that. And you know, all these gist
• 12:41
  that we still hear back in those days.
• 12:43
  So I just plenty, plenty gist. So let me see.
• 12:46
  Anyway, so this court thing lasted, was it 5 years?
• 12:50
  OK, the court thing lasted five years.
• 12:52
  Eventually they ended up in Supreme Court or Zimbabwe and
• 12:57
  let's see how they have. OK, so he won.
• 13:00
  So he won. And then that's how he got the
• 13:02
  license. And apparently, you know, Mugabe
• 13:04
  didn't like that. So that's how two of them now
• 13:07
  there were no friends at all, at all, at all.
• 13:09
  So eventually the guys started facing economic sabotage because
• 13:13
  you know how our people do these things now once they gave him
• 13:16
  license, they say is it like that other people now showed up.
• 13:20
  I started applying for license too.
• 13:22
  And then lo and behold, the person that won the contract, it
• 13:24
  turns out the person was now related to Mugabe.
• 13:27
  Can you imagine license that they didn't want to give my guy
• 13:30
  in the beginning when he now went to court and then he won,
• 13:34
  they now carried the license there.
• 13:35
  You won't be the carried the license they gave somebody else.
• 13:38
  By the time you look underneath the hood of the company, you see
• 13:40
  that the person is related to Mugabe.
• 13:42
  So he went back to court again to go and fight that thing,
• 13:45
  which kind of rubbish. So eventually he won the case
• 13:49
  because Mugabe's Stooges who ran the other company, they did not
• 13:54
  meet the technical requirements and you know, stuff like that.
• 13:56
  So that's how he now won and he's was able to get his company
• 14:01
  going. So he faced some economic
• 14:03
  sabotage there then let's see what else?
• 14:06
  OK, then apparently, you know, he wasn't that good at raising
• 14:09
  funds for some of his ideas. So, you know, some people say
• 14:13
  that, you know, he could have been bigger.
• 14:14
  You know, if he was good at raising funds.
• 14:16
  Then of course he also didn't help that he wasn't able to get
• 14:20
  going on time. You know, the 1st court,
• 14:23
  something was like 5 years. The 2nd court thing.
• 14:25
  OK, did I write it down? OK, I didn't write it down then
• 14:29
  let's see what else. And it's all from there now.
• 14:31
  He starts, he starts moving on to to other countries.
• 14:37
  Then eventually he decided to come into Nigeria.
• 14:40
  But then there was government interference, There was
• 14:42
  political interference, you know, similar to Zimbabwe.
• 14:45
  You know the gist. I'm not saying this one like I
• 14:48
  know for sure for sure. The gist was that one or two
• 14:51
  governors were telling him, that young man, no problem.
• 14:54
  You know, you can come here if you drop one or two things.
• 14:58
  We see one or two people come on the ballet, come and shake hand,
• 15:01
  you know, come and show appreciation that, you know,
• 15:03
  will help you arrange, you know, one or two things.
• 15:07
  And of course, you refuse to pay bribes again.
• 15:10
  And this is the point where some of you will say, hey, Africans,
• 15:13
  why do we do this to our own? And it was a pity.
• 15:17
  And now we need to understand why a lot of them, a lot of the
• 15:20
  billionaires eventually cut out because Strive Masiua is no
• 15:25
  longer in Zimbabwe. He's not currently in the UK.
• 15:28
  And the reason why he was in the UK is because some people who
• 15:31
  came and told him that, look, guy, you know that you are
• 15:34
  Mugabe one all friends. And and because of, you know,
• 15:40
  with mobile technology and social media and stuff like
• 15:42
  that, people are beginning to express dissent over social
• 15:47
  media and stuff, you know, so some people now begin to say
• 15:50
  that, look, as far as Mugabe is concerned, it is you guys from
• 15:52
  entering trouble. So he decided to be wise, as my
• 15:56
  father used to say. My father used to tell me, well,
• 15:58
  not me, one of my cousins. You should tell him that.
• 16:00
  Look, don't stay. Is it on to the pour hot water
• 16:02
  on your head that you understand, you know, they don't
• 16:04
  like you move. So that's what he did and he's
• 16:07
  out. So that's why I don't understand
• 16:09
  why a lot of them leave. And I guess that's the reason
• 16:14
  why some people congratulate Dangote, you know, for saying
• 16:16
  that, oh, he's still here. I still still pushing it.
• 16:20
  So let's see. I have so political interference
• 16:23
  in Nigeria as well. He refused to pay bribes.
• 16:26
  They also disputes with members of the board.
• 16:32
  And then there was also ownership conflicts.
• 16:34
  He wasn't able to raise the amount of finance that he needed
• 16:36
  to get the projects going over here.
• 16:38
  So I think because of that, he only owned 5% of the entity here
• 16:43
  in Nigeria. That's equivalent Nigeria.
• 16:45
  Then let's see, let me check my notes.
• 16:50
  If I'm interested in all this stuff, you know, go on Google,
• 16:54
  go on check Wikipedia, you know, whatever I did, it's a really
• 16:57
  interesting, it's really interesting, really interesting
• 17:01
  story. Then let's see what else?
• 17:05
  What else? What else?
• 17:07
  And eventually they were able to force him out of the country and
• 17:09
  then there was lots of ownership changes and stuff like that.
• 17:12
  So that is how the companies you know, started to change name
• 17:14
  until it ended up as. So let me give you the correct
• 17:18
  this this time and I wrote it ahead Airtel Nigeria.
• 17:22
  So for those of you also excuse me.
• 17:25
  So for those of you who use Airtel, yeah, that's how your
• 17:28
  company started. It was strive, mercy, you are,
• 17:31
  if you want to go and do some research on the fellow Strive,
• 17:34
  STRIVE. And then Masi Yua MASIYIWA,
• 17:44
  small billionaire, but I don't mind $1.2 billion.
• 17:49
  Not bad. All right, So that's how I got
• 17:52
  them confused because now Chairman MO is also a
• 17:56
  billionaire. He's from Sudan and he and
• 18:01
  strive, they studied something similar in uni and but the
• 18:05
  company that Chairman MO started was Settle.
• 18:11
  So Chairman MO MO Ibrahim. Yes, that's his full name.
• 18:17
  That's for those of you who want to go and check him.
• 18:19
  So MO Ibrahim, so MO Ibrahim, he started the company Celltel and
• 18:25
  they ended up becoming one of Africa's leading mobile phone
• 18:28
  companies. So you can see that they started
• 18:30
  something similar. Then let's see what else.
• 18:34
  OK, so Celltel now, so this is where I now made the mix up in
• 18:37
  my head. Now Celltel has significant
• 18:39
  business holdings in Nigeria. That's because they acquired V
• 18:45
  Mobile. Happy try.
• 18:48
  OK, I should have written these things out properly in 2000.
• 18:53
  Oh, sorry. One moment, phone call.
• 18:54
  Let me see. All right, one moment.
• 18:57
  I'll pause this recording and I'll be right back.
• 19:02
  OK, sorry about that. Remember I said that I'm in the
• 19:06
  car park at the hospital. So yes, I got a phone call.
• 19:10
  I thought maybe they needed needed me in the ward.
• 19:13
  Let's see where was I as I was talking about Chairman Mono MO
• 19:17
  Ibrahim. So I think they acquired V
• 19:19
  Mobile in 2006. So they acquired 65% controlling
• 19:27
  stake in V Mobile and at the time he supposedly dropped one 1
• 19:32
  billion. Then let's see what else.
• 19:35
  OK, Then after they acquired V Mobile, V Mobile was rebranded
• 19:40
  as Cell Tel Nigeria. Good.
• 19:42
  So for those of you who Mumsy and Popsy were using cell tell
• 19:45
  line, this is how it began. This is how cell to entered
• 19:48
  Nigeria. Then let's see, OK, they
• 19:54
  announced plans to invest in Nigerian operations.
• 19:57
  OK invested another 700 mil dollars.
• 20:00
  By the way, all this money I'm calling is dollars.
• 20:02
  If it's not now that they're dropping, then what else?
• 20:08
  What else? What else?
• 20:10
  What else anyway? I think maybe not let not talk
• 20:14
  too much because already done 20 minutes, but that's just the
• 20:16
  gist. That's just the crux of the gist
• 20:17
  I wanted to give you guys anyway.
• 20:19
  Now basically I gave you guys wrong list.
• 20:20
  So Chairman MO is responsible for Celltel.
• 20:27
  That's the company he started Celltel.
• 20:29
  Celltel would now go and acquire V mobile and then change to
• 20:34
  Celltel Nigeria. Then it is strive must you are
• 20:40
  who would start the company, who would start Equinet and
• 20:44
  eventually come into Econet Nigeria.
• 20:48
  Then let's see how did how did. OK, Yeah, so the company is
• 20:52
  still around today. That is more Abraham's company
• 20:55
  because later on they will now transition to Zain in 2008.
• 21:00
  Yes, they will become Zain because their company anyway,
• 21:08
  let me skip the details, but eventually cell tell would now
• 21:11
  become Zane then Zane would later on rebrand as I'll be you
• 21:23
  know what even this research, I didn't even do this research
• 21:25
  properly. I should have just had a
• 21:27
  research assistant from the start anyway, but but any issue
• 21:31
  I've, I've done my retraction. I gave you guys false
• 21:34
  information the first time around and I wanted to make sure
• 21:36
  that I came correct this time. I gave you guys correct
• 21:38
  information. So these are the people to check
• 21:41
  out. So the Zimbabwean billionaire
• 21:44
  and businessman is Strive Masi, Yiwa STRIVEMASIYI, Abby MASIYIWA
• 21:57
  and then the other person, my guy Sharon MO has MO Ibrahim,
• 22:03
  the Sudanese born businessman. I think also I think he also
• 22:07
  lives in the UK now. Well, the reason why these guys
• 22:13
  caught my, caught my attention back then as a young youth was,
• 22:20
  you know, what they were doing big things, you know, in the
• 22:23
  African continent, you know, times are different now.
• 22:26
  You know, mobile phones are everywhere, digital tech is
• 22:29
  everywhere. But back then, you know, growing
• 22:33
  up, you know, it felt as if Nigel was closed, felt as if
• 22:36
  Africa was closed. So with these young men, you
• 22:40
  know, moving things, doing things, setting up these
• 22:43
  companies, there was a lot of opening up, a lot of expansion
• 22:49
  that was going on. Then back in the day, you know,
• 22:53
  while getting access to these technologies, while getting
• 22:56
  access to information was opening up all kinds of things,
• 23:00
  was opening up multiply effects. I mean, by the time I got my
• 23:04
  first, I think my first line was I think an MTN line.
• 23:08
  By the time I got my first one in uni, I think I must have been
• 23:11
  in like year, must have been like year three-year 4.
• 23:15
  By the time I got my first GSM, it was, was a good I, it was a
• 23:21
  good I, how would I put it was an eye opener show.
• 23:24
  Let me just put it that way. Access to the Internet, access
• 23:26
  to mobile telephony, all these sorts of things.
• 23:29
  And that was the time when I was trying to be a music producer
• 23:32
  back in uni. So, and back in those days,
• 23:36
  since everybody had a mobile phone, all of us were dropping
• 23:38
  our phone numbers everywhere, like even P square, P square
• 23:42
  them. They even used to drop their
• 23:43
  phone numbers on the back of the CDs.
• 23:45
  And this guy from Storm Records, Obi Asika, Yeah, his phone
• 23:50
  number was there. So because there was an artist I
• 23:53
  was trying to promote at the time, Mickey, Mickey the
• 23:57
  messenger, a gospel artist. But we we've lost touch anyway.
• 24:01
  So when I was trying to be a music producer back in the day,
• 24:04
  yeah, this is how I got the phone numbers of some of these
• 24:07
  people, you know, trying to call them, trying to get an artist
• 24:12
  signed, trying to get a record record deal.
• 24:14
  It was not successful, by the way.
• 24:16
  So the artist that I was representing, you know, the
• 24:18
  thing didn't pop off. But what I'm just trying to say
• 24:20
  is that right now you guys take it for granted.
• 24:22
  But back then it was a safe like overnight.
• 24:25
  We were learning business at the at the speed of light, you know,
• 24:29
  so I could be an E fair as I should have been studying, but I
• 24:33
  was trying to be a music producer, you know, I could be
• 24:35
  an E fair. And then with my phone, trying
• 24:37
  to make phone calls, trying to run things in Lagos, trying to
• 24:40
  arrange meetings in Lagos. OK, I'm supposed to see DJ Jimmy
• 24:43
  Jack, but I never that meeting was I was, I wasn't able to make
• 24:48
  that meeting happen by the time we got to Lagos, couldn't pin
• 24:51
  him down as he was very busy. So yeah, that's why these guys
• 24:57
  just caught my attention. So the young men doing big
• 25:00
  things, the opening of the African continent and the reason
• 25:06
  why I made the first episode where I spoke about Shyama MO
• 25:09
  and the reason why I'm making this one now is basically it's
• 25:12
  just to let you guys know now there's a lot of talk in the
• 25:15
  entrepreneurial space right now where people are focusing on
• 25:19
  great, great things, the big things that people are doing in
• 25:24
  North America and Western Europe.
• 25:26
  But just to let you know that we have our own authentic home
• 25:28
  grown stories of people trying to switch things off, people
• 25:32
  trying to innovate, that people trying to change the game over
• 25:35
  here, trying to change the game right now.
• 25:38
  So we don't always have to look towards Zucks, you know,
• 25:42
  Zuckerberg and the rest of them. I'm not saying that it's bad and
• 25:48
  I'm not saying that we shouldn't pay attention to, you know,
• 25:51
  Apple, Facebook and all of that. I'm just trying to say that we
• 25:55
  currently have our own entrepreneurial stories going on
• 26:03
  at the moment and we have had for quite a while.
• 26:09
  So pay attention. We have those stories, those
• 26:14
  stories over here. And I think sometimes these
• 26:17
  stories self are even more relatable because think about it
• 26:21
  like Strife. It's not as if Strife was born a
• 26:24
  big boy. It's not as if he was born into
• 26:27
  a big family. He was just born in a certain
• 26:30
  context. Mumsy and Popsy had certain
• 26:32
  ideals, you know, they prayed over their child, they did their
• 26:36
  best and apparently he was a sharp guy and he tried to take
• 26:41
  advantage of opportunities. So anyway, don't mind me, I'm
• 26:46
  just me standing. So these are some of my heroes
• 26:50
  back when I was a young youth. So we also have heroes on the
• 26:53
  African continent. So let's pay attention.
• 26:55
  These are all wonderful stories. Such a shame that for Strive in
• 26:59
  particular that is whole thing about corruption would be
• 27:02
  something that will continue to dodge him in Zimbabwe and then
• 27:06
  in Niger. So for those of us who are going
• 27:10
  to be in government later on and who are going to be responsible
• 27:13
  for setting public policy and things like that, I beg, you
• 27:16
  know, let's shine our eyes, let's not handicap our own and
• 27:20
  let's stop creating the environment in such a way that
• 27:23
  anybody who starts anything here, by the time they blossom
• 27:27
  small, you know, to survive the gas cut out and go someplace
• 27:30
  else. So be mindful those of you who
• 27:33
  are going to become governors, presidents, legislators, you
• 27:37
  know, whatever, I beg, you know, be mindful because when these
• 27:41
  people do things and it pops off like Strive and Chairman MO, who
• 27:45
  are the ones that benefit when Chairman MO comes in here and
• 27:47
  when Strive came in here and they're building towers, they're
• 27:50
  expanding the network and, and everything, who are the people
• 27:53
  that benefit? It is Nigerian engineers that
• 27:55
  benefit, Nigerian construction people that benefit and what
• 27:58
  people that benefit Nigerian youth.
• 28:01
  People like me back then in uni now feeling like a big boy
• 28:04
  because I have a mobile phone, feeling as if you know, I cannot
• 28:07
  run things. These things have a multiplier
• 28:11
  effect. So please, when we get into
• 28:12
  office, you know anyway, let me stop preaching.
• 28:17
  So that's it, that's all today on the show.
• 28:20
  Thank you very much for your time and attention.
• 28:21
  If you have any sales and marketing questions, even though
• 28:24
  I didn't talk about anything sales and marketing related
• 28:26
  today, please bring it to me. You can call SMS or WhatsApp on
• 28:29
  08064662140. Thank you very much for your
• 28:34
  time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next
• 28:36
  episode and next time I'll try and do my research ahead of time
• 28:40
  before I hit record so that I don't come and I give you guys
• 28:43
  wrong info. But rest assured, if it is
• 28:46
  anything that is related to sales and marketing that I see
• 28:48
  on this podcast, forget it. That is gospel.
• 28:51
  If I say it, take it, it is true.
• 28:54
  So I'll catch you guys in the next episode.