You are one of the big shots in Nigeria’s real estate sector and an acclaimed business coach. However, it wasn’t a rosy beginning. How tough was your childhood?

Well about my childhood. I was born in the northern part of Nigeria in Maiduguri. At some point due to our inability to pay house rent, my parents had to move to a village where they bought a land and built one room apartment. The toilet, a pit toilet, was outside and no running water.
Typical rural setting… (laughs) Yes. And we grew up in that neighborhood. In my teenage years we moved to the middle part of Nigeria. And it was here I saw people with a more quality lifestyle. And though we moved there we were still the poorest. The passion for wealth and success began. I was able to read a book called « RICH DAD, POOR DAD » between the age of 17 and 18 and that opened my eyes to the possibility of being wealthy. And that wealth has nothing to do with educational background, but has everything to do with your informal knowledge, training and going through apprenticeship. This was the game changer. I started business as a teenager but it was formally registered 15 years ago. We started as a digital marketing firm doing bulk SMS, Email and social media marketing. Eight years ago we expanded into real estate and today we are in four continents of the world.

You have a very inspiring status, starting a business with 1000 naira. What inspired this journey?
I didn’t have a laptop when we started the bulk SMS business. I didn’t even have the account. But I used to do training on business while on campus. And a particular organization said I should send bulk SMS for their conference. So, they gave me 700 naira, I added 300 naira to it and went to a cyber cafe and created an account under another person. I sent the SMS and that was how I got more customers. And later we owned our own website. A laptop also came and we started doing websites for other people. By 2015 we were the largest in Nigeria because we were operating with multinationals, doing hundreds of millions in the same business. We had to continue this business for about seven years before we saw over 100 million naira in transactions. The place of being consistent is key and we also didn’t diversify until the business grew big and we had enough liquidity to start employing more people.

You just spoke about consistency and that brings out the “challenges”. The life of an entrepreneur is not easy. What major challenges do you face?

(smiles) We are still facing challenges. Challenges are the fruit of champions. And the mindset of entrepreneurs is always to overcome obstacles and challenges. And I faced so many. My mother died in the early days of my entrepreneurship. Many of the businesses failed. I failed in almost 20 businesses. Most of the time we hear only of the successful ones. I even thought it was spiritual because I kept starting businesses and failing. But today I know better that I didn’t have a mentor in my early days and I couldn’t even afford the available ones. I kept doing trial and error and that was why those businesses were failing. I have been through hell being an entrepreneur. I have had seasons where my son couldn’t go to school because I had a choice to either pay salaries or his school fees. If I don’t pay the salary the business is going to be over.

Of course…
DR AKINTAYO: So, I had to pay my workers, while my son stayed back at home. I can go on and on. Yes, the challenges were many. But I didn’t have an… There was just no other option. I tried getting a job. I smell 100 CVs. I even told employers not to pay me for six months. But I didn’t still have a job. So, I didn’t really have a choice than to make sure this business I have must work.

What really kept you going in the midst of the storm?
Honestly it was the fact that I didn’t have a choice. Some people have options and here in Africa you could rely on your cousin or uncle. But in my case my mother was the breadwinner because my father’s business had collapsed and he was not able to raise us financially. She died of ovarian cancer about 12 years ago. So, I didn’t have who to go to. There was no rich uncle that you could just talk to and he will help you. There was a day after my mom died that we spent over two days with no food and my brother had his pregnant wife. An idea popped into his mind. One of his friends sell vegetables. So, my brother decided to take vegetables from him and distribute to restaurants of companies around the town dressed in suit. Then he will pay back later. Imagine a young graduate selling vegetables dressed in suits. He put them in these “Ghana must go” bags and took them to these restaurants. Though these restaurants had their clients they decided to receive supplies from him due to his dressing in suit. For me I had to go from door to door asking people to buy my bulk SMS by signing up for an account with just 500 naira. We didn’t really have a choice. If I had a choice I would have given up.

Eight years later you went into real estate with Gtext Holdings. But let’s look at the sector in general. Nigeria is a fertile ground for Real Estate. What factors do you think have caused this boom in the Nigerian Real Estate? Investment, Demand or both?
Demand is key here. Nigeria is a big country and the next census may give us a population of 300 million people. By size we are not that big because of our small land size. This has put pressure on the demand for Real Estate. More people want houses. The housing deficit of Nigeria is over 20 million. This is a serious problem. But the Nigerians in the diaspora have also been major investors. Because many of them have not had it easy with the mortgage system in the United States and other parts of the world. Sometimes the banks there even sell your house below the market price if you can’t pay. Imagine you working for 10 years and all that effort gone. So many Nigerians abroad think that no matter what happens they need to have something back at home. Any emergency can happen I will have to go back to Nigeria. And this has helped the sector in a great way.

At what point did you realise that Real Estate was the master key?
DR AKINTAYO: It was when I visited Silicon Valley eight years ago. I went to Silicon Valley, Google campus, Facebook campus, LinkedIn and Apple campus. I was shocked to see that Google campus was bigger than the biggest university I knew in Nigeria. I thought these tech companies will focus on office work. But for them to have massive real estate, it was amazing. I kept crossing Express ways. But I was within Facebook campus. It therefore dawned on me that these are not just Tech companies. They were major Real estate investments. For example, different cities were bidding to host Amazon’s second campus promising tax breaks and other incentives work billions of dollars. C.E.O once said, « We are not a burger company. We are a Real Estate company. » Because he makes more money from Real Estates than selling burger. So, I realised that Real Estate was the backbone of any economy activity. And until we realise this, we are not going to make any headway.

What policies have the Federal Government put in place to ensure that this sector is viable?
DR AKINTAYO: In Nigeria we don’t have enough positive policies yet and it’s across Africa. This is because the political leaders do not know that it’s also in their own interest to have the right policies in place. When you look at the growth of any successful nation, Real Estate has been the backbone. America for example has the largest Real Estate market with over $30 trillion. Dubai is what it is today not because of oil but on the backdrop of Real Estate. They are even bracing up to build the largest airport in the world that will take about 230 million people every year. And African nation that wants to become great must do same through Real Estate because it is the only asset that is Real. That’s why it is called Real Estate because it is tangible. You can’t touch FOREX or crypto. But you can touch Real Estate and that’s the beauty about it. So, government has a duty to do, starting with good policies. Ancestral families own land. So, coming up with a policy that government is the new owner of land is an issue that needs to be look into. If I were in such position, the first thing I will do is remove the law. I’d rather let there be a tax on every land. It’s not okay that government is the owner of the land and still collects usage tax. This is multiple taxation. We hope to see these laws evolve in Africa.

For starters going into Real Estate, what should they bear in mind?
They first need to know that Real Estate is a long-term game, not a short-term game. People come into the sector, take too much loan over leverage and they crash.

Talking about finance, how friendly are Nigerian banks to Real Estate operators?
DR AKINTAYO: They are not friendly at all (laughs). Right now, I am thinking of starting a mortgage bank and a commercial bank in the future. These banks leave too much money on the table. Many banks in the West have developed by leveraging Real Estate. The 2008 crisis was caused by the collapse of a Real Estate bank. Our banks are scared of giving out loans and mortgages. And I think it starts with the Central Bank. The Central Bank has to come up with a policy that makes it a guarantee for Real Estate loans. The commercial banks can be powered too. Mortgage banks with resources to handle this situation are not enough. You can empower commercial banks. If someone takes a loan and can’t pay, you can sell the property at auction and take back your money or sell it to another institution that the bank may set up. The banking sector must unlock the potential of Real Estate in Africa. In 15 years we (Gtext Homes) have not taken a single bank loan. Not because we don’t want to. But the terms are not favourable. If you go for loan, it’s almost as if you are selling out your business. The terms alone make you not to pay back. We are leveraging on social capital. We rely on individuals who know and believe in our story. They invest with us and receive returns. This has proven to be better than going to the commercial bank for loans which is unfortunate.

ND: African countries have depended on their natural resources to power their economies since Independence Oil, Gas, Minerals, Timber and Agriculture. For a country like Nigeria dependent on oil and the call by the government for economic diversification. Do you think Real Estate can be master key to economic boom?
We just need to check other cultures and see how they have developed. In Saudi Arabia, Neon is evolving to become a major diversification strategy for the country. In the U.A.E, Dubai has evolved and makes more money leveraging on Real Estate. All the major cities of the world have evolved on the Real Estate sector. Even Silicon Valley is hinging on Real Estate of Tech. Globally these cities make money and sustain their economy through Real Estate. With renewable energy oil will soon dry up. So, it’s no longer sustainable. We are talking about renewable and Green energy. So, you can’t count on consistent reliance on natural resources. It’s time to develop Real Estate. Douala for example has beautiful waters. Some chemicals can be put into most of this swampy water to become beautiful. This has been done in Las Vegas. Private individuals must step up. And government must create that enabling environment. I have seen beautiful plantations coming down to Douala. If you could work on the waterways and make it cleaner, you will love this city.

Tell us about Gtext Homes, the subsidiary specialised in Real Estates…
Gtext Homes is divided into three units. We have the housing section (Gtext Homes), the land section (Gtext Lands) and the secondary market Gtext suite for finished houses. We now operate in Dubai operating over 100 houses. There is massive expansion in the U.S. We have decided not just to grow locally. We also needed to go internationally. This is because we cannot raise all the money locally to build what we intend to build. Our vision is to build 25,000 smart homes with Gold club, beaches and other tourist resorts. 200 of that will be done across Africa. And we need over $20 billion in the next 12 years to accomplish that. We can raise this amount locally. When you expand internationally, your works speak for you. And we can tell our partners to invest back at home. Based on what you have done in Dubai, U.S and the U.K for example we can trust you for Nigeria. We will be investing heavily internationally in the next five years so that we can have the backbone to push those investors to come to Africa.

ND: What makes Gtext different from other Real Estate agencies?
DR AKINTAYO: We are the first to start the concept to Green and smart homes in Africa. We also believe in giving back. We had to do the road leading to most of our Estates with our own money. We put in 50 million naira to do 400km of roads. There are also lots of futuristic action concepts around our projects. We target Touristic and Residential aspects in our estates and we hope to maintain that.

You are piloting this initiative known as « Smart City Initiative ». What is it all about?
It is all about making everything smart. You can control your home even when you are away from home. The Green part of it is about Renewable Energy, not just grass. We are not going to be connecting our Estates with national grid. We are going to be generating our own electricity. We know that internationally these innovation change. In Dubai the city is already Smart and the energy from the Government. But what we are going to do is brand our units with celebrities. We are having concepts like Ighalo Residence, Davido Residence and other celebrities. We are already talking with some of them. If they agree, they will work with our architect and design the interior according to their taste. And the day the owner is taking the keys of his/her house, the celebrity will hand over the keys.

Away from entrepreneurship, let’s talk mentorship. You have mentored over 15,000 Nigerians and others across Africa. What drives you in this endeavour?
Well, my vision is to raise 1 million millionaires across Africa before I leave this earth. One of the reasons is because I lacked a mentor when I was starting. When you look at why the private sector continued to grow, it’s not just because politicians are incompetent. It’s largely because we don’t have enough entrepreneurs. Global economies are not driven by government. Jobs are not created by the government. The private sector creates the jobs. So, if you don’t unleash the potential of the private sector, Africa will continue to struggle. But if the private sector is allowed to grow, Africa will be more prosperous: an Africa where people have jobs, are self-sufficient and have a great life for themselves. I think that Africans are resilient, they are strong. Just give them an enabling environment, and they will figure things out. Africans are not asking too much. Give us electricity, good internet and make the law easy and friendly, an idea will blossom. I was shocked to see people here in Cameroon with their Real Estate and they tell me « I learned everything from you through your books. » I have seen people having AirBnB and they acknowledge they learn the whole concept from me. This is same in Ghana and other areas I have visited. This means that show an African, give him hope, show him the way, create the environment and he or she will fly.

You are the founder of the Stephen Akintayo Foundation. What provoked you to come up with the foundation and what activities have been executed so far?
We realised that a lot of entrepreneurs lack access to other successful entrepreneurs with whom they can scale their businesses. For me it was difficult to meet people who could help me at my level. Those whom I could meet did not do businesses as big as mine. So, they could really tell me that at this level, this is what I have to do. So, I said to myself that we must create and enabling environment, not only to give money. But to enable starters, watch how you run an empire that is bigger than theirs. We began by giving grants of $5million, that is $5000 dollars to 1000 entrepreneurs. We took from the Tony Elumelu Foundation and we added more mentorship. These entrepreneurs join my C.E.O Entrepreneurship programme and they are in the same groups with my own mentor C.E.Os. They see us make decisions; I share my challenges with them. By the time their business gets to my level, they already know what to do. This is helping them to scale. The entrepreneurs also network with each other and see how they can do business amongst themselves. They also have exposure because I promote their businesses on my platform. I travel with them and give them visibility. This year we are focusing on Nigeria because charity begins at home (laughs). From next year we will expand to other African countries. So, Cameroonians, Ghanaians, Kenyans and other African countries can apply. We will also open up to Africans in the diaspora because we also need to empower them. If they grow strongly, they too will empower their brothers here on the continent. The system in the West favours entrepreneurs because it is capitalist.

What does it take for someone to be part of the initiative?
They just need to go to stephenakintayofoundation.org and apply. Every month there’s a different category. So, they check which category is in line with their business and they apply. They can do so months ahead. I am not involved. There’s a team who select the top 50 ideas and scrutinise them. The last 10 applicants will pitch their ideas on Instagram LIVE. And an independent judge will pick those to benefit from the grant. This year we are doing 24, next year we are increasing to over 70. So about 10 people will be awarded the grant every month.

How will the funds for the 5 million for 5 years be raised and how will it be distributed over the five years?
At the moment Gtext Homes and 25000 Green Expert Home Project are the one sponsoring. However, we are registered in the United States as a Non-profit organisation. This registration is such that people can write off their tax by donating to the foundation. So, we are hoping that from next year we will do a lot of work in the US. And we are expecting donors from the western world. And we will push some campaigns about the foundation and what we do. But this year, we are in charge because my principle is to first use your own funds if you really believe in it and let people see that you are doing it and it’s genuine before calling on others to join.

How viable is mentorship for the growth of entrepreneurship in Nigeria and Africa?
It’s very viable because it gives room for many donors to give funds to help entrepreneurs. There are many donors. But they need genuine programs to support. Donors don’t work with NGOs because there is a possibility of fraud. So, they work with established programmes. For example, it is easy to trace the Bill Gates Foundation because it is credible. There’s a shift in how philanthropy works.

You have been vetted into the Forbes Business Council. How has this recognition added value to your entrepreneurial journey?
This is a club of people whose businesses is over $1million and above. It gives opportunities to network with other entrepreneurs. It also gives me the chance to write. I have an article every month on Forbes Magazine that teaches and shares value on Entrepreneurship.

Another good news is I have just been nominated for the Forbes « Best of Africa Award » as the leading investment coach and Investment company of the year. We will be receiving the award in London this July. So apart from being in the council. There are other awards that come from other Forbes subsidiaries. And we are happy about it. It helps to legitimize what we do. When big institutions endorse you, it makes you credible and brings trusts from potential clients and partners. But it also gives me an opportunity to add value to Forbes through my articles published on the Magazine.

You are in Cameroon for the Billionaire Code Book Series signing, a compendium of five books. What inspired this series?
I realised a lot of wealthy African don’t write books. My big uncle, Aliko Dangote, doesn’t have a book on how he did his business (smiles). A lot of our top entrepreneurs don’t have one. I am ready to write a book for Dangote. So, he shares with us how he made it. I believe that a book will go further than you go. Your book is a bigger legacy than your company. Because anyone can buy your company, but your book remains your book. Your name will always be there till eternity. Your book is your gift to the world. Africa has a young population, confused, not happy and losing hope. Many think they can’t make it here in Africa. But if I started here and made it before expanding in America and Dubai, I must tell a story. But this story is not about luck. There are principles behind it. Principles are habits. Your habits determine your decision. And your decision determines your destiny. So, if we don’t begin to share these core values, we will not succeed. I co-authored with a woman « Feeling 40 at 80 ». My partner was 80 but she’s very smart. She told me she has never been to the hospital in over 30 years. Many of us will say it’s the grace of God. But there are principles she applied in her life to live this long and be very strong even capable of co-writing this book with me. Sharing your secret will never affect your income and opportunities. I am very excited about this book. It is my legacy to Africa and the reception has been amazing among young people in Cameroon. I’ve given them hope.

Your subject matter is on billionaires. What explains this choice?
(laughs) In reality, if you’re a millionaire in Africa and they change it to dollars, you will be a Thousandnaire (laughs). So, if you are focusing to be a millionaire in Africa, you are not worth much. But if you are targeting billions, you could be worth at least $2 million. The truth is that we needed to think big. And inspire many people to think big and not be contented with the little you have. We want to challenge Africans to think and grow bigger. But they must start small. I started with just 1000 naira and it’s now in billions.

Among the series you have published, there is one for pastors. What do you hope to achieve?
Pastors are very influential. And many of them have been victims of wrong habits. Religion does something good but anti-business. By its nature religion is socialist by design while wealth building is capitalist. Most pastors directly or indirectly try to build wealth using socialist principles. When they have little money, they help church members and give everything out. When they now need money and the church is not productive, they could be tempted to start giving fake prophecies and manipulate the people. It is a vicious circle where the subject of tithes generates bitter debate and hatred for pastors. The root cause is that most pastors have not learnt to be entrepreneurs. They don’t invest. So, they can’t even raise investors and capitalists because they are not one. They can’t encourage their members to build wealth because they lack principles on wealth creation. So, we needed to write a book that enable pastors to know the opportunities within their own space. In the Billionaire Code for Pastors, there more than 20 businesses pastors can do. It also guides them on how they leverage on their gifts, talents and content to build wealth for themselves. Once the pastor is rich, he will raise rich members. My pastor is a billionaire, so you should not wonder why I am a billionaire.

Nigeria is going through a tough economic phase and the new President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has begun with some actions to fix things. As an entrepreneur how do you want to see the Nigerian economy under President Tinubu?
I didn’t support the President. But he is now there. I pray that he succeeds because his direct and indirect decisions affect all of us in Nigeria. I encourage Nigerians to support him as well. We need to find a way to wish him all the best. However, I am confident he will do well. He is very much experienced in business. And also, into real estate. I know his Administration will favour my industry because he understands the sector. It takes more than just being good to change Africa. You must be courageous. A nation like Nigeria needs tough decisions. And for it to happen you need a tough man. Look at the subsidy removal issue. If Tinubu wasn’t courageous, Nigeria will be burning by now. He has shown that he has influence across the board, even with the Labour activists. The President has no choice than to perform and looking at the election petition against him, he must prove that he can deliver to calm the spirits of the people. The unified exchange rate action is also good. I’m positive that six months from now, there will be a new Nigeria and it will have a positive influence in Cameroon and other African countries.

Talking about influence, are you planning to invest here in Cameroon like your compatriots Elumelu, Dangote and other entrepreneurs?
It’s my first time in Cameroon and I love the country. Cameroonians are so welcoming to strangers. Most of the businesses established here don’t have regrets. So definitely I have to invest in Cameroon. I am already checking some lands in Buea, so everything is possible.

Thank you very much for talking to us.
Thank you too. I am grateful.