Serial entrepreneur and Chief Executive Officer, Digital Space Capital, Olubukola Abitoye speaks with IVORY UKONU about her career trajectory and some of life lessons that have shaped her life
How did you find yourself in the finance industry?
I have always been passionate about anything that involves money and calculation. I wanted to study Computer science and Economics in the university but JAMB seized my result so I went to the polytechnic to obtain an Ordinary National Diploma in Accountancy, the closest thing to what I wanted to study. So during my one-year Industrial Attachment, IT in a manufacturing firm, I worked in their treasury department and that meant I had to be going to the bank often. I immediately fell in love with banking. It was like food to my soul. I got excited each time I had to go to the bank and so I resolved I was going to get into the banking industry. Now at that time, I was very passionate about fashion. Perhaps, encouraged by my height, most people I met advised me to consider delving into modeling, but I wasn’t interested. I was more concerned about being independent without having to depend on anyone or someone’s influence. I wanted to be in a leadership position.
Are you your parent’s first child?
I am the last of six but I have always held leadership positions from a young age and my disposition in life is to always be a leader and take ownership of my immediate environment or whatever I am involved in at that particular time.
After the banking seed got sown, what happened next?
After my IT, I got admission into Obafemi Awolowo University to study Management and Accounting. Not only was it my dream course, but it meant that I was going to study something that revolves around all aspects of life. I mean in any organisation, management is of utmost importance, even in the home. Everything in life falls under management. Then finance/accountancy, which is the bedrock of any organisation. I doubt if any other university in Nigeria offers that course of study. Thereafter, I got a higher degree in Business Administration. During my service year, I was posted to a company for my Youth Service and I worked in their accounting department. I was bored because there wasn’t much to do. By 11 am, I would have been done with my work. Thankfully, one of my bosses who was concerned about my restlessness gave me his card to go to two banks, hoping I would be taken on his recommendation. While Guaranty Trust Bank came up with excuses, the now-defunct Skye Bank gave me a chance. I started out in the customer service department of their regional office. and the saying that the gift of a man would always pave the way for him became my reality there. Besides my love for figures, I am very good with customer service, I can manage anybody, no matter how irate the customer is. I am particular about the goal which is to get results.
Even if 100 customers are on the queue to be attended to, I would make sure I attend to everyone with a huge smile on my face. I enjoyed what I was doing. Even on Community Development days as a youth corper, when I ought not to be at work, I would always find my way to the bank on those days. I worked with two elderly women who didn’t quite do anything and before long, I took over their jobs. I began to gain ground and everyone that wanted anything done wanted me to handle it. In three months, my general manager noticed my input, gave me a recommendation letter and offered to move me to the marketing department because he felt I was wasting away in customer service. After thinking it through, I accepted because marketing in banking goes beyond what people believe it is. Marketing is the heart of the banking industry. Besides I wanted to grow fast in the industry, my goal was to be the managing director of a bank within 12 years of being in the industry and I knew I couldn’t reach that goal sitting down in customer service. So with my husband’s support, I took the plunge.
Were you married at that time?
Yes. I got married while in school and my 20th wedding anniversary is in a few weeks’ time. It will be a vow renewal. Most (Nigerian) men would have been skeptical about my movement to marketing because of the negative tales floating around about that department, not my husband. He encouraged me all the way. He believed in me more than I believed in myself. He trusts, respects and treats me like a queen. He had and still has my back 100 percent. These and more are the reasons I am walking down the aisle a second time in my wedding gown. I accepted to go to marketing because I knew I was going to be adding value while also building myself. Besides, the bank hardly retained youth corpers and I was prepared to break that jinx with what I was bringing to the table. So, my determination, my husband’s encouragement and God’s grace made it smooth sailing for me. I took every opportunity I was given and made something of it. Many didn’t even know I was a youth corper because of the way I carried myself, not waiting to be told what to do before doing it. At the end of my service year, I was the only youth corper that was retained. So that was how I found myself in the banking industry and I would say it is one of the best things that ever happened to me. Banking opened my eyes to other aspects of finance. Within five years in the industry, I was made a manager in the United bank for Africa, UBA. I believe this is what I was destined to do.
How has the journey been so far?
It has been awesome. Even when I left the banking industry, I mean commercial banking for a while, five years ago, I knew I would still remain in the finance industry because like I said before, banking opened my eyes to other areas of the industry. When I was leaving, I was told that if I ever change my mind about returning to banking, I should consider UBA. They saw I was adding value, I was being used to revive moribund branches and I was delivering and getting promoted despite the fact that the bank hardly promotes its staff. No one was influencing my promotion, my work spoke for itself. I won several awards and got recognition.
Why did you leave?
I had a target to leave paid employment at a certain time and set up my own thing. But then an opportunity came to work for Dr Taiwo Afolabi, the chairman of SIFAX Group and I had to put my own dream on hold.
Was somebody else’s offer more important to you than fulfillment of your own dream?
It wasn’t an offer I wanted to go for initially, but it was a challenging opportunity and being one that loves challenges, I took the offer out of respect for him and to also build my entrepreneurial spirit in me. I was a friend of the family and together we had done some projects in the past, one of which was the Lagos Marriott Hotel. He was like a big uncle to me and we had both supported each other, so I felt obliged when he made me that offer. Infact, I was on my way to Harvard courtesy Keystone bank as one of the best three business managers when he made me that offer. Besides, I don’t thrive in comfort zones, I like to do things that challenge me. I was beginning to get too comfortable as a banker. And having trained myself to be a solution provider, I saw it as an opportunity to provide a solution where it was most needed. So I started Sky Capital, a finance house for Dr Afolabi. I established it from nothing to what it is today. I had an agreement with him to help him build the company for two years by which time I would have clocked 40 and that would be the end of my paid employment. We both agreed on the sharing formula as well even though it was not in black and white. It was a lot of work. I started the company inside a container in one of his buildings in Ikoyi, Lagos. I had no life. I ate, breathed and slept Sky Capital.
I actually formed the name of the company, I did the registration and built the company like mine. I put in my blood and sweat. People say they give 100 percent to a task, I gave it my all. I did jobs that should have been outsourced, free of charge. When I started the company, I told Dr Afolabi not to give me any money. I was able to bring in money from trusted clients I had built over the years while in the bank. One of them gave me $400,000 to go trade with. That is not ordinary. He had immense trust in me. In one year, with what me and my team achieved, you could hardly believe that Sky Capital was just a year old. The growth of the branches in other African countries like Guinea Conakry, Gambia, Sierra Leone was magical. People marvelled. After a year, from the money we made, Sky Capital moved into its own building in Victoria Island. At some point, the Nigeria headquarters was making over N100 million monthly and when I was handing over, I declared about N1.5 billion profit.
Did you complete the two years you agreed with Dr Afolabi?
No. I left a few months before the stipulated time. I walked away with my head held high. I needed to keep my integrity which I don’t joke with and my sanity intact. I didn’t get my entitlements and what we agreed on which was unfortunately not put down in black and white. I had thought that whatever I got at the end of my time with him, including what I had kept aside for my own thing would help me to launch my own thing. but God’s ways are not our ways. I had to let peace reign, I didn’t want to make too much noise because our industry is a very sensitive and highly regulated one and one needs to be very careful in everything one does. Money isn’t everything, with time, you will have it in abundance as long as you keep doing the right thing. Don’t burn bridges, trust God and all will be well. I did get his blessings though.
What did you learn from your time building his business?
I discovered that some well-to-do individuals are just not willing to build people. I believe in shared success. If my staff is not looking well, it is a problem for me because I pay them well to look good to project the image of the company. If there is a problem with them, it is a chain reaction, it will affect the business. So I try as much as possible to prevent that from happening. That however does not mean I condone laxity; you can’t work with me and epitomize laxity. Also, I am happy for the experiences I garnered building Sky Capital, whether good or bad. You can’t buy that and that is what helped me to build Digital Space Capital.
So how did you launch out into your own?
It wasn’t easy. I had to sell some of our properties with the consent of my husband who believed so much in my dream. He encouraged me to sell his shares and that of our children just as long as I assured him I will make a success of my own thing. I got a room where I paid a little below N300,000. That was where I started from with just my personal assistant and another staff member. A few months later, I added another room and the number of staff increased to five. In four months, we got two other offices. In six months, we took the entire wing of the building and in one year, the Lord gave us our own building. I have not come to play, the finance industry has not seen anything yet. I plan to become a force to be reckoned with in the industry.
What is Digital Space all about?
It is a finance services company that provides seamless solutions in asset management, corporate finance, and business advisory, on-lending, forex services, brokerage and dealings, crowdfunding and aggregation. We operate a microfinance bank called Olofin Microfinance bank with over 200,000 customer base. Before the end of the year, we would have completed the rebranding to be called Digital Space Microfinance bank.
What is your vision for it in the next five years?
We are a little over two years old but already looking like we have been operational for seven years. In the next three years God willing, we will become the first digital bank in Nigeria, Digital Space Bank. We will do everything that a commercial bank does but without brick and mortar. Our vision cuts across African countries. Sierra Leone has given us a license to operate a bank and that will be one of our first projects next year. We are moving to Senegal and Morocco too.
In all the years you spent in the banking industry, what is that one thing you found to be the most valuable asset?
Relationship. I still do business with my bosses of many years ago because of one thing, trust. While I was in the bank, I gave out close to N40 billion naira in loans and none of the people I gave those loans to defaulted. I had a clean record before I left. Because, in giving out depositors’ money as loan, I am more particular about how the money will be returned. I didn’t give out the loans and went to bed. I worked closely with the recipients to ensure the loans were repaid. Of course, I am not saying it was all smooth sailing, because you would encounter problems, but it is the ability to envisage those problems and work out multiple ways to tackle them that makes you successful.
You mentioned your love for fashion earlier on. Did you develop this any further than just wearing nice clothes?
Well, I am passionate about the arts. I draw. Whenever I am tired, I draw. It sort of revives me and calms me. I am into interior decoration. They are things I do effortlessly. I also have a marketing communication company. I consider it an extension of my father’s business which was printing. That is what sent me and my siblings to school. I remember we used to go to his printing press to do holiday jobs and earn some money.
You are also an author of a book, Guiding Grace. What is the book all about and what prompted it?
I consider myself a child of grace. I wrote the book when I was at the worst period of my life. I saw my career hanging and I had to face it with all my life. I was almost shattered, my dream was almost killed but I refused to be shattered. In all of these, I emerged victorious. I am really a child of grace.
What would you consider to be your greatest achievement in life?
Building people. Good leaders are responsible for bringing the best out of people. My goal in life is not just to make money. Each time I pray to God, I always ask him to give me the opportunity to be a blessing to everyone around me. There is a point in life you get to and you no longer prioritise what you eat or drink but about the total number of lives you have affected positively, developing people. If Nigerian billionaires could pay more attention to this aspect of life, Nigeria will be a better place to be. Shared success I call it. I am all about building thoroughly baked professionals that can stand on their own. You won’t believe this, but people have been given jobs in this industry just based on the fact that they put in their curriculum vitaes, that they have once worked with or for me
Is this the reason you floated your foundation?
The Florence Modupe Foundation was floated in honour of my mother who single-handedly raised me from the tender age of five, after the demise of my father. The foundation was unveiled on my 40th birthday. The foundation takes care of widows, children.
You sound like you may consider running for political office in the near future. Is this your plan?
Yes I am looking at running for a political office in the future because I am passionate about people’s welfare but at the moment, I am building a structure that will live after me and stand the test of time. After that phase, I am sure destiny will lead me rightly to my next assignment.
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