Courteville Business Solutions Plc is an organization where its employees are encouraged to carve a niche for themselves and not solely rely on their 9-5 jobs. By setting the tone the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the company, Mr. Adebola Akindele every now and then holds a chat with his employees on how he started, challenges he faced in becoming an Entrepreneur and also leaving them advises to run with.
To further aid this learning process, the GMD took it upon himself to start the “Guest Entrepreneur” Series where he invites Entrepreneurs to come and speak to “interested” employees on how they started their journey to being business savvy. This series which kicked off in September, 2015 had the Chief Executive Officer of Chisco Group Chief Chidi Anyaegbu as its pioneer speaker.
Chief Dr. Chidi Anyaegbu started out selling Spare parts with a seed fund of just NGN120 (One Hundred and Twenty Naira), goodwill, a detailed plan and a passion for excellence which has helped grow his transport business into the conglomerate, Chisco Group having arms in Oil and gas, finance, hospitality, real estate, education, import and export.
In the course of his business, he also attended several short Management and Entrepreneurial courses in France, USA, Brazil, Germany, and United Kingdom. He was conferred with a Doctorate Degree in Business Administration (Honoris Causa) by Penn State University, USA in 1996. He is a Fellow, Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (International) London and possesses the Business Certificate Award by University of Houston USA. And to say the least he did not attend a Tertiary Institution.
In the month of October the staff of Courteville were blessed with the visit of the CEO of CitiBank Nigeria Mr. Akinsowon Dawodu and serial Entrepreneur Ms. Yetunde Allen.
Mr Akin Dawodu as mentioned above is currently the CEO at Citibank Nigeria. He became the Chief Operating Officer and public sector head for Citi Nigeria in January 2013. He has played a decisive role in general franchise management and developing interface between Citi and the Nigerian public sector.
Prior to this he was treasurer at MTN Nigeria. He studied Accounting at the University Of Lagos and graduated in 1994. After completing his National Service, he proceeded to Manchester Business School where he completed a Finance-focused Masters’ in Business Administration (MBA) degree in 1997.
After a brief stint as a management trainee with Unilever Nigeria Plc (then Lever Brothers Plc), Mr Dawodu joined FSB International Bank Plc’s Treasury Unit in February 1998 and also worked in the Financial Institutions and Treasury Marketing Departments. Subsequently, he moved on to spend five years with Citibank Nigeria Limited (as it was then known) where he handled both Naira and Foreign Exchange trading functions.
He also qualified as a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) during this period by passing the third and final level in 2003.
He was also Chief Financial Officer at Resourcery Nigeria Limited helping to restructure the firm’s balance sheet by introducing working capital management methods and raising additional debt finance through the banks. Mr. Dawodu is the immediate past President of Financial Markets Dealers Association (FMDA) and currently a member of the Governing Council. He is also Board Member Synergy Capital & Advisory Limited. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the CFA Society of Nigeria.
Ms. Yetunde Allen is currently the CEO of Clean Business Practice Initiative with 30 years work experience in the Commercial Private Sector, Entrepreneurship Development, Business Environment Advocacy and the International Investment Banking Sector.
Ms. Allen has deep understanding of doing business, entrepreneurship, finance, micro finance and value chains in the informal business sector. Extensive working knowledge on issues of Financial Access, Financial Inclusion, Financial Literacy & Financial Infrastructure including consumer education, consumer protection and the potential of ICT technological platforms within intervention. Bottom-Up / Top-Down, demand-side and supply-side knowledge of the MSME landscape and the financial sector in Nigeria. She also has extensive knowledge of the barriers to adoption of intervention including financial literacy, educational literacy, gender adoption, business language and the challenges posed by geographic location.
She also has extensive experience in developing business strategy, business structuring/restructuring including systems, manuals, procedures, processes and controls. Experienced at translating Strategy to live practice, tracking strategic delivery through measurable outputs, outcomes and performance management. Exposed to Donor LogFrames, Donor Reviews, assessments and reporting and received 2 grants – MSME Project (the World Bank & Fed Govt of Nigeria) and the Institute of International Education, New York. Experience of sustainable business practices, business risk assessment, business risk management, budgeting and budget reporting.
The first Guest Entrepreneur of the year 2016 was Mr. Ayodele Arogbo who is the Managing Director of Synergy Capital and Advisory Limited. He graced the office premises of Courteville Business Solutions Plc on the Tuesday the 19th of January, 2016.
Mr Ayodele Arogbo has 20 years’ experience in the financial services sector having worked for many years in banking and the private equity space. He worked for 13 years in Banking Industry in Nigeria, gaining experience in credit analysis and the development and management of relationships in the Commercial/Retail Sector as well as in Corporate Banking, managing the accounts of medium to large sized companies. On leaving banking, he joined Capital Alliance (the premier private equity firm in Nigeria) as Vice-President managing the firm’s investments in the oil and gas sector.
Since April 2007, when he became the Managing Director of Synergy Capital & Advisory Limited, Mr Arogbo has been actively working with select fast growing companies in diverse Industry Sectors such as Oil and Gas, Media, Technology and Automobile Marketing, seeking to significantly scale operations in response to changing market trends and emerging opportunities. Synergy Capital has helped to raise over $550 million in expansion capital across these industry sectors. Mr. Arogbo is a CFA Charter-holder and an Associate of ACCA.
There is no way the staff of Courteville would not learn one or two things from these brilliant individuals.