Tell us how it all started?
My mum was the one who was in to church décor and out of all the children, I was the only one who took interest in her job. I would always assist her in decorating the church. So, when I got to UI, I had to just exhibit that by decorating for the campus fellowships and people started calling me for general things. That was how I discovered my passion about decor.
What brought about the name Dexterity Plus?
When I gained admission into UI, I was still living with my parents and we were attending a church at the back of Baba Sala Cinema. My father woke up one day and said he didn’t want to attend the church anymore and that he was going to move with his family, including me. The pastor and some members of the church came to our house and asked why. He said it was because the pastor of the church was a female. They all begged him, knelt down, but he said his decision was final, but the only thing, he could do was to donate me to the church, so that I could be doing what my mum was doing for the church. Inwardly, I was happy. My dad was quite tough. I hate it when you go to church and you sit beside your dad. You dare not sleep, he would ask you to stand up all through. All that happened and I stayed back and I used to decorate the church every weekend all alone. I was enjoying it, even if I travel, I would make sure that I return and even when the church’s gate was locked, I would scale through the fence to do the decor.
One thing led to the other, so, I discovered that as I continued, people from the church started calling me to help decorate their children’s birthday and wedding parties. It was a student church; at that time everybody wanted me to come and do décor for them for free. If you ask them to pay N10, they would be like, why? So, before I knew what was happening, the work load increased and I had a lot of people coming for me. I went to my pastor and I told her that my hands were becoming too tight because I also had my studies to take care of. She advised me to organise a workshop, so I could train one or two people who had interest in what I do. In my mind, I was like, a workshop? What would I teach them? She thought I knew more than what I knew that time. I got to that stage eventually. Then, I gathered a few of my friends and I told them about the idea of staging a workshop and asked them to suggest a name around dexterity. Dexterity was about the only English word, I knew was fantastic, out of all the names they came up with. “Dexterity Working Wonders” was the only expression that fascinated me and that was how I used as the tag of the workshop. It was a three- day workshop. We expected like a 150-people, where each person would pay a sum of N2500. We had prepared, got all the facilitators, did flyers, went to the media. But on the day of the workshop we didn’t get more than five people and two friends who did not pay. It was really discouraging. I went through the three days and at the end, I went to my mum and told her about all that happened. She encouraged me to continue and to do it again. I did it again and this time around, I got about 11 people. I did this for like six to seven times, a lot of money was being pumped into it; I went to Sango, stayed in front of UI in the sun to distribute flyers and went to churches. I think it was at the seventh time that tried again, I told myself that if it didn’t work, I will face something else, but low and behold, I got about over 100 people. I was happy and we had a lot to share, it was encouraging.
I went back to my mum and she said “keep doing it; when you fail once you try again.” She was the only encouragement I had because you could never discuss such thing with my dad. He didn’t take nonsense. So, from that time, when I was walking on the street, I saw people pointing at me, saying,” that is dexterity. Meanwhile, in that church, after the pastor and some other people, I was like the next person is me. More so, it was a student church, so I became very popular because I was the one in charge of decoration.
I just woke up one day and I told myself and said “Favour you have to register this name (Dexterity). This was as far back as 2004. I didn’t really know anything, but that was when I registered ‘Dexterity Plus.” Though, people were complaining that, how were they going to pronounce Dexterity Plus and why not Favour Décor? I said no and they all managed to call it eventually.
How many people do you have on your team?
I have three categories of people working with me. I pay some people every day; there are 16 of them. These set of people are in charge of laundry. I have people I pay every month and while some are paid on a weekly basis. In all, we have about 150 people on the pay roll.
How old is Dexterity Plus?
By the grace of God, Dexterity would be 13-year-old next year.
A lot of people are into what you are doing, what is the cutting edge for you?
A lot of people in the industry put the gain first, but I don’t do that. I bring in my personal money to ensure the job was well done. You may give me a job of like N300, 000 and all I would need to finish the job may be like N1.2 million. The idea is a lot of people who have not met you may see your job for the first time, for you it’s an advert. Having seen your work, they can then go and tell it on the mountains.
How easy was it for you turning your passion into what it is today?
It wasn’t easy at all. It has been through a lot of hard work and some hard stuff that discouraged me along the line. I have had people who swindled me several times. I had made decisions, without weighing them and I got my fingers burnt. So many times you kept smiling during the day, but when you get back home at night you were crying all the way. When I started, my father was not a party to it. He made life tough for me. He wanted me to be going to school from the house, but I wanted to stay on campus because of the décor thing and all that. I had to go stay with a friend, who was into a laundry business, so he had to compel me to wash, if I had to stay in his house. One day my dad got to find out that I was staying with him. He came around and instructed him that I must no longer sleep in his house. When I got back home from school one sunny afternoon, he had packed my stuff into a little bag and asked me to leave. At that point there was nothing I said that was good enough, so my mum said she didn’t want my dad’s wahala, so I had to move. I picked my bag and I didn’t know where to go. I was just in 100 Level. Leaving the house, the church we attended was very close to our house, so decided to branch at the church to rest and then think about where to go, but alas, I stayed in the church for three months. Life was very tough, things happened that you couldn’t control. As a child growing up, I didn’t see money; there was nobody to look up to as a mentor or copy. I just made my decision and if I fall into the pit I find way of coming out of the pit, My dad, especially pushed me to danger, But I counted it all as joy today because at the end of the day, see what it has become.
He never wanted me to do décor, for him, it was, your mates are reading, you too go and read and get out of my house. If he comes around to visit me and he saw flowers around me, I’m in trouble. I have to pack them and keep them somewhere. Right now, he is very happy and proud that I’m doing very well. I think what parents want to see is that you really know what you are doing and you are going for it.
Did you ever use your certificate to work?
Not at all, I gave it to my dad. A lot of people don’t know this, in UI , because I was paying too much attention to décor, my GDP got very low and I was advised by a professor in the Agric Department who said “I went somewhere and I learnt you were the one who did the décor, What are you doing in Agric? Agric is very stressful, I will introduce you to someone in education. So you could just do what you have to do and get out here. So, while in UI, I went back to take JAMB and that was when I came back for Library Science. It was never in my plan from time to work with my certificate. I am very industrious while growing up. I made wedding cakes. You see, I learnt a lot of things from my mum. Far back, even before I got admission into UI, my mum had the best snack point in UI; it was demand that made her cut off from that. We produce a whole lot per day and she was also into the décor thing. My dad just woke up one day and she shouldn’t operate the shop anymore, because he felt the demand was taking too much from her, her sleep especially. We had a lot of people coming to our house to just to help. If you get to the shop in the morning you won’t see down until like 4pm.What I turn out to be today has a lot to do with my mum. She was the one who energised, she spoke words encouragement into me. I owe her a lot. When fathers are very easy to give up on you, my mum stood by me. She did a lot for all of us.
What would you say to the young er ones who want to discover themselves also evolve?
Everybody, while growing up has as an area where people come to him to seek help. Like someone came to you and say oh! My wrist watch, can you help me fix it and you did. And another person, oh! My torch is having issues, fix it; that should tell that you are going mechanical. Someone can say, oh I want to eat, but you have to be the one cooking. So, you should know that your passion is towards that direction. I would also like to tell that person, to now translate that passion into wealth, is not going to be easy, even if it’s going to be an overnight success, it is going to take 10 years. You have to be consistent, patient, be will to learn and accept correction and be tolerant on your way to stardom. You need all of these qualities to excel. A lot of young people do not want to go through all of these. There were times I would have to move from Ibadan to Lagos to decorate a church and all you would get was just N2000. Sometimes, you had done the work looking all dirty and there was nobody to pay you the N2500 and you have to wait till evening when everybody was coming for service and then they would promise to send you the N2500, which some would never send.
Discouragement will come from different angles, but you have to be strong and remind yourself the reason why started. The reason should not be money because along the line money will not come. The journey of being an entrepreneur is like driving a car on the road. There is a time to accelerate, slow down, when you get to a speed bump and you get to a point, where the journey becomes so smooth. People hate facing challenges.
Which of the moments in your entrepreneurial journey was most challenging?
Dealing with human beings was the most challenging thing ever. I have had to deal with clients who believed that they had seen the world more than I do. When they come with their little money, they want you to bring down the heavens. Some people are very difficult to satisfy, they will always find fault in whatever you do. I had had people come to rip down my job because they feel it is not as tasteful as it ought to be. I had had people lock me up several times before now.
….And the memorable ones?
When you love what you do every day is holiday. I would say that because of what I do, I have been to places that ordinarily with my certificate I won’t even dare. I travel abroad many times for jobs. I have met a lot of wonderful people who have changed my life like; I have the contacts of about four governors on my phone who I can call at any time, not to talk about that of her excellences, I have a lot of them. My degrees wouldn’t have got me such opportunities.
and then