Olushola Debo Thomas is the Chief Executive Officer of Hastom Group. In this interview with YEJIDE GBENGA-OGUNDARE, speaks on how he overcame humiliating poverty through entrepreneurship and how his new vision of Valor City in Ogbomoso, Oyo State, will create values and solutions which will directly and indirectly affect the lives of many Nigerians.
How would you describe your entrepreneurship journey?
My entrepreneurship journey is filled with roller coaster experiences. I was born and raised in Ogbomoso. I finished secondary school in 1999 and I’ve had my share of Nigeria happening to me. But one thing I’ve managed to do over the years is to see opportunities in every challenge along the way and make something positive out of every negative circumstance.
I have been in business for a while. At the beginning, the major drive for me was to overcome poverty and be able to sponsor myself to study in higher institution of learning. I spent much of my time reading, especially books in the areas of motivation, personal development, and general finance. And after a while, I started making money here and there from different businesses and, just like many music artists today, started to find it difficult to go back to school. This was how I actually became an entrepreneur full time and we thank God for what Hastom Farms has become in the agricultural sector not only in Oyo State but in Nigeria as a whole.
The story of your entrepreneurship odyssey obviously did not start from Hastom Farms, how did you get inspiration to move on when you failed at some points?
Well, I have been involved in many businesses in the past: Computer sales, internet Café business, poultry farming, network marketing business with Forever Living Products, Local Newspaper business, among few others before finally starting Hastom Global Services in the year 2013. I wouldn’t say I failed in those ventures. I actually thrived in some, while in the others things like inexperience, lack of technical knowhow, and some ugly circumstances contributed to their abrupt end. But one thing I have come to realise today, is that all these past experiences have all contributed to what I am today.
You know, it’s like Déjà vu. Everything that happens now you feel you’ve seen it before one way or the other. And for whatever is coming, I am doing my best every single day in improving my capacity to handle them.
Based on my past experience and insight into entrepreneurship, I have to adopt the philosophy that in every business I’m involved in I’ll be a facilitator. If everyone is digging gold, I want to be selling shovels. For example, when we started Hastom, we realised lots of people from cities were interested in agriculture but couldn’t for several reasons, afford to buy land for that purpose.I saw this as an opportunity to solve a major problem. So, I became a farmland facilitator and in no time, with great efforts put into digital marketing, we were able to help hundreds of people in major cities in Nigeria and diaspora achieve their dream of investing in Agriculture. Till date, Hastom Properties has sold over 15,000 acres of land at Orire local government which is the largest local government in Ogbomosho. And from there we now have a new project called Valor City.
What is the Valor City project about?
Valor City is a product of my thought. For many years I have had to face the question of “what next” at each step of my life journey. I started the journey of entrepreneurship to make money and eliminate poverty. I achieve that. Through my business ideas, I wanted to create values and solutions which directly and indirectly affect the economic lives of hundreds and thousands of people. I am currently doing that. I believe that I have been able to make something good out of my life with little resources but many out there, especially our huge youth population, need more help to achieve their dreams and reach the fullness of their potentials. This is what I believe to be the core of my existence in this world. I have been thinking, how can I give back and help hundreds and thousands of people live better lives? How can I contribute my quota to ensuring Nigeria and Africa live her true economic potentials? These thoughts gave birth to the idea of Valor City.
I thought that one way to solve our economic problem is through Re-imagined education, sports and tourism development. I’m blessed with over 30,000 acres of lands and I’m one of the largest landlords in the state. I began to realise that this is actually a tool in my hand to effect the changes I had always wanted to see in the lives of people and our nation as a whole. I saw that one of our sites, a 2100 acres landmass, has the capacity to hold about 80,000-100,000 residents. We decided that the city will be built on those three pillars; Reimagined education, sports development and tourism.
What makes you think this project will be viable and how do you intend to make it sustainable?
I personally do not believe in owning a business 100 per cent. Many businesses in Nigeria and Africa never outlive the founder because it was run as a family business. Valor City is different. We have mapped out a pathway to have stakeholders who are heavily invested in the project at every phase and who would very much play strategic roles in the overall leadership and management structure of the project. Valor City is not a one man show.
Who can benefit from the new Valor City project?
Everyone including the young and old; the early believers—those who believe in the project at first are getting the most benefits because now they have the access and unique opportunity to become the first set of landowners and pioneer residents of the city at a very low price (which will x3 in less than six months according to international city development experts)
Those also interested in partnership across all sectors: education, sports development and tourism will benefit a lot because, apart from an economic standpoint, they are shaping the very future of this nation and Africa at large.
Residents of valor city will have the opportunity to leave behind a dysfunctional and chaotic environment to a technology-driven sane clime that serves a major boost to their productivity and achieving their life goals. They will raise their kids in an ideal environment that makes it easy to discover their gifts, harness their potentials and set them up to become key contributors to the advancement of our society.
The Valor City project seems to be a huge one, how do you intend to finance it?
At this preliminary, developmental stage, Hastom properties, as every parent company will do, is providing the seed finances needed. But for a project as gargantuan and multifaceted as this, there is need, and plans in place to partner with different individuals and organizations across the world who will inject considerate level of funds within a transparent and accountable financial structure in developing the project.
What are the challenges you encounter as an entrepreneur?
I believe that the environment generally does not encourage entrepreneurship. Many of the problems which are current challenges of many are offshoots of little or no commitment to human development and scarcity of competent human resource. There is mediocrity everywhere; deficit in infrastructures. They are all problems but still opportunities depending on the perspective you look at it.
What is success for you?
Success is nothing but setting a goal and achieving it.
What will be your advice to Nigerian youths?
Yes, the challenges are definitely there but they should know that these challenges are the thin veil covering their opportunities. They should open their eyes because there are opportunities everywhere. Success is what happens when opportunity meets preparation, and the best way to be prepared to take advantage of the opportunities that’ll come their way is through self-education.
Our youths should take self-education more seriously than school education. Self-education focuses on value while school education is all about the grade on the certificates. Your personal education is very important. Most of the people making it in this country are believers in self-education. Flutterwave, Andela, Patricia, among others are good examples.
What’s your guiding principle?
Nothing is impossible. If you can set your mind on it and get yourself to believe it, it can be done.
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