by DAYO OKETOLA
Wande
Adalemo dropped out of the Olabisi Onabanjo University to actualise his
dream of building an Internet service company, which is now worth N1bn.
He tells DAYO OKETOLA how it all started and what other young Nigerian entrepreneurs can learn from his journey.
The Co-Founder and Chief Operating
Officer, Oxygen Broadband Networks, Nigeria’s first metro WiFi network,
Mr. Wande Adalemo, is a young man who aspired to be a university
graduate and get a job. But an event in 1998 changed the course of his
life and he decided to pursue his dream of building an Internet company.
Today, he sits atop a N1bn broadband
network company, which has just rolled out a WiFi network at the popular
Computer Village in Lagos.
He said his greatest challenge was
funding, but the driving force had been the passion to ensure that all
Nigerians have access to affordable Internet access through WiFi
technology.
From the ground zero in 2005, dropping
out of school along the line, Adalemo said he overcome the challenge and
was able to attract investors, who believed in his dream and invested
in the business.
Adalemo said the company started with a
$2m investment and as at today, had invested N1bn with a network
infrastructure already in place and duly licensed by the Nigerian
Communications Commission.
“As we speak, we are currently at the
Computer Village in Lagos, where we have our pilot network. In the last
two months since we started, we have had over 20,000 connections sitting
on our network,” he said
In view of this, he said the company had
laid out an expansion plan, which would see it invest another N200m in
rolling out services in six locations across Lagos State before the end
of 2012.
“We are doing another N200m investment
and we are going to six new locations by December 2012. We are
partnering with malls on the Island, Surulere, and high traffic
restaurants. We already have agreements with all of these people,” he
said.
The expansion, Adalemo said, would see
Oxygen Networks expand to 20 locations in March 2013, and 100 locations
in Lagos by 2015; and then Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano, thereafter.
“Of the N200m needed to roll out
services by December 2012, we have attained N75m equity investment to
date, which means that we are really set to move to these new
locations,” he said.
According to him, the company currently
operates with 100 per cent private equity fund from the board of
directors and “they are putting in more funds to see us expand.”
He said the company had already
attracted institutional investors such as Google and Main One Cable
Company, which were interested in investing in it and help boost
broadband access in the country.
While the start-up appears to be on the right track, the Oxygen Broadband Network boss said the beginning was very rough.
In an interview with our correspondent
on how it all started, he said, “I never saw a computer until 1998. I
was with my cousin Femi Adalemo, who was the Chairman of the Nigerian
Internet Exchange Committee at some points. So, I went to his office and
he said he wanted to send a mail to someone in the United States. Five
minutes after, the person in the US had responded to the mail and that
surprised me.
“I couldn’t sleep that night, and in the
morning, I went back to him and asked him to teach me how to develop
something that will make Nigerians send and receive e-mails easily. I
told him I wanted to do something that would make it easier for every
Nigerian to send email.
“He told me it was networking and that
was how it started. So, as I grew in my knowledge of what the Internet
access and broadband were, it became more of a passion. Getting the
technology was one thing, putting it together was another, and getting
funding took a while. Between 2005 and now, you can see it has been
seven years, it has not been easy.”
On how he got the first investor, who
later became a co-founder of the company, Adalemo, said, “We had spoken
with a thousand of individuals to put their money in the business and
the answer we kept getting was no. Eventually, we found someone and it
was an interesting story. We met the first investor, who later became a
co-founder of the company, in 2005. I didn’t have a penny that day and
then a friend of mine called and said there was someone that ‘is
interested in this crazy idea of yours, let’s go and see him.’
“I had to trek from Iponrin to Ajose
Adeogun to meet him. He was the managing director of a bank then.
Meanwhile, I had met several potential investors who had discouraged me
but I did not give up. So, when I got there, he told me; ‘If you cannot
convince me in two minutes, I cannot invest in this because an idea that
cannot hit someone in two minutes is no good idea.’ Well, I think I was
able to hit him in two minutes and the next question he asked was how
do we move?
“The first thing we did was to go around
the world to see where WiMax was failing because my own idea was that
WiMax will not work but WiFi will. So how do we get WiFi to work? And
from there, he got some of his friends involved in the business.”
Adalemo reiterated that the company
would continue to expand because he believed WiFi technology would play a
major role in boosting Internet access in Nigeria.
He said, “Because we believe that
everybody should be on the Internet and we are restricted by regulations
as to how to expand (we cannot cover wide area), we decided to take the
Internet to where everybody is going?
“Oxygen believes that your Internet
should be wherever you are going and instead of carrying your modem or
dongle around, if you know that Oxygen is present at the place you are
going to such as the cinema, restaurant, clubs and malls, among others;
then, it becomes a better option for you.”
According to him, the second phase of
the company’s expansion will be the ASPANDA Market at the Lagos
International Trade Fair Complex, Alaba and Oke Arin markets.
“For or us at Oxygen, we are taking our
WiFi network to a point where we have a hots pot in virtually every
major street in Lagos. It begins to tell us where we need to start
focusing our attention in Nigeria. It also begins to tell us where we
need to start building broadband ecosystems. We need to start looking at
solutions that will enable people to just plug and deliver broadband
services to everybody,” Adalemo explained.
He disclosed that the company had sealed
a partnership with the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc to
provide its WiFi network for PoS connectivity at the Computer Village,
adding that this was the driving force behind its planned extension into
the Oke Arin Market.
“Due to our partnership with NIBSS, we
are providing WiFi for the purpose of PoS terminals alone at Oke Arin
Market. These are some of the plans that Google is excited about,” he
said
Adalemo encouraged young Nigerian
entrepreneurs not to be deterred by challenges surrounding them, while
assuring them of success if they remained focused.
He said this was what made him drop out
of school when he found out that academic works were disturbing his
entrepreneurial drive.
“I will say that I am also a proud
school dropout because at some point, I realised that pursuing academic
excellence was interfering with my passion for this dream. May be Oxygen
would have become a dream earlier but for exams in school,” he said
When our correspondent took him up on
this, he said, “I am not saying it is good to drop out of school, but I
am saying it is good to think outside the box. The emphasis on paper
qualification in our society has not helped us. If school will limit you
as an entrepreneur, get out; and if it will enhance you, stay with it.”
“I encourage people to go to school, but
once you find that dream, that passion that you can pursue and it is a
good idea, you will succeed. Once you are dedicated, you will get there.
It is not about everyone leaving school, it is about understanding what
will work for you.”
The Punch
