HAKEEM SHAGAYA: A CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK

Progressive, smart, and forward-looking, Hakeem Shagaya, the Managing Director/CEO of Asolar Systems Nigeria Limited belongs to the class of 21st century business revolutionists. His reputation as one with an unmatched grasp on business precedes him. Despite being privileged, Shagaya turned his back early on a life of over-indulgence. A progressive mind who believes in continuous development and touching lives, he partners the London School of Economics on mentorship and development in Nigeria with focus on universities. The Kwara-born suave businessman tells Funke Olaode about his foray into business, philanthropy and mentorship.

His name is synonymous with sophistication and panache, rooted in his influential background. Born with a silver spoon, Hakeem Shagaya, the Managing Director/CEO of Asolar Systems Nigeria Limited has a rich pedigree from both maternal and paternal lineages. His paternal grandfather, Alhaji Shagaya was one of wealthiest men of his time, commanding respect in the oil and gas as well as the real estate sector.

Hakeem Shagaya is one of the offsprings of an enterprising, dynamic and industrious woman, revered as one of the richest women in Africa, Bola Shagaya. But for younger Shagaya, inheriting a name which immediately identifies you with people who have already made their paths, and the never ending association, is not something one has a choice about. Over the years, he has carved out a life that is true to himself, and forged a career away from his accomplished parents without comparisons, proving his undeniable talents. His remarkable exploits in both private and public sectors is an attestation to the fact that he is not famous only by association, but as a hardworking man. Shagaya has his mind set on exploring his potential in all sectors of the economy buoyed by the advice and support of his successful mother and those of his siblings.
A result-driven Chief Executive Officer with over 12 years’ experience in remarkable business growth and an unparalleled revenue increase of over 60 per cent in five years, Shagaya is a highly energetic executive and visionary with excellent leadership in every aspect of life.

A well-grounded individual who walked his way through the ladder of wherever that he finds himself. His solid educational pursuits have also helped him to navigate every facet of his career endeavours. He was at the elitist Adesoye College, Offa, Kwara State between 1993-1999 for his Secondary school education before moving to Taunton, Somerset UK for his A-Level. His quest for education took him to the King’s College in 2000-2002 where he bagged a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Management and Business Studies. Between 2002-2005 he was at University of Sheffield for his masters in Management of Science, Technology and Innovation. And University of Manchester Business School in 2007-2008.

And prior to his present position as Chairman/Chief Executive Officer Asolar Systems Nigeria Limited, he was and still is the CEO/Managing Director, Karmod Nigeria Limited from June 2014 till date. There, he has effectively managed a team of over 40 employees in three locations across the country with a $500,000 annual operating budget. He is Non-Executive Board at Caverton Helicopters since 2017, Executive Director -Afrihealth Solutions Ltd since 2020, Non-Executive Director, Unity Bank PLC, October 2014-2019. In 2006, he was General Manager, Bolmus Group Nigeria Limited. Between 2005-2006, he completed his NYSC programme at the Head of Office – Mastercard Unit, United Bank for Africa (UBA) where he supported the service centre by catering to customer needs and providing solutions via mail and phone. Involved in the product development and organisation of new MasterCard products for different market segments.

Cosmopolitan in nature but simple in attitude, the suave Kwara-born business magnate often appears simple with no airs about him. He says simplicity is a reflection of his personality. “I like to be very simple. I think I like the word ‘simplexity’, the complexity of being simple. I suppose you can say I am a simple person.”
Shagaya is proud of his family and his Ilorin heritage. His childhood journey began in Ilorin before moving to Lagos.
“I come from a family of five boys. My both parents are from Ilorin. My mother’s maiden name is Salman, both my parents are from Ilorin and both my father and mother’s family houses are on the same road. So I am a very traditional Ilorin man. I was raised literally by my grandparents. I grew up around my grandparents in my early days. I had my primary and secondary education in Kwara and only came on holidays to Lagos. When I was a little boy I was in America with my mum, then in early ages I lived with my grandmother. I learnt a lot of things in my early days through my grandmother. I learnt the discipline from my grandmother.”

Grew up among four brothers and raised by their mother, but the interesting thing is that his life of opulence and affluence didn’t start today. His paternal grandfather, Alhaji Shagaya was actually a very wealthy Shagaya in the 80s and early 90s.
“My paternal grandfather was an industrialist, and he had a company called Double Kola and he also had a chain of oil and gas as well as real estate. I remember when I was at Ilorin at a very young age, on a weekend, that is when I knew Ranger Rover, it had air conditioning on the roof. The driver would bring it to pick all the grandchildren to the big daddy’s house. We used to call him big daddy. And my mother, Hajia Bola Shagaya is the one that carries on that success he had in entrepreneurship.”

Talking glowingly about his mother who has impacted his life and that of his siblings positively, Shagaya described her as a ‘dynamic woman with a very bold foresight at a very, very early age.’ His mother took to technology at a very early age when it hardly intrigued people in her line of trade.
“She wanted to be in the photographic business and gain imagery to Nigeria and control her market. And she had offices in all the states of the federation under Konica.I can tell you she is 110 per cent the biggest part in all our lives. My other brothers are doing so well in their careers. My house is always bubbling with ideas, collaboration, working together. Definitely, my upbringing played a big part in how I see the world and how I do business.”

Rising from a lineage of successful people can sometimes create a burden of expectation which he admits is a blessing.
“That privilege also puts you on your toes. My personality is that I run my own race. I don’t particularly try to compete but I also realise that it is important to tick the boxes of society in terms of financial success or things like that. But should I say to us the children of the privileged, we have a double responsibility because if you look historically in Nigeria, the children of the privileged of two decades, three decades ago are not privileged any longer, or very few are privileged. The Yoruba people will say ‘ti won ba bie wa tun ara bi.’ Atunbi nile aye. It means you must start from where your privilege stops. So, we never had any attachment because we are always entrusted with increasing our own wealth. I suppose there is pressure but that pressure is not out of nowhere, if you have been given too much, to whom much is given much is expected. If I have been exposed to some of the best schools and things in the world, I have a huge responsibility in Nigeria to spur ideas, to spur development to create solutions for our society and not just from a capitalist perspective but also from a nationalist, from a continental African perspective. To show that mentally you have the capacity to build. So, there is a bigger responsibility to people like us.”

Shagaya currently sits atop profitable ventures ranging from energy to housing and more. As an innovative person, he wants to explore, breaking boundaries, touching and impacting lives. For this, he is constantly on the move.
“Like I told you, I am more interested in the experience of what impact one makes to society while we are here. But my background makes me know that there are ways to make life without being obsessive, work alone, so I delegate a lot. I start a company and when they are operational and profitable, I put management in place and I want to create something new. And when I finish building that, I move on again. I spend time giving back to the public sector to help create policies that would either improve life for people in Nigeria or more efficient ways of doing different things on the continent. We have a company in Uganda and Kenya; we are going to open up in another West African country this year. I try not to be limited by geographical limitations or stifled by just doing one business and going to the office every day. And this is my driving force really.”

A restless creative and talented businessman, he has also made a foray into energy making his mark through Asolar Energy. Asolar is an indigenous company that was established in 2016. It has played a critical role in the energy value chain by providing affordable energy to beneficiaries who are beyond the grid at the last mile or those underserved in peri-urban areas.

His Asolar energy closed the year 2021 with a bang. Initially predominant in the north, it has expanded its tentacles to Lagos with its local assembly plant, saving money, providing jobs for teeming Nigerians. Presently managing over 250,000 Nigerians with 48,000 households, he explains the core reason for expanding the business further into the energy sector.
“My background is in management, science and technology. As far back as when I was at the university, I had found a passion for renewable energy. For many years, even in my house in Abuja, I have been almost off-the-grid for six years. I have watched how the renewable energy space has grown internationally and how the pricing has been coming down over the years. And I see a multi-creation innovation that is as big as what telecom did to the Nigerian market. I invested early and I think it is the future sector for energy. I believe that the decentralisation of power is the future of Nigerian or African power, the same way telecom decentralisation of NITEL created MTN and co. That is why I went into energy.”

Asolar is prominent in the rural areas. He gave the reasons. “Most Nigerians don’t want to go to the rural areas. They are a forgotten population of the country and people assume that they are poor but the reality is if you make the effort to go, you will realise that they are not poor but they lack that absence of technology to improve their lives. In the early 2000, people were saying Africa is poor, they could not use mobile phones because mobile phones will be too expensive. But what ended up happening is that the average African ended up having two mobile phones. So, it was never a case of they were poor, it was just a case of there had not been that intervention of technology to be put in the hand of Africans. I had a passion for the rural areas. Apart from the fact that I feel more joy giving African villages that have existed for generations without light, I feel more joy giving them light. I feel a lot more satisfaction being able to fly over African villages in the night and look down and see light. That is part of my motivation, to go to the rural areas. I can tell you it is a lot more difficult than being in town, but I am a patient person, I believe that we will invest more as a company.

And because of track record of excellence, the government, policy makers, and World Bank and other people are coming to align with us to help us to even grow better. We are very excited because right now there is a growth in demand. In fact, a lot of people want systems with TVs and fans in rural areas more than anything else, they want to have a television. It is amazing what we see. People are so desperate to have televisions in villages because Asolar works everywhere in Nigeria. So imagine a village man that has never seen light before and all of a sudden, he can watch Startimes tomorrow morning. So, I suppose our good intention has paid off.”
Shagaya as a leader has successfully created other leaders within his organisations and has equally mentored youths to aspire for great things.

“I have a lot of people that work with me and my staff strength is about 65 or 70. Many have worked with me for up to seven years, I watch them grow and some of them have started their own companies. As of last year, I have started making more effort to actually mentor more people. I was at the University of Ilorin two weeks ago for a youth leadership and mentorship programme; an interactive session. We do a lot of charity work as well. My family has a Salman Shagaya Foundation, a Kwara-oriented foundation which focuses on youth empowerment, women empowerment and also helping the elderly. Recently, I am working with the London School of Economics on a mentorship and entrepreneurship development programme in Nigeria. We launched in October last year. And this is mainly working with Universities to try and have a way to mentor the young people that are coming out of school, on what to expect, post-graduation and how to set up companies and things like that. Those are the efforts we are making and I want to do a lot more of it.”

An upwardly inclined young entrepreneur, both public and private sectors have continued to benefit from his talents. Though not politically ambitious, he is willing to yield to the clarion call when the need arises.

“For me, I believe in continuous improvement. Everyday, there is always the desire to be better. I am actually getting bored of being in the private sector already. I want to go back into government. I think we all need to be on national development. This is not for me to tell you that I have any political ambition. I am actually not running for public office. I love politics but I am extremely politically opinionated and inclined but I am not a public office seeker. I am more of a policy maker in terms of institutional reorganisation, fiscal policy development, and national orientation policy development. Right now, I sit on the presidential committee on technology transfer and I am the head of strategy and planning. Our role is to redevelop the Nigerian Science and engineering future by working with universities and international companies and local companies to create technology companies that are of Nigerian nature. It is an assignment that I am very humbled by because I was invited by certain people that felt I had something to offer,” he gushed.

Shagaya has been married for nine years to his wife, Amina whom he met at a friend’s gathering. Was it love at first sight?
“I think so. My wife has always been a huge part of my success too. My wife is a medical doctor, she graduated from Imperial College, London. She is now getting involved in more medical policy and development of life in hospitals.”

Shagaya as a corporate man is a lover of traditional attire who rarely wears suits. “I actually don’t think I have any suit, I am just a very proud African. I think our outfits are a lot more comfortable. I like my neck to be free, even when I am abroad. That is how I dress and I actually find that they complement the outfit more than we do. I have always been like that couple with the fact that I am an Ilorin man. Growing up, all my uncles, my dad and grandparents, you cannot wear cloth without a cap. And the cap I wear is traditional with our family. My father wears the African cap and that is the only cap I wear.“

He wouldn’t call himself a designer freak although he has his own unique style.
“I like certain things but I would not say I am a designer freak. I like things that are comfortable and simple; you can see it on most of my outfits. I like trainers a lot, so I collect them. I also love good automobiles too.”
For him, his early life lessons revolved around youthful exuberance. He is a very private person and often wakes up early.
“It is good to have a good routine and I think that actually helped me a lot. Apart from that, I am still learning life lessons.”