Inside Africa’s Billionaire City (Lagos)

I just flew halfway across the world to one of the richest countries in Africa, Nigeria. And in this video, I'm gonna be interviewing the billionaires of Africa to figure out how they got rich. But here's the crazy part. Most Americans will never visit this country. Most won't even consider it. But what most people don't realize is Nigeria is home to some of the richest entrepreneurs in the entire world. This is a country that has produced multi-billion dollar companies and massive business empires. So today, I'm going straight to the source to meet Nigeria's millionaires and its billionaires and figure out exactly how they built their fortune and why Nigeria has produced some of the richest entrepreneurs on the planet. So with that being said, let's go meet Nigeria's billionaires. All right, you guys, look, we made it to Africa. It is crazy out here, you guys. I mean, I don't even think that there's ever been an American business media channel that has came out here to investigate and find the millionaires and billionaires of Africa to figure out how they got rich. But here's why this is crazy. There's over 220 million people that live here in Nigeria, over 1.4 billion people that live on the continent as a whole. So there is so much untapped opportunity, potential, and wealth to be made out here, you guys. And we're gonna be investigating the richest people in the country. Let's go see who we can find. Guys, we just got to our destination. We are outside of the house of the owner of one of the largest law firms out here in all of Nigeria, you guys. So I'm gonna ask him how he built one of the largest law firms in Africa and what it takes to become a millionaire out here in Africa, you guys. Come on. Which one? This one or that one? The white one. It's a beautiful house. It is. All right, you guys, I just want to point out this backyard, man. I mean, this is a real mogul's backyard, you guys. He's got a crazy pool. Hold up. I think he's coming out right here. How you doing, sir? Hi, how are you? Nice to meet you. James, great to meet you. Well, I didn't know what I was accepting till I watched the video. I'm like, damn. I'll tell you what. You got a beautiful house. When I was walking in here, I didn't know if I was in Beverly Hills or Nigeria, man. Genuinely. Thank you very much. Yeah, congratulations. You've built one of the most renowned law firms in all of Nigeria. Thank you. We're trying, we're trying. Growing up, did you have any idea that that's what you were gonna do? Like, was it always going into law or like? Well, growing up, I wanted to be a lawyer. Also, I just said to myself, ultimately I was gonna take a bet on myself to build a tier one law firm. Were your parents lawyers or? Yes. They were? Okay, nice. So it was kind of instilled in you? Of course. How much did this house cost? I would need to check my records on that. And what is your favorite part about your house? Well, what's my favorite part about my house? Basically that. I sit there in the evenings, smoking a cigar. Yeah. So that's what I like. What is the name of your company? My law firm is called Templers. We have 22 partners and over 150 lawyers. What was the biggest case you ever closed? Oh. Biggest settlement? Settlement. We represent one of the largest multinationals in the world and we got an award for $2.8 billion. How old are you today? I'm 58 years old. If you could leave one last message, one last guiding principle with the younger generation right here, what would that be? Well, the best advice I would give to the young generation is continue to build relationships, significant relationships. Narrow down on your value add and scrub on that continuously. And also believe that you can be the best you possibly want of yourself. You got amazing advice, my friend. Well, we try. We try. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you very much. I really appreciate you letting us come in here, man. I really appreciate that, man. Anytime, thank you. All right, you guys, we just wrapped up with the owner of one of the largest law firms in the entire country of Nigeria, you guys. He just gave us an awesome interview. I mean, that was one of the craziest houses that I've ever been to, let alone out here in Africa, you guys. But we gotta keep this thing rolling and go find our next interview in one of the wealthiest countries on the continent of Africa, you guys. Come on. All right, you guys, we are right now on the way to our next interview out here in Nigeria. We're about to meet up with an interview, one of the biggest tech entrepreneurs who founded and owns one of the biggest payment companies in all of Africa, you guys. Okay, so this is about to be an amazing interview with somebody who's built a company that is now worth probably hundreds of millions to even billions of dollars. But we're gonna find out from the man himself how he built this company out here in Nigeria, one of the biggest countries in the world. Let's go see what he has to say. How you doing, sir? Nice to meet you. Really good to meet you. Great to meet you as well, my friend. Welcome to Nigeria. Hey, my first time out here. I'm very happy to meet you and then create some content out here. How's it going so far? It's been great. You've built an incredible company. Yeah, thank you. This is your business right here. Yeah, it's called Paga. And how big is the company today? How many employees do you have? Paga today has over 200 employees and we're processing over one and a half billion dollars every month. That's a crazy amount of money right there. Well, I'm happy to be out here with you. And I have one rule for all my interviews. There's no holding back. We're gonna give the younger generation the blueprint to build a million dollar, hundred million dollar company in today's world. Can we make that happen? For sure. Let's do it. Who am I here with today? Tayo Viosu, I'm the founder and CEO of Paga. And what is your business? What do you do? Paga is a financial services infrastructure business. And what we're doing is delivering the infrastructure layer that gives Africans access to payments and financial services, both domestically and into the global rails as well. And what is your company worth today? My company is, you know, it's hard for me to say exact numbers, but it's worth hundreds of millions of dollars. So what was the most amount of money you made in a single year? Oh, wow. And I'll tell you this. So for the company for revenue, from like around $60 million in today's dollars. 60 million. How did you scale a multiple eight figure business, man? You're almost at a hundred million dollars. I tell you this, find exceptional people, share the mission with them, and then get out of their way and let them build. Let them innovate. You gotta fire yourself is what you're saying. You gotta fire yourself. What it does is that if you empower other people, you go up and go do other things. And I remember this from my very first boss at Deloitte Consulting in San Francisco. And he said to me, he said, Tayo, your job is to make me look good. And the more you do, I'm going to give you more and more, and that's going to help you grow. I want to work myself out of a job. That's what he said to me. I love that. And I was like, that is exactly it. Where are you from? I'm from Lagos, Nigeria. And where are we at right now? We are in Lagos, Nigeria. And that is very exciting to have you here. We're in Nigeria right now. Yeah, I've seen you on YouTube, man. Yeah, man. I appreciate that, man. Let me ask this. Why Africa? Why should the rest of the world not be overlooking Africa at the current moment? Yeah. In our lifetime, 25 years, Africa will be 2.5 billion people. One in four people on this planet will be African. So when you think the youngest population, while the rest of the world is aging, Africa is young. 60% of Africans are under the age of 25. So when I think about the opportunity for financial services globally, Africa is the only market that is yielding financial services from ground up at this scale. It is the single largest greenfield opportunity for financial services. And that's why Africa. Did you come from a lot of money growing up? No, I didn't. I didn't. I grew up in a single parent family. My mom, I was the last of five boys, and she struggled to make ends meet. What was your turning point to financial freedom? What was that moment? Take me back. I want to go deep in your life where you were like, I'm going to go out there and build a hundred million dollar company. In my 20s, I was quite lost. I had a lot of down moments. And at some point I decided that I was going to be part of rebuilding Africa. When I grew up, Nigeria was the giant of Africa. And I think that was the key turning moment for me because that was the moment I said, I'm going to go down this particular path. I believe in God. And so I think it was a God-given mission to go down this path and really go to business school. I was fortunate to go to business school, Stanford Business School, and really set me up to do well. Did you master the follow-up in business? Were you good at following up with your people? Absolutely. And I think that's really important. They have their thing going on. Everybody has their own thing going on. It's on you to chase it up. And the other thing, advice I give people is like, let your ego go. Somebody says no to you, it's not no forever, it's no today. No doesn't mean, no, it means not yet. Have you heard about High Level? No, I haven't. So High Level, it's a business software that pretty much automates your entire follow-up process as an entrepreneur. So if you have prospective clients, customers, or people that you want to get a message to, it automatically follows up with all of them. So that way you never lose any money on the table. It's called High Level. The most successful entrepreneurs use this company in today's world. Wow, I'll go check it out. And how old are you today? I am 49. You look good for 49, my man. Thank you. I appreciate that. And if me and you died tomorrow, and you had one more message to leave with the younger generation, what would that be? Really focus on something that you'd love, decide your mission, and your passion, and go after it. You've got amazing advice, my friend. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate that. And I like to connect with all the millionaires and billionaires that I interview. Could I get your contact? 100%. Is that cool? Happy to. Guys, we just interviewed one of the richest entrepreneurs in all of Africa. We're headed right now to go get our next interview. But before we do that, I'm about to do something insane for my audience. So listen up. I partnered up with High Level to give you access to try the platform for free. Because this is genuinely one of the most powerful systems I've seen entrepreneurs use to automate and scale their businesses. And it doesn't matter whether you're just starting or you're doing hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. And you may be wondering, what exactly does High Level do? Well, let's say you have a service business. You have a lead that fills out a form. High Level can then put that person into your CRM, automatically send them a text, follow up by email, remind them to book a call, put the appointment on your calendar, and continue to nurture them without you having to manually chase them. That's the power of it. So instead of paying for five or six different softwares, you can have your CRM, your calendar, your funnels, text marketing, email marketing, and automated follow up all in one place. And let me be clear. One thing I keep seeing from the most successful people from my network is this. They do not rely solely on memory. They rely on the systems they have in their business. High Level gives you the infrastructure to make sure that leads you have do not slip through the crack and opportunities don't disappear because you got busy. So if you want to automate your business and build systems that actually scale, go down, click the link in the description of this video and try High Level today for free. With that being said, let's go get our next interview. This next guy we're about to interview got rich in a way that most of you probably don't even realize is possible. He owns the largest noodle company in all of Nigeria, you guys. Noodles of any type of business that you can get rich off. But that's not all because they own a whole bunch of other businesses out here in Nigeria, you guys. We're about to interview him right now on how he built a billion dollar company selling noodles, you guys. Come on. Hello, sir. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you, all good? Yes, sir, all good. You're doing up here or downstairs? Downstairs. Have you seen our setting yet? I'll take a look in here. Yeah, let's take a look for sure. Might be good to do it here. So you have a view of the, live view of the port. It's a live view of the port. Wow. You can see the cranes moving. Yeah. Which means they're offloading. This is incredible. And this is all our products that we make in Nigeria. Oh my goodness. Wow. What was the first product you brought to Nigeria? Indomie. Indomie? Yeah. Those are the noodles? Noodles. Correct me if I'm wrong, you have the biggest noodle company in Nigeria right now. In Africa. In Africa? Yeah. Well, what was the inspiration there? Well, I grew up with it, so we figured out that we can bring affordable product into Africa. Where are you from? Indonesia, originally. Indonesia. I heard Bali's really pretty. Bali's super. Yeah. So why Nigeria? What brought you to Nigeria initially? I came here for a long weekend and I never left. What did you love about it? People, wonderful people. And are you very optimistic about the future of the country? I lived here for 30 years permanently, but there's no better place in Africa than Nigeria. And if we take a look on this wall right here, we see Kellogg's. You know, you've partnered up with some of the biggest companies in the world. Before you had such massive brand partners, what was it that led to you to be able to land some of the partnerships with the biggest companies in the world? So when we partnered with Indomie first, that established us as a player that can compete with any global player. So the biggest competition we had here was Nestlé at that time, and Nestlé launched Maggi. Eventually, over time, we surpassed Maggi's business and we eventually bought the machines from Maggi. So we knew in our head that we can compete with any multinational in the world. That set the benchmark for us to create a platform here, to bring in global multinationals to come and partner us. We see the products, we see the beverages. You mentioned up here that this is a live view of the shipping right here. You see the trucks moving? Yeah. So do you own the different verticals of the chain? Like, do you do the shipping and the manufacturing as well? We don't, we don't. We own the port. We are partners in the port. You need to go here. Yeah, you gotta check it out. You need to go here. It's unbelievable that this infrastructure exists in this part of the world. Yeah, well, we'll check it out. And for those that don't know, like, how big is your company today? Total revenue, we will exceed $2 billion, and we employ 25,000 people. Oh, man. Well, let's head out front and do the interview. Let's do it. Did you have people that doubted you when you went into business for yourself? Oh, yeah, initially, yes. A lot of people doubted that Nigerians will ever eat noodles, but it's the 10 largest noodle-consuming country in the world. Do you have any idea growing up that you were gonna go into the noodle business? No, I didn't. You didn't. What was your turning point? When I came to Nigeria. Were you a big noodle consumer before? I was. I grew up in noodles. Yeah. The whole family came and said, can we market noodles here? And we said, yeah, let's give it a shot. Took us 10 years to build the basics, 20 years to build the brand. Now, number one brand in Nigeria. How did you make that happen? Like, how did you scale to that size? Hard work. Beyond that, there was a partnership, there was a distribution. What was it? Oh, yeah, we built everything. We built everything from scratch, from building the noodle plant, to the packaging plant, to the cotton plant, to the seasoning plant, and now to the palm plantation. So from farm to table, that's what we have done. What's a lesson about money that you learned that you would give to a young entrepreneur? Because cash is often the downfall of a lot of companies in today's world. So what's a piece of financial advice that you could give to the younger generation? Invest. If you have any savings, invest. Soon, save. Invest. You make more money investing than saving. Did your company make a lot of money right away? No. It took us a long time. How long? A good 20 years. Really? About. So you thought very long-term when you were building the business? Very long-term. Why is that? That's what it takes. It's not a short-term business. It's not a tech business or AI business It's a consumer business. Consumer business you have to build over time. How does somebody create a winning product in today's world? Do you have a formula for creating a winning product? Yeah. Right product, right taste, right price. So do you try to find the lowest price with like the best quality? Is that one of your? Best quality is the first thing. And then you find the right price. Not the lowest price. Why not? All our products are premium price. I like that though. Because oftentimes when you have the lowest price, then the perceived value goes way down is what you're saying. Yeah, exactly. How old are you now? 65. And if me and you died tomorrow and you had one more message to me with the younger generation, what would that be? Keep walking. Any situation in life, you keep walking. Thank you so much for your time. Nice meeting you. You got amazing advice. Guys, we just wrapped up the interview with the billion dollar noodle man. And I think the most impressive part about that entire interview was how he talked about the vertical integration that he has, man. He has the manufacturing facilities, the factory, the power plant, absolutely everything he does. He owns the entire vertical and he said that was one of the biggest things for their success. It's crazy to see the different markets that he's in as well. From hair extensions, to toothpaste, to noodles, to alcohol, everything. Great interview. But we gotta go get this next one out here in Nigeria, you guys, come on. Excuse me, sir. Sir, how did you get rich? I'm an orthopedic surgeon. You're what? I'm an orthopedic surgeon and an investor. Are you actually? Yeah. How long have you been doing that for? I've been doing it for about 14 years. In what country? Both in the U.S. and in Nigeria. Are you serious? Yeah, absolutely. And how long have you been an entrepreneur? I would say at least seven years. So do you own your own business? Yes, I do. What type of company? A couple of businesses. I own a real estate business with some partners. We buy multifamily real estate. And what was the most amount of money you made in a single year? We've bought over $276 million worth of real estate over the last six years. Are you serious? Yeah. Can I interview you for a minute? I'm going all over Nigeria, interviewing the richest people to help the younger generation. Is that okay? Yeah, absolutely, why not? Let's do it. Awesome, let's do it. Where are we at right now? We're in Lagos, Nigeria. You live here? Yeah, absolutely. Did you ever leave Africa at any point in time? Yeah, I was born and raised here. Lived the first 17 years of my life here. Went to the U.S., spent the next 25 years there. And when I achieved financial freedom, I decided that, you know what? If I was going to continue to practice, what do I really want to practice? And I felt like the need was greatest here. And here I am, fulfilling my vision of improving access to high quality musculoskeletal care in this part of the world. How did you go from surgeon to investor? That's a great... So I quickly realized about a few years into practice that if I continue to trade my time for money, that I was going to have to work forever. So I needed to find some sources of passive income so that I can truly have financial freedom, geographic freedom, time freedom, all the freedoms. And that's exactly what I did. So what investment made you the most amount of money? Real estate. What type of real estate? Multi-family real estate. Apartment complexes. How did you learn about investing in real estate? Everybody needs a place to stay, right? It's a fundamental human need. And the supply-demand dynamics, particularly of the U.S., certainly favors real estate investing. So if you're just willing to understand exactly how to raise capital, how to manage these properties properly, to identify the proper locations, and how to use data-driven strategies. And it's a relatively lower-than-average risk investment, and certainly yields above-average returns. Location will save a bad deal. What do you mean by that? No, I mean, because if you buy a relatively poor deal in a great location, that location most likely will save it, even if you're a bad operator. But if you buy even the best deal in the worst location, then you're in for a lot of trouble. It's all location in real estate is what you're saying. Location, location, location. That's the name of the game in real estate. How old are you now? I'm 44. 44, you look young, man. Oh, thank you. That's a good 44. Appreciate it, man. Is that the doctor in you? I think it's the working out frequently, drinking water, staying out of other people's business. Man, man. Hold up, man, so you don't worry about other people? No, no, not at all. 50 years from now, most people are not gonna remember the vast majority of us, so the most important thing is to do the best you can right now, while you're here, and make the most difference in the lives that you see and touch every day. What keeps people broke in today's world? I think being focused on negative news. I focus on the positive things, because if you listen to just all the negativity, you're never going to make a move. You're never, you're going to be paralyzed. If me and you did die tomorrow, and you had one more message with the younger generation, what would that be? A journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step. Just take that first step today. Thank you for your time, my friend. You got amazing advice, and I like to connect with all the millionaires and billionaires that I interview. Could I get your contact? Absolutely, let's do it. Is that cool? Absolutely. Guys, these interviews have been crazy, but I have one more special surprise for you all right now. A couple months ago, I interviewed Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote, and at the time, he was worth $30 billion. He just took his company public, and is now worth over $50 billion. He's the richest man that I've ever interviewed. I posted the full video with Aliko right here, but I had to include part of the interview in this video, since we're interviewing Africa's richest entrepreneurs. So let's go see what he has to say. Who am I here with today? Aliko Dangote. And for the people that don't know, what industry did you decide to pursue a career in? Well, we have quite a lot of industries. You know, we have the oil and gas, which is the largest single-trained refinery in the world. 700,000 barrels a day, which we just finished. About $20 billion, we pay to chemicals. And then we're into fertilizer, we're into, you know. So we have a vision, which is 2030, to be more than $100 billion of revenue, all coming out of Africa. Currently at your company, what was the most amount of money you've made in a single year for the business? Well, first quarter, we did about $10 billion. $10 billion? Yes, sir. Did you have any idea growing up that you were gonna build a company? No, no, no, no, no. Not even 1%. How old are you now? I'm 69 years. 69. According to Forbes, what is your net worth? What are they saying? I don't really look at those things. They are very destructive. They will distract me. How much would you say that you're worth today? I don't know, really. I mean, our refinery, I know it's worth over $40 billion, just the refinery. I don't know. It will come out soon, don't worry. Forbes says that you're worth over $30 billion. They say I'm worth $38 billion, but you know, most of our businesses are not listed yet. The reason why I say that is everyone I've met that has interacted with you, they say that you're incredibly humble. Despite being this successful, how have you stayed so humble despite becoming the richest person in Africa? I've been humble all my life, and I came from a family that they've been very, very humble. They always teach me discipline and also to be very, very down to earth. But once you are focused, you know what you are doing, you'll get there. Was the sacrifice worth it for you? Yeah, it is. It was. Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate that, and I connect with all the billionaires that I interview. Could I get your contact? Yes. Is that cool? That's a wrap on today's video. I need y'all to stop right now, like and subscribe for amazing content coming every week to the School of Hard Knocks. We just interviewed some of the wealthiest entrepreneurs in all of Nigeria, but I want to connect you directly with my billionaire network and give you access to the millionaires and billionaires I interview on this channel. All you have to do is go down, click the link in the description of this video, and you can join the School of Mentors, which is the number one entrepreneur community in the entire world that I've built, where you can hop on live calls every week and ask your questions over Zoom to the eight, nine, and 10 figure entrepreneurs I interview. So I can't wait to see you on the inside of the School of Mentors, and who knows what country we'll go to next. That being said, we'll see you in the next video.