- Shocking Things You Don’t Know About Mrs FLORENCE AJIMOBI
City People Magazine is set to honour Oyo State 1st Lady and wife of the governor, Her Excellency Dr. (Mrs.) Florence Jimobi for all she has done in the last 7 and a half years. She has also been the stabilising factor and pillar of support for her husband. She is a very beautiful woman in and out. She is intelligent and extremely assiduous. And she views her role as the wife of the Governor of Oyo State not as a ceremonial nomenclature but as a call to service and an opportunity to make a positive impact in the lives of people across the state.
She also believes in the necessity of diligence, discipline and determination for the success of any individual or society.
Mrs Ajimobi has been a strong pillar of support to her husband, Senator Abiola Ajimobi. Governor of Oyo State who lovingly calls her my Masterpiece of Nature’ in appreciation of her sterling qualities. Her life is characterised by compassion, passion, piety service to God, morality and discipline and these have been her guiding principles through life.
As the wife of the Governor of Oyo State, Mrs Florence Ajimobi’s passion lies in the improvement of the quality of the lives of vulnerable groups (Women and Children) and ensuring that the less privileged are empowered for financial independence. In her opinion, a state or any community for that matter is only as good as the quality and standard of living of its citizenry and she is totally devoted to making life better for the people in Oyo State with special emphasis on women and children.
In pursuit of these worthy objectives. Mrs Ajimobi has birthed and nurtured relevant organizations and institutions to lend credence to these noble causes which include;
ABC Foundation – providing easy Access to Basic Medical Care and which also has a welfare home for vulnerable children;
Educate A Rural Child – providing educational support for indigent children in rural areas Ajumose Food Bank – A monthly food provision support programme which has fed tens of thousands across the local government areas in Oyo State.
Creation of Mini Clinics for Widows and the Aged, Establishment of ICT Center for Women in Public Service Empowerment of Women of different cadres in the society as well as the Ajimose Widowhood Support Initiative.
In recognition of her devotion and dedication to her calling, Mrs Ajimobi has been honoured with several awards, She is a tenacious scholar, who holds a Master’s Degree from the prestigious London School of Business and Finance and an honorary doctorate degree in public administration from the Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo.
Florence Ajimobi was born 58 years ago in Benin City (on April 5 1959) into the renowned Hajaig family of Lebanon. Her early childhood was in the ancient city of Ibadan where her mother, a staunch Catholic, instilled in her the strong values of the Catholic Church characterized by piety, service to God, morality and discipline.
Her primary education was at Bodija International School, from where she proceeded to Our Lady of Apostles Secondary School, Ibadan. Her tertiary education was at The Polytechnic Ibadan where she studied Secretarial Studies and Management.
Her professional sail commenced its sojourn in the Insurance waters. The sail berthed at Femi Johnson & Co, a leading Insurance Brokerage firm based in Ibadan where she took up her first job. From Femi Johnson & Co, she cruised to one of Nigeria’s top flight Advertising Agencies; Insight Communications Limited. The sail later left Insight Communications to berth in the internationally reputable auto sales company RT Briscoe. In all the companies she worked, she left her footprint as a dedicated, committed and resourceful individual with a result-oriented mental attitude for achieving corporate goals.
A woman of vision with strong business acumen, thirsty for success in her own initiatives, she squared up to the challenges and insecurity of the Nigerian business terrain when she jettisoned the comfort of paid employment to become an entrepreneur in retail business. Her Excellency, Mrs Florence Ajimobi’s venture into private business has been a success story made more meaningful by her success on the home front. She has successfully combined her duty as a wife and mother with being a businesswoman. This, however, is not surprising considering her strong family values which have helped her in the building of a strong home which she takes as her first call, having been happily married for over 33 years and raised God-fearing and hard-working children that she brought up in a home filled with warmth, love and joy.
The Oyo State First Lady does not believe there is any limitation to what the average Nigerian woman can achieve. She constantly strives to create an equal playing field for women. She is an advocate of equal opportunities for women, believing that it is time for them to stand up and take front-line positions in every sphere of human endeavour. The humanist in Mrs Florence Ajimobi cannot be hidden as she continues to use her position as First Lady to fight for the rights of Women, Children and the underprivileged people in the society.
Her passion for service to humanity predates her husband, Senator Abiola Ajimobi’s assumption of office as the Governor of Oyo State. To buttress this, as the President of the Bodija Lion’s Club, Mrs Ajimobi built a DayCare Centre for the Motherless Babies Home in Ibadan.
Mrs Florence Ajimobi can be likened to the virtuous wife of Proverbs 31 in the Holy Bible. She is a submissive and dutiful wife who has continued to be a capable helpmate to her husband, Senator Ajimobi, and has continued to be a strong pillar of support in his RESTORATION, TRANSFORMATION and REPOSITIONING agenda for Oyo State.
But many don’t know the real Mrs Florence Ajimobi. This is because she seldom talks and she is ever smiling. But we can tell you she is deeper than many think. Below is her story which further reveals the pretty woman behind His Excellency, Senator Abiola Ajimobi.
A woman of vision with strong business acumen, thirsty for success in her own initiatives, she squared up to the challenges and insecurity of the Nigerian business terrain when she jettisoned the comfort of paid employment to become an entrepreneur in retail business., Mrs Florence Ajimobi’s venture into fashion designing business in 1984, in other for her to see to the care and attention of her family, the fashion business has been a success story made more meaningful by her success on the home front. She has successfully combined her duty as a wife and mother with being a businesswoman. Not many people known that Mrs Ajimobi is indeed a Fashion Designer who has been in the Haberdashery industry for quite some time and her designs are very popular among the A-list in the Oyo State capital.
She was one of the speakers at the recent Southern Governors Wife Forum in in May 2018 and she spoke on “How to start businesses with little money and be successful” and she revealed how she started her fashion business thirty four years ago with a hundred thousand naira bank loan She said “If you want to start a business it is important to have a capital, but it is not necessary we start with a huge amount, before starting a business, the first thing to consider is to ask yourself , what business you will like to do, what do I love doing and what do I think I can do and be successful, while doing that, please take not of your capital, how much you have to start, this will enable you to decide what to do with your money no matter how little, because some people don’t have money and yet they propose a business that they can’t afford, even bank won’t borrow them such money, don’t let us look for a business we can’t afford the start up money. And some people don’t have money and they don’t even have manner to approach people, and they also want to sleep till 12noon, but when you don’t have money and you are ready to work. There are some business you can do, if I see that I feel like starting foodstuffs business, like provisions, I don’t need to buy a whole ten carton of milk, I have done it before and it worked, take a small money , buy a roll of milk , tea and sugar, and if your customers are asking for the tin milk and tea, you can buy few , I have seen some people start business with just ten thousand naira and today they tell me their generation can never know poverty again. If its tailoring you are interested in, it is not until you get a shop before starting on your own after learning, start in your house, tell people in your area if they have amendment to do on their cloth you can help out, and also iro and buba too, we all have an urgent party we don’t plan for and we quickly want to make something simple like iro and buba with the cloth, if they are sewing it one thousand naira outside, because you are doing yours from home, charge just five hundred naira pending the time you will be able to get a shop, but some people want to start from the top, and such business don’t last, as you are seeing me I started from the ground. When I wanted to start my business in 1984, I already had my third child, and I went to work, on getting home I met my child in the court with feeding bottle and she already left, then I looked at myself and asked myself what kind of work am I doing that I don’t have time to take care of my children, that was how I started my tailoring business, I went to the bank to borrow hundred thousand naira, today the business is 34 years and I give thanks to God, I want everyone of us to look at what we want, some people likes poultry business, you don’t need a huge fish pond you can start with a small place, as you keep selling you can then decide on a big one, I urge all of us especially women, that we should not just sit with our hands folds, not all of us will go to school, and not all of us will work in the office, some people sells food, and they starts small, some people don’t even know how to boil rice and they will say they want to sell food, let us see that the business we choose is what we love doing, let’s give everything we are doing to God , remember great things starts small, there is a woman that sells rice beside my shop in Lagos, she started with a small container and gradually she sent four children abroad with the rice money because the business keeps growing, if you get there you will be surprised at the number of cars that are parked because they want to eat her rice, and let us put our children through business and education, the ones that choose business, let them have little education in other for them to communicate with people in their line of business.
BUNMI MUSTAPHA
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