•In Business, Banking & Education Sectors
If truth be told, they don’t come any better than Dame Tito Obaigbo. She is young looking, hugely accomplished, fiercely focused and with a lot of degrees and Masters degree under her belt. And what’s more, she is an incredibly enchanting lady, one of the finest women with tons of substance upstairs that you’ll possibly ever come across. But you will be making a big mistake underestimating her intellect and capacity as a woman on account of her absolutely gorgeous look. This is because, beneath that adorable looking façade, is one of the brightest, knowledgeable and most tenacious women you can ever find anywhere in the world. That’s how incredibly remarkable Dame Tito Obaigbo is.
For starters, she is an economist, an educationist, a financial consultant, a former banker, a fashionista, and wait for this, she is also into road construction! And she also runs a book club as well. She is indeed a woman of many parts and one who has her hands involved in many pies. But despite all of her achievements, Dame Tito Obaigbo remains a calm and unassuming lady. She oozes unbelievable humility and would never flaunt the fact that she is a ‘made’ woman with connections in high places unless you force her hand. Two weeks ago, this amazing woman won an award in recognition of her remarkable success in business at the City People Awards for Excellence. Shortly after she picked up the award, the elated Dame Tito spoke with City People’s Senior Editor, WALE LAWAL (08037209290) and she opened up on her exploits in banking, in business, education, as well as her desire to get more and more women to embrace the culture of reading. Here are excerpts of the interview.
Congratulations on the award you just received from City People. What does this award mean to you?
Thank you very much. It’s a huge honour to receive the City People award. I am happy, I am elated and I know that this is just the beginning. It’s amazing that you’re just in your little corner doing your thing and you’re being honoured. This means that you’re doing well and it’s just an eye opener to let me know that this is just the beginning and I need to do a lot more than I’m doing.
To be honest, when the publisher gave me a brief about you and said I needed to go speak with you, I was expecting to meet someone quite older, going by your volume of accomplishments. You’re an Economist, an educationist, a former banker, business woman and more, how have you been able to achieve so much within such a short period in your life?
Well, I think I should be happy when you say I look a lot younger, that means I look well (smiles). But I guess I started early in life. I was very focused. I really wanted to get there, so I started pretty early. I have about three Masters degree, I’m a Doctoral student, I am a Development Economist. I focus mainly on sustainable development goals especially around sub-Saharan African countries. I’m also into business. I’m an educationist. I have a book club, I have an NGO, and I also have a micro-finance NGO as well. The micro-finance NGO is basically to empower women to make them self sustainable and self reliant. So, I guess I started early, I was just focused and wanted to get to my destination as quickly as possible.
How early is this early? I have a feeling it must’ve been very, very early?
(Laughs) Okay, I started in my early 20s and I was dogged. I just was focused on that goal. I was determined to do everything I could to get to my goal.
Which started first for you?
I started with my banking career. Of course I got my Masters early on in life when my friends were still busy having fun. I went for my Master, then, for my second Master’s in the United Kingdom, the University of Manchester and I am doing my Ph.D. in Economics now.
Which of the banks did you start with?
I worked with so many banks. I started with National Bank, from there I went to Equitorial Trust Bank. I worked with Wema Bank, I also worked with Bank PHB, which was then Keystone Bank. I worked with the then Oceanic Bank, and then Skye Bank. I worked with a lot of banks actually and for you to move from one bank to the other, it means you’re sure of yourself and you know what you’re doing.
Okay, in all of these, where does education come in?
Well, I’ve always loved education. Whilst I was doing banking, I set up a company and I was into procuring of books. We do a lot of books. Initially we were giving it out, which we still do. We have given out school bags, school uniforms as part of my CSR and we’ve also done it my book club. Then, I went further into vocational skills for women. So, education has always been a part of everything that I do. I have Oakhill books, Oakhill Schools and then I have Oakhill group of companies.
What’s the name of the book club?
Smart book club. I’m the president and founder of Smart book club. We have at least over 50 women in the club. We are on Instagram and we’re very active.
That’s a whole lot you have on your plate. How do you make out time to unwind, if you do at all?
I do, I unwind. I have fun when I want to have fun, but sometimes, some people say, maybe I like my little corner a bit too much. I keep my circle not too large but I have fun when I want to. I go out to party, I attend weddings and all that. And when I travel as well I also have fun especially with family.
What part of your childhood would you say prepared you for all that you’ve achieved and all that you’re doing at the moment?
My mum! My mother is an extremely hardworking woman. Up till now, she is 83 and she is still hard working. She still wakes up 3am in the morning to get everything ready. At 83, she’s bouncing and full of energy. My mother always says that when you sleep too much, you would have to contend with poverty. She’s always saying it in Yoruba that, “ise oki npa eeyan, ise lo ma npa eeyan.” Translated means, hard work never kills, but poverty does. It means that if you’re poor, then, that means you’re probably a lazy person. But if you wake up 3am to hit the ground running when others are sleeping, you will definitely get somewhere.
Tell us a bit about growing up. Were you like the regular young lady back then or you were always studious and keeping to yourself because, to be honest, you don’t cut the look of someone who has all of what you have under your belt. You look absolutely gorgeous you could’ve easily passed for somebody in the fashion and beauty line…
The truth is, I have always been very studious. When I was the assistant head girl, I was always very studious in school. But to me, fashion comes naturally because I always say my mum is the number one fashionista that I know. So, fashion comes to me effortlessly and for me, fashion is comfort. I go for things that are comfortable. Not necessarily what is in vogue, but what is comfortable. And I try as much as possible to keep it simple and clean. So, it has always been part of me growing up. With my mum, you can’t dress shabbily. Anybody who’s worked with my mum or being around my mum knows that you can’t dress shabbily, it’s not in her DNA. So, I guess it’s also in my DNA that wherever you go, they address you by the way you are dressed. So, you must go there and comport yourself, It’s not just necessarily being fashionable but you must go there and comport yourself. So, you must go there looking decent and looking clean.
So, mum was more or less like an embodiment of everything that was perfect for you to emulate?
Yes, she was. She was an embodiment of everything for me.
What are you looking to achieve with all these that you are doing, especially with the book club, say in the next couple of years, because I know you must’ve come up with this concept owing to your concern that people are not embracing the reading culture?
Yes, you’re correct. For the book club, the reason why the book club was set up initially was because we realized that Nigerians are not reading, especially women, they don’t have that culture of reading. So, we decided that let’s come together, bring in hard working women, tenacious women. The women in Smart book club are smart women. We have doctors, we have lawyers, we have nurses, we have publicists, we have an array of professionals in Smart book club. Basically, apart from just reading, we also use the club to socialize and networking. Networking now, for me, is very important because you know someone who knows someone who knows someone. So, when we come together as women, because we are seen to always compete amongst themselves but in Smart book club, we believe that we’re coming together to socialize, to network and then to read. When we read also, it makes us to be more abreast with what is happening around us. A lot of women want to go into politics, so you should read. Read the newspapers and see what the dailies are saying. Then, reading also takes you to that place of deeper understanding and that place of knowledge because you’re reading a book about China, you have not been to China but that book takes you to China. Reading makes you more aware, it gives you exposure, it gives you knowledge and it also helps your vocabulary because it helps you to speak better, it helps your presentation skills because when you go out it helps you to talk better.
And a lot of women these days are aware of what is going on, we are always talking about inclusion, women also want to be involved in politics but if you don’t have anything on the inside, what do you want to give? So, you must equip yourself with the prerequisite skills that will allow you to take on those positions and I believe we need to start from reading. And then another thing Smart book club does apart from reading, we have this project called project public school library. We go to schools, we give them books, uniforms, equip their library, etc. We recently just refurbished a playground for the school and we also gave out uniforms to the best performing students in each of the forms. It’s our own pet project because we believe if you want people to read you need to try grooming them from when they are young. We have been doing this consistently, providing books, uniforms and the likes and we have records to show.
What line of business basically are you into?
I do financial consulting and I’m also into construction business. I’m heavily in the construction industry.
And how has that been for you, considering that construction is a male-dominated industry?
Yeah, I was going to say that it’s a male dominated sector. When I first got into it, everyone was looking at me like what has she got to offer, when they see you all dressed up and looking glamorous, but when they got used to me, they realized she’s made of sterner stuff.
How long have you been in that sector?
Over seven years now.
And how has it been so far?
It’s great. The sector I’m in is a huge sector, it’s something that takes a lot of patience. It doesn’t just happen like that because we are into road construction, on a really large scale.
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