A few weeks back, a beautiful lady who is an Engineer, Philanthropist, Business Mogul, Educationalist and Industrialist, Funmi Ayinke, held a classy 40th birthday party at Oriental Hotel, in Lagos
She is the CEO of Funmi Ayinke Nigeria Limited, a fast-growing engineering company that is competently involved in project management, consultancy services, supervision, design, processing and management of all organization businesses on every aspect of mechanical, electrical, and civil engineering works.
At her birthday, she shared her success story and why she is very particular about the Girl child.
“I need to tell you the story of my life. I am proudly an “Omo iya teacher”. I am so proud and i say thank you to my mom. Sincerely speaking, I grew up to see my mom doing a lot to see each of us through life and each time I see my mom taking money from a cooperative to send us to school, I told myself that one day I am going to slap poverty. Each time I go home and tell my mom I needed to buy things and she says don’t worry I am going to take money from the cooperative. You know teachers like cooperative a lot and I was like “don’t worry, one day I am going to slap poverty”. And that was how I started the journey. I told myself that I am going to make my mom proud, that I am going to affect my environment positively and I am going to lay my life as an open letter for every Nigerian youth, most especially the girl child, to know that they can be successful and still don’t lose their integrity and dignity.”
“While I was trying to become that, a lot of challenges came on my way. I noticed in life that when you are a go-getter, when you have a goal, when we want to achieve something we are the people that the enemy always target. They don’t go for the useless ones. It is you they will defame their character and you will keep asking yourself if you are the only one in the world and if you can survive it.
I want to say to you that what actually got me going is just me believing in God because God is the pillar, he is the one that can take you without giving up on you.”
I thank God that despite all odds I graduated. I went for NYSC. For those that don’t know I actually finished my NYSC before I got married because I wanted to make my dad proud. And I want to thank God for my husband. He got me as a fresh graduate, a baby, very fresh and innocent. He was my lecturer in school and I said “I do” because he is so mature and he has everything I prayed for in a man and today he has never proved me wrong in that.”
“In the course of my journey, I got married and decided on what I wanted to do . Since I wanted to slap poverty, I was not looking for money, I was actually looking for value. I wanted to add value, I wanted to create my name. I believe in creating names and adding value because if you are a person money will follow you, prosperity will come, just create value, give value to yourself. That was what I was pursuing, I was busy pursuing value. I didn’t care if I have money on me. I decided I would be selling kerosene. To so many that don’t know, when I was a nursing mother. I was selling my kerosene.
I created Adefunmi Investment. I was doing kerosene in a fashionable way. I had my dispensing pump, I created a company that can run filling station lines, and repair pumps for feeling stations. I run their lines, I do a lot of things for them. That was fun for me. Each time I come to my office and they call me “iya Ayo Oni kerosene”,I told myself that people had forgotten that I even went to school.
They call me ” iya Ayo oni Kerosene”. I enjoyed it.I ran my kerosene business in a way that if I don’t have kerosene that is when other people will sell. What I was doing was that I actually didn’t look for money on the Kerosene. I looked for Widows that want to sell kerosene but they don’t have money. I would distribute kerosene to every one of them. They will sell, come back to me with my money and take another one, that was how I was able to make a lot of entrepreneurs and if I should enter Ibadan today and cough they will come for me, to support me, because I am that person who has created thousands of kerosene sellers in the Apata area of Ibadan.”
“I was just pursuing value and my husband supported me a lot. Sometimes I would finish the money and have no gain because when some of them have no money, I will tell them not to worry and my husband will give me another money. I told him to believe in me, that I am slapping poverty and I promised him that I would not be a nonentity. And then we had our third baby. We had three boys. We were planning to have three kids, but when we had three boys I said no, I wanted to have a girl because your gain in your husband’s house is having a girl child and my husband supported me to have my Fourth child.
After having my children I picked up my job as a. Mechanical engineer. I was selling my kerosene and I picked up a professional job. I want every Girl Child to learn from my story. Don’t just see Funmi Ayinke’s success. I introduced myself officially today as a Billionaire at 40 I am not joking about that. What I am trying to tell you guys here now is that don’t look at Funmi Ayinke today, listen to the Funmi Ayinke story.”
Funmi Ayinke
“Don’t forget that the people that have a long journey are the ones the enemy is always attacking. I got to a crazy land where they don’t do things normally. I was coming from a world where I thought that I had seen it all. I couldn’t function in that environment because I looked like a learner. Not that I don’t know what they were doing there, but the people were too toxic for me. I thank God for a woman there, she was the Accountant of that place where I picked my first job.”
“I became the head of a unit and every time, there is a problem I would run to her.I would say “Mummy I am here again, I want to resign” and she would say “No way”. So, some people who say it, keep telling them they cannot give up. I actually got it from that woman. Sometimes I would do work and it will be sabotaged. Again she will say pursue it you can still get it done. Sometimes they would remove parts from the generator and when I run to her, she would say don’t worry, tell them to bring it back. I became very stubborn because I had a mummy that is stubborn when it comes to achieving success.”
And that was the journey at The Federal University of Agriculture. I spent six years there I didn’t really plan to spend six years because on the third day I told myself that I don’t want to be a stereotypical woman. I want to do more. Government work would make one stereotype. It takes your time, and you can’t go.
I met another challenge that said every mechanical engineer in that place has always been sacked without benefits. I got to that place, and that was a problem I was solving so that the future mechanical engineering students in that school can survive, and it was a long battery.
Funmi Ayinke
The man who has been behind the other mechanical engineers getting sacked wrote pages of petitions against me, but I answered the petitions one by one with my documents. It’s important to keep all your documents.”
I faced the query, and the man who wrote the petition against me was sacked. It was a battle I fought and won so that others could enjoy it.”
“After that, I decided it was time for me to leave, and I set up my own company, Funmi Ayinke Nigeria Limited.”
“I plead to everyone to please pick up a girl child today. A single girl child can impact the lives of thousands.”
Iretiogo Oloyede
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