Coming from a wealthy background and with access to a lot of resources and finance, Dele cultivated and invested in several high-class companies in Nigeria, helping him secure an abundance of high-performance enterprises in key sectors of the economy ranging from insurance to telecommunications, oil and gas, agriculture, and manufacturing.
He is currently the Chairman/Director of the board of the companies, and many others, totaling over forty.
Dele’s approach has always been to surround himself with brilliant minds whom are great executives and so, has also forged relationships with many friends who would later become his business partners.
For many of his ventures, he invites friends to be partners, shareholders and employees while he retains a controlling interest. This model enables him to share the risks with others and benefit from the synergy associated with working with a formidable team of partners rather than just running things solo.
Together, they’ve built multiple large businesses together, shared larger profits and experienced losses together.
When Dele’s father died in 1978, he became the Group Executive Director (GED) of Henry Stephens Group (at least 19 companies). Although he had not worked in a managerial capacity in the group before this, his father’s excellent and accurate record-keeping practice provided all the information he needed to know about the businesses.
Dele was not only adept at raising finance; he is skilled at making his money work for him. He possessed the desire to put his company’s interests even above his own, and that contributed significantly to his status.
He took several risks in the interest of the companies with a notable being as Chairman of the board of AIICO Insurance, he used his main house as collateral to enable the company to raise a draft of N650 million in 24 hours before the company’s license could be reissued by its regulator.
His dogged and innovative approach to business are portrayed in how he acquired a significant stake in AIICO and later increased his stake to being the majority shareholder of the company.
In the early 90s, the Nigerian government wanted to sell her shares in AIICO Insurance. He was interested in purchasing, but he had been reliably informed that the Federal Government did not want an individual or entity to own it. He was not discouraged by this but still figured out a way to legally purchase the 11% stake in the company, making him the 2nd largest shareholder in the company after American Insurance Group (AIG).
He expressed interest to purchase AIICO Bahamas’ 40% stake in the company, but they valued their shares at an “eight-digit dollar price”, and he had to bid his time.
His patience paid off slightly over a decade later and he acquired their shares, making him the largest shareholder in AIICO Insurance Plc.
Having lost his father at the age of 28, Dele had to relocate from Kano to run his father’s companies. Running the firms was a challenging task because prior to this period, he had only worked as a “sweeper” in his father’s warehouse and a “tally clerk” in his clearing and forwarding company while he was a student.
The entire corporate burden was upon him as all expected him to step into his father’s shoes and carry on the legacy with the expectation of doing greater than his predecessor.
