‘Not Necessary To Be Born Rich'

One of West Africa’s richest men and a formidable force in banking, Jim Ovia reveals some key lessons for Africa’s entrepreneurs in his first book.

- Peace Hyde

In Africa’s business and banking world, a man like Jim Ovia is a textbook case study.

As the founder and chairman of Zenith Bank, and with a net worth of $825 million according to FORBES, Ovia’s prolific banking career spans almost three decades.

His book, Africa Rise and Shine: How a Nigerian Entrepreneur From Humble Beginnings Grew A Business To $16 Billion, launched in August, which marked his debut as an author, details this trajectory, building the bank from the ground up, brick-by-brick. Ovia started with a single branch in Lagos on the ground floor of an impoverished residential duplex that he shared with a private tenant.

“At the time, there were no high-rise office structures in the area and we were not able to afford any standalone structures,” says Ovia to FORBES AFRICA when we meet him at the iconic Civic Centre building located on Ozumba Mbadiwe in Victoria Island, Lagos.

The sprawling high-rise office structure we occupy on this rainy Saturday morning is a far cry from the early years.

Ovia recalls erecting a signage and the company logo in the impromptu commercial space where they could carry out the banking business.

He worked at Barclays Bank in Lagos from the age of 18 for three years as a clerical officer before enrolling to study business administration at Southern University, Louisiana, in the United States, and subsequently proceeding to the University of Louisiana, Monroe, where he completed his MBA.