Start

The founder and Group Managing Director of the Rainoil Group, Dr. Gabriel Ogbechie (OON), has given ten start-ups N50 million as part of efforts to help these companies scale.

Each of the start-ups got N5 million during a symposium, Dr. Gabriel Ogbechie’s Entrepreneur Symposium, themed, ‘Resilient Entrepreneurship: Building in an uncertain economy’ held to mark the 60th birthday of Ogbechie.

The beneficiaries were picked from the over 100 entrepreneurs that applied for the grant, which was shortlisted to 26, before the 10 eventual winners were selected.

Highlighting Nigeria’s population of over 200 million consumers, Ogbechie noted that the current macroeconomic challenges are accompanied by massive consumer demand across logistics, housing, agritech, and retail commerce.

He therefore implored young Nigerians, especially entrepreneurs, to focus on operational discipline and long-term planning rather than immediate profits.

He recalled founding Rainoil in 1997 with a modest startup capital of just N300,000 utilizing insights he gained during five years of working as a sales and operations executive in an indigenous oil company.

Instead of acquiring expensive retail assets upfront, the company initially focused on niche product sourcing and wholesale distribution logistics. Over nearly three decades, that model has evolved into an integrated energy giant:

Ogbechie challenged the common focus on macroeconomic risks, pointing out that Nigeria’s population size creates reliable, baseline demand across several core sectors.

The keynote speaker and co-founder, Sahara Group, Tope Shonubi, said humility is the greatest asset any entrepreneur should ever have. He noted that entrepreneurship is not only about running successful businesses, but involves creating opportunities for others to climb up the entrepreneur ladder.

Shonubi further said entrepreneurs must continually update their knowledge, embrace agility, and stay relevant in the marketplace.

Also speaking, the Executive Chairman of AA Holdings Group, Austin Avuru, outlined the limits of private philanthropy in isolation. Avuru emphasized that while private grants offer vital short-term runways for startups, long-term economic growth requires the government to actively support business activities.

He stated that a responsible government must act as the “oxygen” for entrepreneurship by providing reliable national security, simplifying business regulations, and maintaining stable monetary policies.