His look may be modest, but his ambitions are taller than the Burj Khalifa. Who am I talking about?🤔  It’d be better for me to just spill the beans. He’s no other than Sijibomi Ogundele.

Born April April 8, 1981, Sijibomi Ogundele is a Nigerian businessman, entrepreneur, and real estate mogul. He is the founder and lead partner of Sujimoto Group of companies that deal in real estate, finance, and energy. He was born into a Yoruba family in Agege, Lagos😳. He attended Lagos State Model College Meiran from where he proceeded to Anglia Ruskin University to study law.   His first introduction to business was at a tender age in one of Africa’s largest markets – Oke Arin. Out of curiosity, he would follow his mother to the market, where he learned every aspect of trading. His love for luxury real estate grew in 2011 while living in Southern France as a common real estate agent. He bought an apartment and remodeled it. He sold the apartment for double the price some months later.

According to Sijibomi Ogundele, “success is not served á la carte, you have to take it. Great things don’t come easy.” Hmmm! What nice food for thought. Determination has been an evident part of Sijibomi’s life. He once said in an interview that growing on the streets of Agege, the fear of poverty was his greatest motivation and that he started visiting Ikoyi at the tender age of 9, with the inspiration that someday, he would have an opportunity to live there. Today, the dream has actualized.

Sijibomi Ogundele is such an inspiration to many people, especially youths across Africa due to how he’s taken the business world by storm and such great achievements he’s recorded at such a young age. He recently hosted some Quantity Surveying students of Obafemi Awolowo University at his firm in Lagos where he shared some tips with them and showed them some of the projects he was working on.

Two major lessons worth noting in Sijibomi’s life are as follows:

First, he did not let his background put his back to the ground: Sijibomi grew up in a neighborhood like Agege’s, without a silver spoon and living in a street where only 2 out of over 19 houses had a generator set. He didn’t let that discourage him, instead, he used and is using poverty as his major driver. He claims to consciously drive himself to excel and surpass his last big success.

Secondly, he always had his eyes on the prize: One of his greatest projects to date, LorenzobySujimoto, had to be stalled at a point as investors were pulling out due to the economic recession in Nigeria at the time. It was widely rumored that he wouldn’t be able to complete the project due to its greatness but Sijibomi defied all odds to complete the building of the tallest residential building in Nigeria and Africa’s first fully automated residential apartment.

Today, he is popularly referred to as “the Agege boy who built a $400 million company.” He is one of Nigeria’s youngest billionaires and luxury real estate Czar. He insists that he is married without a wife and that his wife is young and very jealous, she’s Sujimoto 😂. He has an estimated net worth of $1.8 billion. His popular mantra is 1+1= 11 which he describes as Motomatics, which means ‘Never give up!’.

That’s all I have on Sijibomi Ogundele. I hope you had a pleasant read.

Author: Joshua Fabiyi