How Adeshina Overcame Poverty To Attain Success

Ugo Aliogo

By the time Ajayi Adeshina was conscious of himself as a human, his parents had been divorced and he can pinpoint a reason for that split: lack of money. “My parent had a very bad marriage that made them part ways when I was barely two years of age,” he states. “Mom left the marriage and left me with dad. Dad on the other hand couldn’t put up with the responsibility of raising a child and I was sent to the village to be raised by my paternal grandmother.”

When his grandmother died, he was barely 10 and came back to Lagos where he was determined to ensure he made a success of his life and never be poor again. Possessing a zest for personal development and leadership, Mr Adeshina attended the Empowerment College Leadership School Lagos, in partnership with the Institute of Leadership and Management, London, and from there tumbled down a tunnel of professional roles, working at different firms like The Empowerment Center, Pretien Global, Niches property Limited with proofs in companies’ Growth as a business development lead.

Presently, he is dedicated to helping other young kids make a headway in their academic like he did all those years ago through his NGO, The Assignment Advocacy Group. “We are responsible for training 3000 final-year students from four secondary schools in Agege,” he says. “I also created a center that tutored and helped over 50 students to pass their West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) and Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) who all made it to tertiary institutions. I empowered 100 small-scale business owners with skills to grow their businesses which had an outstanding result that had all of them make over 100% in annual turnovers.”

In addition to this, he co-founded a company with his company that is steadily growing. “I co-founded Straightway Foods with my wife. We produce and supply cold-pressed coconut oil to over 20 distributors and supermarts both in Lagos and Ibadan and over 300 end users. The company saw a sharp rise in patronage, sales, and returns after I led an activation team of promoters that created massive awareness for the product in different LGAs in Lagos.