‘Taking Risks, Best Trick to Becoming A Successful Businessman”* …Africent Group boss, Juwon Razaq Lawal

Freedom and entrepreneurship lead to innovations that improve lives and give individual’s dreams a boost. Self-discovery is the pathway to achieving that. This principle holds true for Juwon Razaq Lawal, a Nigerian born young entrepreneur of note.

In a world where most people never figure out what they are really obsessed with, Juwon, as he is simply addressed, acted differently; he was obsessed with personal fantasies of enduring wealth, and fame, aimed at creating a legacy that would outlast his time. His plans suggest the world looks differently as he deploys passion as a valuable tool to build the life he dreamt of.

Juwon, the founder and director of AfriCent Group DWC LLC, a global conglomerate, which affiliates include Cropyfy UK Ltd, a commodity trading and logistics services company based in London; S8 Contractors & Company Ltd, an oil and gas logistics support services company, and Oillet Services Ltd, a palm kernel oil mills and livestock feeds processing company, is a textbook of self-discovery. While some are billionaires through inheritance, Razaq asserts he made his wealth from personal efforts and enterprise, by applying a winning attitude, years of sweat and tears.

“There are no tricks to being a unique entrepreneur than having the ability to build yourself; first to be a selling point and then to be able to sell your products and services to others with or without your physical presence,” he said of his creative abilities and focus, stating further that “entrepreneurship is not the same as buying and selling but building a venture, taking risks and accepting responsibility for the good or bad. Of course, you must face challenges as an ambitious entrepreneur and that increases the chance for growth and motivation.”

Entrepreneurship is patience, focus, consistency and visions without giving up, Juwon counsels promising entrepreneurs. “An entrepreneur that has eyes on accomplishments doesn’t trade time for money or sell time for rewards. A good entrepreneur must be a good sales person; the single most important thing is to be able to sell. He or she must be able to count the numbers, nothing more. Then success will follow.”

Having invested his sweats and his fortune fast growing, Juwon who made his first millions of naira at age 23 consulting for corporations, asserts that being able to continually funding his expanding ventures, makes his 15 years journey as a businessman meaningful. “I’ve had no difficulty raising funds to run my businesses because I personally have always been discovered to be a born entrepreneur and an active one who grew to pick and develop a career that has run smoothly for one and half decade. We fund the businesses through ploughed-back profits. Also, a good entrepreneur or business needs no funding to start with, funding is only required for growth and expansion.”

With head offices based in UAE and the United Kingdom, Juwon’s business branches spread across African countries, including Nigeria, Senegal and Ghana.

For the widely traveled Kogi State born socialite, the unique selling point of any good business must be a quality that breeds progress and improves growth. “A business survives the tide only when it is good at what it produces and known for,” suggests the young entrepreneur who says he is never satisfied improving on the last success as he keeps moving and inspired to do better than the last. “I’m motivated by solving problems. I don’t run from difficult business or services that others seem as impossible or not worth the stress. I move to do such provided it solves problem and such a situation ends up in success.”