TRULY FAB

The 22-Year-Old OAU Student Who Built A Million Dollar Hedge Fund

Published

7 years ago

August 19, 2017

FAB.NG

The 22 Year Old OAU Student Who Built A Million Dollar Hedge Fund

When you meet Christopher ‘King’ Bowofade, you are sure in that first minute of conversation that you have met no ordinary 22-year-old. Your astonishment quickly grows when he tells you how, in less than two years, he went from a being a student who saw his parents struggle to send him his monthly allowance to building an investment company with 15 full-time employees and over N600 million under management.

The company he built, Better Days Investments (BTD), buys and sells futures and options daily on behalf of 7,902 individual investors who get returns anywhere from 10% to 30% monthly, a performance that I found difficult to believe when I first heard about it.

The 22 Year Old OAU Student Who Built A Million Dollar Hedge Fund

Somewhere in the middle of my chat with him, I couldn’t help but ask, how does a young kid who got rejected twice to study Economics — first as a secondary school leaver and later as an Ordinary Diploma Holder —convince thousands of investors to bet on him?

His short answer: “People work with you based on what you say you are.”

In late 2012, he was a fresh Diploma graduate, second best in his Conservation Science and Tourism class with a 4.41 GPA, but he was determined to be more than that. During the long break that preceded his direct-entry application to the Department of Economics at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), he stayed back in school to learn about a variety of fields over free school internet. He quickly became adept at graphic design and web development. But what really caught his eye was the financial market: forex, futures, options and binary options. These quickly became an obsession.

He would lose his first investor (his mum)’s $100 in one week, but this didn’t deter him. He found some British fund managers who became his mentors. He learnt to give one of them his money to trade for him. The fund manager returned 50% in a month. He was ecstatic. Once he was able to achieve that kind of return month after month, he felt ready to raise more money.

One of his earliest investors and evangelists was Johnson Alabi, the third best student in the Conservation Science and Tourism Diploma class. Johnson was one of those who urged him to start a company. Christopher used his PHP and CSS skills to build the company website, and they were ready for business. Their first investors would mainly be students looking to earn extra money; their first part-time staff, too.

In November 2015, BTD registered as simply a Commission Agency with CAC (neither SEC or CBN regulates speculative funds in foreign markets) and started out with N1 million from 20 investors. As returns came, word of mouth spread. Christopher and Johnson created a structure where investors signed up to be agents and earned commissions to manage other investors they brought in. At some point, they were doubling investors and asset under management every month.

They were working so hard, they forgot to go to class. This was the first year as 200 level undergraduates at the Geography department at OAU. At the end of first semester, Johnson had a GPA of 2.6, Christopher had a 1.9.

Mavrodi Mundial Moneybox (MMM)

As the business grew, Christopher’s challenges were more than academic. 2016 was the year when exchanging Naira to Dollar was difficult. BTD worked around this by securing a large single black market source and by returning Naira cash flows from new investors to old ones without touching the dollar capital base. He also had trouble maintaining investor returns as capital grew.

He and his COO, Johnson, fought over many issues and finally parted ways. Some of his best student-staff would leave him or he would be forced to sack them over issues that ranged from petty to material.

But his biggest challenge yet was in December 2016, when majority of his investors who had thought BTD was some kind of multi-level marketing scheme started to request to withdraw all of their funds following rumours that Nigeria’s largest multi-level marketing scheme, MMM, had crashed.

“This was depleting our capital so much that it challenged the company’s sustainability.” That was Christopher putting it mildly. This was an existential crises that could have wiped out over 80% of his fund, as well as BTD itself, in under a month. He took firm action and froze the fund. He also revealed himself to many of his Lagos-based investors for the first time (some who had exposure of up to N30 million), and organised an Investor Conference in February of this year to allay their fears.

The road to startup success is dotted with what sometimes are the truest tests of skill and character. Bowofade, as he is sometimes called by friends, has had to quickly learn programming and trading in the financial markets while proving that he can make tough decisions as a leader. “Not many people can trade binary options,”He quipped at some point in our chat, “It requires that you make really important decisions in a split second.” He has been an ardent student of Trading Psychology, a term popular among traders that describes the emotional and mental make-up needed to succeed as a trader, built on the three cornerstones: stamina, patience and discipline. In addition, he has to embrace fear and take risk without flinching.

But Bowofade struggles in some respects, especially in dealing with people. According to Johnson Alabi, “Bowofade can be poor with human relations, he prefers online relationships.” He has an inordinate need to feel secure and be surrounded by loyal people. This means that he has a tendency to keep mostly yes-men around him instead of those who can challenge his ideas. This easily leads to mediocrity if not checked.

From Zero to One

What’s the future of BTD? Christopher sees it in the near future as being a potential challenger to well-established finance houses like ARM, FBN Capital and Chapel Hill Denham, investing in traditional financial instruments like real estate and infrastructure but also leveraging technology a lot more. For example, leveraging blockchain technology to be the first established finance house making investments in cryptocurrency. He is a blockchain enthusiast whose $75 personal investment in Bitcoins two years ago is now $2000.

“Blockchain technology has the power to disrupt conventional business models,” he says. He goes on to explain how e-commerce sites can accept cryptocurrency, businesses can raise capital through Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), and bottom-of-the-pyramid projects in sub-Saharan Africa can benefit from the transparency, stability and trust that blockchain offers.

When Christopher unfreezes his fund by December, shedding short-term-focused investors for those who will join him for the long ride to building a sustainable company, he would have fully experienced his zero to one moment: when you build something out of nothing.

That moment is precious. You join the Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame, for starters (at OAU, it is a long list that includes the oldies like Femi Otedola and Ibukun Awosika, and the newbies like Opeyemi Awoyemi of Jobberman and Biola Olaniran of Gamsole). You may still be a student (or not; Christopher has been informed that he needs to renew his studentship), but you become a moving part of a new and growing economy. This moment is not for anyone: it belongs to those who refuse to think at the same plane as the majority of people, who have visions to truly change the game and who don’t mistake schooling for getting an education.

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BUSINESS

Watch! Mitsubishi Motors Presents Drive Your Ambition – Under 40 CEOs Featuring Olaotan Towry-Coker

Published

5 years ago

August 5, 2019

FAB.NG

Who else is as excited about getting into the 5th gear in Week 5 of Under 40 CEOs – Drive Your Ambition? Forget August Visitors as we have lined up an amazing set of August Riders who will be taking a ride with Mr FAB as usual. This week he drives the Chief Executive Officer at Afritickets to work in the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross. We know you’re itching to watch, but who exactly is Olaotan Towry-Coker?

Olaotan Towry-Coker is a passionate entrepreneur with over 14 years experience in incubating and growing early-stage businesses. His professional background spans multiple sectors including Oil and gas, publishing, advertising, technology and real estate. Driven by a continual search for excellence and a passionate desire and drive to solve problems and impact people across many divides, Olaotan Towry-Coker exemplifies what it means to be a young African professional and entrepreneur on a journey of conceiving ideas, creating solutions and delivering change that gives greater meaning to lives. Olaotan Towry-Coker is the founder and CEO of Afritickets.

Watch the video below

More About Massilia Motors
Massilia Motors is the joint venture of the CFAO group and the Chanrai group uniting forces to deliver customer satisfaction. With operations run by the CFAO group, Massilia Motors is the sole distributor of Mitsubishi Motors in Nigeria.
The Nigerian Line-up includes: ASX, Eclipse Cross, Outlander, Pajero, Pajero Sport and the L200 pick-up.

Visit the official website for more information.

More About Under 40 CEOs
Under 40 CEOs launched on TVC Entertainment and TVC News on the 9th of October, 2015 and subsequently launched on Silverbird Television Network on the 13th of January, 2016 and has spotlighted inspiring young business leaders aged 40 and under from Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda and South Africa. Business leaders that have been featured on the show include Adebola Williams of Red Media; Audu Maikori of Chocolate City Group; Noble Igwe of 360 Group; Bola Ray of EIB Networks; Alex Brahm of SMSGH; Oluyomi Ojo of Printivo whilst discovering inspiring CEOs like lawyer Aderemi Oguntoye of Oguntoye and Oguntoye; Senyo Hosi of Ghana Chambers of Bulk Oil Distributors;Farida Bedwei of Logiciel; Ukinebo Dare of Poise; Abiola Adekoya of RMB Stockbrokers; Ran Neu-Ner, Co-CEO at The Creative Counsel; Shukri Toefy, CEO at creative adverting agency, Fort and Ade Adegoke of Oando Foundation amongst others.
With over 100 episodes till date, and serial entrepreneur, Familusi Akin Babajide, Mr FAB as the host, Under 40 CEOs has since gone on to inspire and motivate millions of would-be young business leaders across Africa to take action and join in the rebuilding and re-shaping of the African continent. Under 40 CEOs currently reaches an odd 875,000 viewers every week with a social media following of over 170,000 and growing with a cumulative social media content reach of over 9million.

Follow Massilia Motors on social media:
Instagram: @mitsubishi_motors_nigeria
Facebook: Mitsubishi Motors Nigeria
LinkedIn: Mitsubishi Motors Nigeria
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Follow Under 40 CEOs on social media:
Facebook: @under40ceosafrica
Instagram: @under40ceos
Twitter: @under40ceosng

COMEDY

Nigerian Singer Davido Claims His Gateman Has Two Houses And 3 Cars

Published

5 years ago

July 30, 2019

FAB.NG

Nigerian singer Davido has always cultivated a culture of sharing is caring in all aspects of his life.

The Nigerian star Davido shares his heart equally with three women: two baby mamas who gave birth to his daughters and his girlfriend Chioma.
And that is not enough. The musician has always been praised for always helping the people around him despite their status in the community.

Now, the 26-year-old father of two has caused a stir on Twitter after casually saying his watchman owns two houses and three cars.

Yes, as you struggle to at least get free rides on Mr sponsor’s car, Davido is busy elevating his employees.
It all started when a tweep named Obong Roviel shared his excitement over news that the musician was working with upcoming act, Lyta.

Obong praised Davido for always supporting everyone who approaches him either in terms of growing their music brand or elevating their businesses.
A proud and happy Davido then said on top of helping Lyta, he has made sure his watchman has cars and houses.

Scrolling through the comment section, nearly everyone agreed with Obong and echoed his sentiments.

Despite the singer being riddled with controversy in the past, he has managed to show he has a heart of gold.

#TAKETHELEADINSTYLE

Watch! Mitsubishi Motors Presents Drive Your Ambition – Under 40 CEOs Featuring Wunmi Williams

Published

5 years ago

July 30, 2019

FAB.NG

We are positive you are wondering how many miles we have covered thus far driving around with young business leaders who inspire and motivate you. The truth however is that we have not been paying attention to the mileage, however what we are interested in is going that extra mile to Drive Your Ambition. It is week four on Under 40 CEOs,

Drive Your Ambition and this week Mr FAB drives the Chief Executive Officer at Nakenohs Boulevard to work in the Mitsubishi Pajero Sport. Watch and catch a few nuggets to help further motivate you but firstly get familiar with Wunmi Williams.
Wunmi Williams grew up in Lagos, Nigeria from where she would eventually leave for the University of Surrey where she bagged her bachelors degree. She would later return to Nigeria to start a fashion retail business which launched from out of the boot of her car. Over 10 years later her portfolio of businesses has grown to include a premium upscale mall sitting on prime real estate in Ikoyi, Lagos. Wunmi Williams is the Founder and CEO at Nakenohs Boulevard.