Personality in Focus
GText @16: We’ve Equipped Aspiring Entrepreneurs, Raised 60,000 Millionaires, Developed 25 Luxury Estates – Dr. Akintayo
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By Eric Elezuo
From the humblest of beginnings in 2008, GText Holdings Limited has grown in leaps and bounds, gathering accolades, encomiums, and growth and development as 16 years roll by.
This was the submission of the Group Chairman, Dr. Stephen Akintayo, while addressing the media, as he reeled out the text of success stories that trailed the organisation in 16 years since 2008, expanding to accommodate GText and Associates, GText Land, GText Homes, GText Suites, Gvest and Stephen Akintayo Foundation. All these subsidiaries have since grown independently, carving a niche for themselves in global competition, and maintaining a market lead in their various areas of endeavours.
“It’s humbling however, to note that I started my business with one thousand naira, and for us to be in the four continents of the world, I had to keep proving myself,” he said.
Established on May 21, 2008, in a hostel room of about 12 by 15 feet, the Gtext brands have over the years seen the good, the bad and the ugly, but has stayed focused to the dream, and today, is a force to reckon with in the global business world.
A soft spoken go-getter, the story of Stephen Akintayo and to a large extent, Gtext, is a practically example of the proverbial leap from grass to grace, and tells a narrative filled with determination, resilience and focus. His life trajectory culminates in why everyone is a candidate of success, irrespective of the background.
He told journalists in his Ikoyi office, and via his social media handles, how he doggedly built his empire via strategic marketing advantages, and rising to the status of king of real estate, as well as how a team of hardnut-to-crack management team, has sustained the growth to its present magnanimous level.
“Exactly 16 years ago, we registered Gtext and Stephen Akintayo Foundation, the name then was Gileadbalm.
“This company started in my Campus 12by 15feet hostel room turn office and accomodation. My first Full time Employee is a guy name Busayo who had 3month compulsory internship and didn’t want to leave Ago-Iwoye and ask to work for Me. He will resume in that 12 by 15 feet room office and run errands. The scripture that says; “Though thy beginning was small, Yet thy latter end should greatly increase.” Job 8:7 KJV
“We started very small with many businesses that failed even before I registered the company but one business became our identity, Bulk SMS. Started this with 1000 naira (10USD that’s time estate rate) our projection will see us control real estate asset worth over 2billion dollars in the next 5years, particularly our international operations. Only God could have gotten us this far in life and business.
“Many don’t know that our foundation was bigger in name and brand than the for-profit business. Infinity Foundation which later change to Stephen Akintayo Foundation started with Campus students wanted to help the poor particularly orphans and widows. I was poor myself, yet wanting to make others rich.
“As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.” 2 Corinthians 6:10 KJV. I was a student for Christ sake yet we will raise Millions of Naira to do project with orphanages . Will use my school fees and accomodation rent money just because I wanted to see changes. After I got tired and frustrated by people who pledge towards our project and disappoint , I decided to make the business arm more central and what I make from my business, I can then put into charity which is what we now do today.
“In All! God has been good to us as a company! We have moved from one estate to over 30 cut across 7 states in Nigeria and also in USA. We have moved from one employee to over 300 in 4 continents namely Africa, UK, Dubai for Middle East, USA for The Americas. Thank you to all who keep faith with us. We are grateful,” the seasoned entrepreneur said.
Acknowledging that he was pushed to work hardest because of the need to be financially free, he noted that he embraced entrepreneurship very eary in life.
“At the age of 17/18, I read the books that changed my life. I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Think and Grow Rich and others. The books woke me up to know that it is not degrees that is going to make me rich. It made me know that degree is just about going to school and being enlightened. If I want to be rich, I needed to do a trade. Having gone through that book at the age of 18, I started my first business as a very shy person, and my first business was multilevel marketing of food supplement by GNLD. It was difficult to market a drug, as I couldn’t look a potential customer in the face, but the book I read said if I could do this, I would become rich. So I had to.
“I started business by selling e-books from day one in the university. I was just sold to doing business; hawked electronics and all stuffs. I failed many times doing business but I kept at it because I had no choice, and because we were not rich and money was always an issue, so I just had to keep at it and that was it for me,” he informed.
Over the years, Akintayo and Gtext has providing affordable accommodations to all strata of clients ranging from the low to the upper class.
Today, Gtext land boasts of 25 luxury estates with 16 already launched and five fully developed just as nine estates are in pre-launch stages. Also, Gtext Suites have offered ownership of smart homes in prestigious areas like Sangotedo and Banana Island. The magnanimity of this project allows anyone who sells up to three property, an opportunity of an all expense trip to Jordan.
In the same vein, GText and Associates, alongside Stephen Akintayo Foundation has organised over 100 Certified Real Estate Masterclasses and enhanced realtors’ global real estate expertise. They have also initiated and executed over 50 all expense paid trips, which created opportunities for business growth as well as raising over 60,000 persons to the millionaire cadre.
Gvest, the investment of the Holdings, has succeeded in paying Return on Investment (ROI) to investors. The company has seamlessly perfected its operational base, laying a foundation that affords clients effortless utilization of the GSAVE app.
The Stephen Akintayo Foundation arm of the Holdings has been in the forefront of equipping aspiring entrepreneurs through real estate investment masterclasses as well as promoting global finance literacy via a successful family finance conference.
The company plans a gala nite for management, staff and the general public on June 1, 2024, to celebrate the landmark achievements of the past 16 years.
This is wishing Dr. Stephen Akintayo and the entire Gtext family a wonderful 16th Anniversary celebration, and many more years of market leadership.
Kardinal Business Travel, a travel technology company with African and global focus, was among 60 startups that pitched at the 2nd edition of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Startup Awards, held at the ECOWAS Commission headquarters in Abuja recently.
The company’s Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Cornelius Ugwunwa, presented the company’s case at the three-day event. The awards was part of an ECOWAS initiative to help West African businesses and startups scale through digital transformation, regional integration and sustainable value chains, with the aim of widening access to global markets.
Temitope Kareem, founder of Nigerian healthtech firm HubPharm Africa, won the top prize of $30,000. Senegal’s Gaynako took home $20,000 as first runner-up, while Steve Bah Blesson’s MyOpinion from Côte d’Ivoire won $15,000 as second runner-up.
Speaking during his pitch, Ugwunwa said Africa needs a new system for business travel. He cited a market with $75 billion in inbound travel spending and a strong business travel component in 2025, while travel and tourism as a whole contributed $228 billion to the regional economy.
“When a company sends its employees across Africa for a business engagement, we at Kardinal noticed the challenges of countless inboxes, spreadsheets and emails, mostly after the trip.
Businesses keep asking: How much did we spend? Who did we spend it on? Was it above or below budget? Can we reconcile everything on one platform?” he said.
He described African business travel as a $30 billion market that is largely fragmented and overly dependent on manual processes.
According to him, many businesses lose over $1 billion to manual travel processing and cannot track spending in real time. “That is why Kardinal exists: to solve this entrenched problem,” he said.
Ugwunwa said GoKardinal is an artificial intelligence-driven platform built to track expenses for African businesses. It brings the entire business travel lifecycle (planning, budgeting, booking, financing and expense tracking) onto one platform, in real time.
“GoKardinal is not another travel platform. It is an infrastructure for business travel, powered by AI for expense management,” he said, adding that the idea is to help businesses move without delay from one location to another to do their best work, expand and make profit.
On the company’s performance, he said the platform serves over 51 businesses in Nigeria and across Africa, with estimated weekly profit of $10,000 and gross merchandise value of over $1 million, growing at 65 per cent annually. he added.
He noted that about 80 per cent of African businesses still run their business travel manually, without any form of expense tracking, in a market worth over $30 billion annually. “African business travel is not just travelling for the fun of it.
It is an ecosystem with the potential to generate over $70 billion when digitalised,” Ugwunwa said.
The President of Security Resources & Risk Management Academy, Lagos, Mr. Matthew Ibadin, has charged officers of the Nigerian Armed Forces and allied nations to practice emotional discipline, warning that unmanaged anger remains a greater threat to a Staff Officer than the enemy.
Ibadin, who is also a doctoral researcher at the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) and University of Abuja, stated this on Monday while delivering a lecture on “Emotional Discipline Under Pressure and Anger Management for Staff Officers” to participants of Senior Course 48 at the Armed Forces Command and Staff College (AFCSC), Jaji, Kaduna.
The lecture was attended by 436 officers comprising the Nigerian Army, Nigerian Navy, Nigerian Air Force and officers from eight friendly nations.
Describing anger as “a temporary madness that leaves a permanent record,” Ibadin warned officers that “the line between a respected officer and an inmate is thinner than you can imagine.”
“Anger may enter the room, but must never take command,” he said.
The Lion Principle
Illustrating his point with the parable of the lions, Ibadin noted that while both male and female lions roar, the female roars only when necessary and lives 15-18 years compared to 10-12 years for the male.
“She lives longer not because she is weaker, but because she is more disciplined. Many of us have become male lions in uniform – fighting juniors, spouses, traffic, minor disagreements even when no real threat exists. That constant agitation slowly destroys what you have built,” he said.
He therefore charged officers to “be a female lion in strategy and a male lion only when tactically necessary.”
Five Battlefields Where Anger Destroys
Ibadin identified five battlefields where undisciplined anger destroys officers: Health, Home Front, Office and Command, Career and Prison, and Relationships.
On health, he described anger as a silent killer that triggers hypertension, stroke and cardiac arrest, noting that many officers survive the war front but do not survive peacetime.
“At Jaji, your rank commands respect, but at home your rank is irrelevant. If you win at the office and lose at home, you have lost. An officer whose home is under emotional fire cannot think clearly at the command post,” he cautioned.
He warned that signatures appended in anger to operational orders, procurement papers and personnel assessments could lead to Boards of Inquiry, career ruin and mission failure.
He added that 70 percent of inmates in correctional centres for murder never planned to kill, but acted in a moment of unmanaged anger.
Practical Tools
Ibadin introduced practical tools including the 90-Second Rule and the S.T.O.P Protocol – Stop, Take a Breath (4-4-4), Observe, and Proceed with Discipline – for decisions under pressure.
He adopted Aristotle’s five tests for disciplining anger: Right Person, Right Reason, Right Time, Right Degree, and Right Manner.
Veteran Nollywood actor, Pete Edochie has declared Chinua Achebe’s 1958 novel ‘Things Fall Apart’ as the greatest African book of all-time.
Speaking in a recent interview with TV3, Edochie explained that ‘Things Fall Apart’ is the greatest African book ever written because it tells the African story.
He stated that the book wouldn’t have been as popular as it is if it were telling the story of the colonisers.
He pointed out that many other African authors have also made efforts in telling African stories since ‘Things Fall Apart’ but none is as “strong” as it.
“The reason why ‘Things Fall Apart’ is the greatest book ever written on the African continent is because it is telling our own story.
“If it had been telling the story of the White man, it won’t be that popular. Many others have made efforts since then but not as strong as ‘Things Fall Apart’,” he said.
He urged African writers and creatives to focus on telling African stories, stressing that it would be their unique strength on the global stage.
The movie star, however, lamented that Africans were allowing their talents to be submerged by embracing foreign influences.
“We Africans permitted our talents to be submerged by overseas influences. I remember once upon a time I was being called Elvis Presley and John Wayne.
“I actually enjoyed answering those names but at some point I had to discard them and pick a name that’s culturally relevant to me. Then I went back to the root and started answering Uwadiegwu,” he added.
Source: DailyPost
