Recently, some media personalities were taken on a full day tour around the newly unveiled Ojaja Mall in Ogombo, Lagos. Ojaja Mall is part of the legacies of the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, in commerce which is spearheaded by his younger sister, Princess Adebimpe Ogunwusi, the Managing Director, CEO of Ojaja Mall Lagos.

In this interview with Saturday Sun, Princess Adebimpe Ogunwusi shares interesting moments growing up as Kabiyesi’s sister and what the Ojaja brand enterprise stands for.

As the woman at the helm of affairs of this mall, this huge establishment, how hard was it to accomplish this?

With the grace of Almighty God, I started with my team of engineers. It was a great team effort from mechanical engineers, structural engineers, electrical engineers, architects and completely by the power of God Almighty, we succeeded in delivering.

My engineers, unfortunately, are not here today. I’m going to mention their names. The head of the team is Timothy. After Timothy I have Ayo. I have Yinka. After Yinka, I have Kayode and the architect is Kamal. So I have six-man team of engineers. We were the ones that put this structure together to the glory of God.

We did this in two and half years. So, this building, with the suites, is sitting on an 18,000 square meters of land. It’s a beautiful structure, but where will I start from? We were able to accomplish this project with prayers, dedication and hard work. I will say to you, I’m a prophetess as well.

So, I bring in my church here on Sundays and on Fridays. On Fridays, we normally have a video service here and on Sunday, there is a physical Sunday service. So, I dedicated my life to God Almighty and I believe all went well with his grace. God is the one that has helped me so far and with the encouragement of Kabiyesi Adeyeye Enitan Oguwusi.

I’m going to say, it’s a non-stop work. Even at night, he will call, ask me how far with the project and how things are going. When the constructions were going on, he only visited like two or three times. So most of our communications were through videos, send him pictures, and everything. Then he will do his corrections on the phone and send back.

What actually inspired this project? How did it all start for the Ooni to create something this big and enterprising?

Kabiyesi said he has the vision for helping people, giving people jobs, creating job opportunities. So he’s like, he’s been doing this in Ife. We have Ojaja More in Ife. We have Ojaja Park in Akure. We are in Osogbo as well.

So, this will be the fourth. But to the glory of God, The Ojaja Mall in Lagos is the head office of Ojaja Pan-Africa. That’s where his (Ooni) own office is. So, and that’s the mother of all Ojaja enterprises. We have 295 shops in total here in Lagos.

Apart from this, we have 33 rooms and we have three one-bedroom maisonettes in the Ojaja Suites wing.

The suite is looking all new and classy, but after a while it might start losing its spark like other suites and hotels in Nigeria because of lack of maintenance. What is your sustainability plan?

I mentioned earlier that I am Kabiyesi’s project director and I also do maintenance. Anywhere I build with my team, I also stay there to maintain it.

I lived abroad. I lived in Canada for nine years before Kabiyesi asked me to come back home to come and head this project. Actually, I didn’t study engineering. I studied banking and finance.

So, I studied banking and finance, but my passion lies in project management, real estate, construction because Kabiyesi was into these before he became the king. So, he groomed me into doing this. It took much training for me to be able to stay on top of the jobs I do.

Are these low prices In Ojaja Mall aimed to draw customers now, and much later you go up? How do you intend to maintain the prices?

Okay, now let me talk about Kabiyesi here again. Kabiyesi, if you know him, is a giver. So, it’s business. Even myself I tell him that “Baba, we cannot be giving money out all the time. He’ll just tell me to go and sit down. So, it’s not all about making money. Yes, we will make money. Yes, some prices may change if the margin is too much but it’s about growing people, helping people and establishing a place that improves enterprise.

Like I said earlier on, I’m a prophetess and I know the God I’m serving. I believe and have strong faith that we can maintain a certain standard and people will definitely come to patronise us, because I know the God I serve. More so, I know the structural work we put in here. So, go anywhere in Lagos or anywhere even in Nigeria, you will not find this kind of edifice we put in here.

Is it our framework? Is it the high-end we use? Is it the blocks, the cement? Everything. We put our stakes high and beyond. I have the videos on my phone from day one till now. So, it’s not about bringing the price down to attract people. No, it’s about building people. It’s about creating wealth. It’s about creating wealth and building people.

As a woman, have you ever seen the challenges as something that would have been easier if you were a man?

No, I see myself as a man. I don’t see myself as a woman. Once I take it to God, I believe I can do it. I’m a very strong-willed person. I believe whatever a man can do, I can do better. Even my engineers, while building this place, they will say “Mama…” Everybody calls me mama, especially the boys. So they will say, “you can’t climb. You can’t. But I’ll say as long as you can do it, I will do it.” So that is why most of the time I’m in trousers.

Then, in terms of the building and design, this Ojaja Mall in Ogombo, Lagos is different from other ones we have in other parts of the South-West.

You and Kabiyesi are siblings. Is he your senior or junior? How was growing up with His Majesty before he became the king?

He is my senior. He is the second to the last in our family, and I am the last born. Life, while growing up with Kabiyesi back in the days, was interesting. It was just like growing up like any other family. I used to be a very naughty girl. Naughty as in, I don’t agree with what he says or with any of my elder siblings.

Were you a tomboy while growing up?

I was not a tomboy but what I am asked not to do is what I will do. Let me use the word stubborn. I am a very strong-willed and strong-headed like Nigerians will say. I believe what a man can do, I can do better. Growing up with Kabiyesi, before he became the king, we used to fight a lot as children. One of the funny fights we had was one time my dad brought back a hamper during Christmas. My dad was a broadcaster. He retired from OSBC in Osogbo, Osun State. It started as WNTV, WNTS at Ibadan. That was before it became NTA. So my dad brought home the hamper and there was a box of cornflakes inside. My mum and dad had taken from the cornflakes and asked us, the two last born, to share the remaining cornflakes and he took a bigger share and that was how fight started.

We fought over food. We fought over who would wash the pot or who would sweep. We had a normal childhood. We were not brought up the princess or prince’s way. My mother did not like that. It was when my mother died that all these princess and prince protocols started.

How do you give back to the community?

We employ a lot of people. Even with the shop owners, we have like 1,000 workers working here. That is what Kabiyesi loves to do. He loves to create jobs, job opportunities, he loves to employ people, he loves to make people happy, because he believes in promoting Nigeria. Like I said, job opportunities, promoting carpenters, promoting tilers, plumbers. All the chairs, most of the interior decoration, furniture, all these art works, they are all made in Nigeria. Even our picture frame, everything.

While taking us on the tour, you mentioned that a few significant things happened while this place was still under construction. Can you share some of those?

I don’t know where to start from, but I’ll give all praises to God Almighty, the giver of life.

I am happy to let you know that while we were constructing this place, we had no record of any death. No injuries, no death, we were all fine and well to the glory of God. God is using us to do a lot this in Lagos. It’s a very beautiful edifice. It’s a structural work and we bless God for granting us the miracle.

We want to let everybody know that we have 295 shops here. We have three cinemas here. We have Ojaja Drinks which are Ojaja Cola and Ojaja Orange. We have Ojaja Supermarket, which is Ojaja More in here. We have Ojaja Lounge and Bar in here. We have Ojaja Suites in here. We have Ojaja AI Centre in here, we have Ojaja Waters in here. We have Ojaja Kiddies Park, we have Ojaja Gym.

We have a lot of what I cannot just remember right now. And I’ll say to you that this place is the Lord’s doing and it’s marvellous in our sight. And I’ll give all glory to God Almighty. I’ve said that earlier and I’m going to say it again. All kudos to Kabiyesi Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi. If not for God and him, this cannot happen.

So, please, what’s the story behind the Ojaja brand?

Ojaja Pan-Africa is the mother of all the Ojaja enterprise and conglomerates that I’ve talked about. And let me just talk about the supermarket which is the Ojaja More.

The story behind the name of our supermarket, Ojaja More was created by Kabiyesi. There is this song growing up, “the more we are together, together, together. The more we are together, the happier we shall be.” So, that’s where the story behind the Ojaja More came from. That’s Ojaja More. So, the more we are together, the happier we shall be.

Kabiyesi’s motive is to have this all over the Sout-West right now and it’s going to be all over the world. Very soon, we’ll be moving to Ghana, Cameroon, and Dubai.

What does the word Ojaja mean?

It is a family name. The first king from our ruling house that was Ojaja reigned about 100 years ago. So Kabiyesi now is the second Ojaja. And that’s why he is called Ojaja II, that is Ojaja the Second. Ojaja is a family name, a compound name in the Ogunwusi ruling family.

So what do you think are the challenges that you face so far operating a mall like this?

It’s 24 hours of work. Like myself and my team, we do work for 24 hours. It’s a Monday to Sunday thing. And on Sunday, like I said earlier on, we offer our Sunday service and prayers here because without God Almighty we can’t achieve this.

We pray through and put in a lot of work through it. Working with Kabiyesi is not for a lazy person. If you are lazy, you cannot work with him.

So, you have to be on your toes. He’s my brother, but I don’t relate with him as my brother. He’s my father, my king and my boss. Yes, sometimes I see him as my father.

He’s my best friend. Sometimes I see him like that, but when I am working, no, I don’t see him like my father. I don’t see him like my brother. I don’t see him like my king. I see him as my chairman because he’s the chairman of Ojaja Pan-Africa Limited.

How is the economic situation in Nigeria affecting the running of the establishment?

The fuel consumption is one of the major challenges. We have to run 24 hours of uninterrupted power supply. Our generators are synchronized. We have a 500 KVA and a 600 and 50kVA synchronized generators. Then we are on Band A and with the EKEDC. So, we are guaranteed 18 hours of light from EKEDC every day. So, the rest we are on generator.

Where is the next destination of Ojaja Mall?

That’s in Arepo. That’s beside The Punch newspaper in Arepo, Ogun State. But we’ve not started. We’re moving there. We’re at Ibeju Lekki right now beside Dangote Refinery.

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