Profile of a Visionaire

Sim Shagaya is a Nigerian entrepreneur and business mogul. He is the founder and C.E.O of one of West Africa's largest electronic commerce website - Konga.com and he is also the executive chairman of DealDey, a daily deal website.

In 2014, he was named in Forbes' list of "10 Most Powerful Men InAfrica".

• His Career

Prior to the establishment ofDealDey and Konga.com, Sim worked as a banker in South Africa under RandMerchant Bank. He later moved to Nigeria where he became Google's head for Africa and went on to found a Lagos-based billboard advertising business called E-Motion in November 2005. He cites Hakeem Bello-Osagie as the "biggest impact" in his career.

• Entrepreneurship

Before Sim started DealDey andKonga.com, he created several websites like Alarena, Jobclan, Gbogbo and iNollyWood which were relatively unsuccessful.

In March 2011, DealDey was launched after he convinced the board of the billboard company he owned to invest in DealDey.

In 2012, he founded Konga.com with seed capital from Swedish investment firm - Kinnevik. According Sim Shagaya, the primary aim of Konga.com is to “aggregate the youngest and fastest-growing market that was dispersed, under-served and that traditional retailers were simply failing toreach”.

Simdul Shagaya - Biznextafrica.com review

We found some intriguing points about our outstanding business owners and would like to share their untold story.

• Tenacity

The very first is his tenacity. The number of ideas he initiated before Konga and Dealdey that were unsuccessful were many but he didn’t throw in the towel. This reflects a true entrepreneur similar to Donald trump, Steve Jobs and the likes.

• Funding

Secondly is knowing that every great business needs to understand funding and how to raise funds effectively for the growth of their business.

In March 2011, DealDey was launched after he convinced the board of the billboard company he owned to invest DealDey. On 2012, he foundedKonga.com with a capital from Swedish investment firm Kinnevik”

• Coining a niche

According Sim Shagaya, the primary aim of Konga.com is to “aggregate the youngest and fastest growing market that was dispersed, under-served and that traditional retailers were simply failing to reach”.

• Partnership

One of our team members had an earlier conversation with Simdul during one of his seminars and was intrigued by his calm and readiness to show younger entrepreneurs the path to success. He emphasized on the importance of partnership in business ownership, which often goes hand in hand with funding and venture capital or angel investment.

@biznextafrica is certain Simdul will surely make the top 10 on the “Forbes richest” sooner than expected, judging by his business acumen and tenacity.