Prior to COVID-19 pandemic, Wakanow could be described as a struggling business before you came on board. Between 2019 and now, what would you say you have been able to do?
Prior to the time I came on board of this company, Wakanow was generally a struggling and non-profitable venture; it wasn’t paying salaries but we turned it around. By the end of last quarter of 2019, shortly before the COVID-19, we hit our first monthly profitability. And when COVID-19 happened, there was nothing we could do, we spent the period rebuilding the entire business, changing structures.
So, when the pandemic ended in August 2020, this company became profitable again and we became self-funding since September 2020 till now. Between 2021 and 2020 compared, we grew up by 158 per cent in revenue, increasing the company’s market share. This company became number six in the country in terms of market share and now, we are back to number one, turning Wakanow around and making sure that our workers are satisfied. We are now able to pay salaries as when do.
Before my arrival in 2019, the employees were largely unsatisfied and some of them left. Today, majority of them that left are willing to come back just because of the environment that we have created, the environment where the young people thrive, where job seekers can thrive and where young people can think and apply themselves.
We have created environment where our employees are coming to work on staff bus and we give them breakfast. The ones that work on shift, we give them dinner in the office. We created these experiences so that we can alleviate the challenges that are experienced around this world. And we can make sure that when they come here, we can get the best out of them.
Like I always say, the time residents spent on the traffic in Lagos takes away the productivity we can get from them at work. To make them more productive, we have to provide them with these value services. For those on the field, we have been able to do a lot to tackle their challenges and this would allow us to get people who would give more and their best to the company.
In December, we paid our staff bonus. We paid 13th and even 14th months. That means we paid three months salaries in one month. That speaks volume of the efficacy of the business we built post-2019 and what the turnaround has been for a business that owed nine months salaries prior to 2019. We have been able to turn that story around and create a very large travel company in West Africa.
Now, we have expanded our business from Nigeria to Ghana, Serra-Leone and Gambia. We opened in the United Kingdom (UK), US and Dubai. That speaks of the formidable business that is resilient and has been able to weather the storm even during the pandemic. That’s what we have been able to do.
COVID-19 affected a number of businesses in the world, Nigeria not spared. How did it affect Wakanow?
It was a mix for us. For six months during the COVID-19 pandemic, there were little or no sales. In fact, we had more refunds than sales. The airliners were not going and the people were collecting their money back. So, we had more bills than any inflow.
It has positive and negative impact on our business. You know that people died and some of our customers and relatives died during the pandemic, but on the positive, we used that downside to rebuild our business, the back end of our business. We rebuild our customer interface. We spent that downtime working internally.
We didn’t go to sleep; we didn’t wallow in pain, instead we got up and rebuilt the entire business. Like I said, supermarkets don’t have time to arrange their shops if they have to work 24 hours nonstop. This is because when they want to rearrange the shops, customers would come in and you can’t leave them unattended to while arranging your products and putting them where they would be for the next layers of customers.
COVID-19 allowed us that opportunity to rebuild from where we were as a struggling business to where we are today. I give kudos to the people that worked with me during the time because we put in everything, but we couldn’t get full pay because the company wasn’t making money. So, while everybody was shouting lockdown and others were complaining, we were down to the ass working out structure and getting the work done. When the COVID-19 ended, we were ready to hit the market. That speaks of our success story not to give up when things are bad, rather use it as a weapon. But don’t get me wrong; the devastation the pandemic caused our industry was huge. Some companies couldn’t survive, but we were lucky to survive COVID-19. The revenue was zero at the moment.
As a new driver coming to resuscitate a struggling business, you would have given them unwavering assurances of a better business. How did you manage the pressure to deliver on your promise as well as dealing with the huge challenges you met on the ground?
My name is ‘Bayo Lion.’ Let’s start from that. I think it is also important we start from where I came from. I used to be a finance executive of Amazon. I used to lead the entire business of Amazon and Amazon is over $80 billion in America. My job was to innovate on solution that will bring about cost savings and optimisation for growth, among others. I have an amazing life.
When they called me to come, I jumped at it and everybody said why? Number one, I believe it’s only Africans that can build Africa. Some of my colleagues are social media commentators and they write comments on social media on how Nigeria is bad, but I would tell them that it’s only we that can transform Africa with all the experiences we have gathered working abroad.
I believe it’s the time to bring those things back and use them to develop our nation. So, when I found the opportunity to work with a company like Wakanow, with the reputation it has, I jumped at it. I jumped into the file and understood the complexities that things were not working out fine and I needed to work hard to turn them around.
There is no greatness in fighting a battle everybody thinks you are going to win. Greatness comes from fighting battle that everybody thinks you are going to lose. All that greatness, I understand, is when you are punching the class higher than you, that’s where greatness comes from. That was what I did and it paid off.
You jumped at the offer when the opportunity came calling. Did you visit the company to assess the level of work to be done before accepting the offer?
I tell this funny story. I came to visit the company way back in 2019 before I accepted the offer. When I visited, I saw people sitting all over the place, there were paper cabinets everywhere. It was a true mess but I fell in love with it. Everybody said I was mad. It was madness really. But I saw a business that has been built by the founders and they have good vision. I also saw what they lacked.
I saw more than what a number or finance would tell me and I said to myself that this is an opportunity for me to prove what we can make out of this organisation, a responsible organisation that pays salary on time, where the leaders talk to their own people, where we work together for common goal and not boss-slaves or master-slave relationship. That’s the business we created.
Again, I said to myself that I can be a little fish in this big pond (US) or I can actually come here and make a change in my country for my countrymen, where we can create employment, expand business and create employment across Africa. So, I jumped at that and that was why I came and that’s why I am here.
When people ask if I feel any pressure, I answer that it is my game. I wanted the pressure because I believe that it’s only Africans that can rebuild Africa. And until we Africans start coming home to build Africa, we have no chance. This is the hope, that we will get better one day and that was why that tenacity to get these things right is there. I believe that was the only chance I was going to get.
Now, looking back, I believe that every opportunity you have, you use it well. We used it well. I come to the office by 5:30 am and I leave by 1a.m. I used to sleep four hours and come again to hit the Lagos Island and sometimes twice a week. I built a team; I recruited people from all over to join me in this race.
We hired and maintained the very best in the industry. Sometimes, I look for diamond in the rubbles. I need those people that are underestimated because I believe that in that underestimation lies the strength. I was underestimated when I came into the industry. Everybody said I was going to fail. Everybody said I didn’t understand what travel was, but I continued to tell them that I was a retailer.
I have worked for the largest retailers in the world, the Wal-Mart, Texas Instrument and Petsmart and Amazon. I have worked for all the largest guys. I know retails. I understand retails, I know what it’s all about and I said to them that travel is retail.
I was largely underestimated until they started losing their shares to us. We are number one today; we are not just the number one by sheer coincidence, but because everybody in this company works hard, and we will continue to work hard.
What is the core business of Wakanow?
Wakanow is a travel tech company. We do travel financing. Our core focus is travel. We have democratised travel. Before Wakanow, if you want to travel, you will go and sit before an agent and say you want to go to Dubai. The agent would tell you any price and you will pay because you don’t have a choice.
Today, if you get an agent and he calls price, you will go online and check Wakanow. You can see the prices and you can buy your ticket from Wakanow from the comfort of your home. You can buy your ticket via WhatsApp, facebook, Snapchat, Ticktok and others. Wakanow came and democratise travel. You now have access to flight, hotels, and businesses.
Again, we infused Africans’ way of buying things into technology because Africans like to talk or chat when buying. So, we opened up chat platform, we opened phone call centres. We have destination management and hotel reservation for those who want to travel, see families, go for site seeing, local tourism. We get the person cab as well as every other thing needed to take him or her around. We are mobility tech company focusing mainly on air travel.
It’s believed that your background would have certain degree of influence on this indomitable spirit that you have exhibited. Share your childhood experience with us?
I am from a very lucky root. I am supper lucky to be born by the mother that gave birth to me. My father was a police officer. He qualified as a lawyer in 1981 and died in 1982. I was the last born of six siblings – two boys four sisters.
My mother didn’t have money but she never complained. She made sure that we all went to the best public schools. My mother would say, ‘when you get education, your life will be different’. She encouraged us in all our talents. She never chose the course for me; she only said go to university and get degree. She sold her pick up van to send my elder brother to school. She sold a land at Oko-Oba to send my sister to school. Education was important to her that she gave education to us and said after education you are on your own.
I am lucky to be raised by that woman. I saw a woman that started a business and grew that business. She floated nursery and primary schools and grew that business. I taught in her school and I was a driver too. Whatever talents we had, my mum put them to use.
She taught me how to debate and prepped me for debates. And that knowledge was what shaped me. I saw my mother never gave up even when things were tough. I saw a woman very resilient and tenacious in achieving her goals. That was my background.
Did you at any point of your life miss the father figure?
You don’t miss what you don’t have. My mum was everything and covered up the gap. So, you don’t miss what you never had. Like I said, I lost my dad when I was two. I live for the memory of my mother. She died at 57, but she impacted lives before she died.
