Pascal Dosey, who passed away on April 8th at the age of 85, lived an incredible life in the light of innovation and the shadows of war.
He could see the future and with the establishment of Diamond Bank, he changed Nigerian banks forever.
Two ideas were the pillars of his wealth.
The first was born on the day Dosey travelled to Lagos on a rough, dusty road that continued from a village that grew up in eastern Nigeria. He saw thousands of traders looking over their shoulders with a ton of cash on their way to buy their merchandise in Lagos. They took a great risk among many burglars and robbers.
Dorsey wondered if he could send money in a safer way, and he began considering bringing electronic transfers to Nigeria.
As a result, Diamond Bank was established in 1991.
It is a popular name now and may have changed Nigerian banks forever, but it wasn't easy to get off the ground. In the conservative Nigerian market, most companies saw banks under three years as merely planes overnight. The staff at the small bank who set up the bank spent most of the day trying to convince them to deposit their money into the business.
It all began in a small, three-story office on Victoria Island in Lagos, with 20 staff and only $5 million in cash. Diamond Bank has finally shaken up early skepticism to serve its 16 million customers.
In 2019, Access Bank brokered a $235 million merger to set up Africa's largest bank with 29 million clients. The deal left his son Uzoma Dozzy as CEO. He currently leads Sparkle, a digital banking venture.
Telecom boom
He also played a major role in revealing one of West Africa's largest and most lucrative markets. In 1998, South African mobile phone costume MTN approached Dozie to find investors in a new network in West Africa. Dosey set out on a massive journey from Nigeria to London and the US to sell the idea of ​​investing in a new network. Almost everything turned him down and cast a rare self-doubt in his heart.
“It was a very disappointing. You have a good project and you've been turned down. You start to question yourself and your own decisions.”
Dorsey was able to raise only 20% of the capital it needed. Somehow, MTN was able to pull the rest up from the other sources.
The rest is history. By 2016, MTN had 60 million subscribers in Nigeria alone.
“Now I come across the same investor who says they wanted to invest when they asked them. I wish I had done it myself! He said a few years later.
On May 16, 2001, he made his first call on the MTN Network, a historic moment in Nigeria's communications journey.
Dosey served as chairman of MTN Nigeria from 2001 to 2019, withdrawing following the company's listing on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
“A pioneer, politician and titan of industry, Dozie played a pivotal role in the emergence of mobile phones in Nigeria and shaping the Nigerian MTN Nigeria narrative. He brought in insights, experience and leadership when bold vision was essential.”
Victory and tragedy
Pascal Dozie was born on April 9, 1939, the son of a court interpreter near Owerri, Imo state, eastern Nigeria. He was a traditional upbringing.
“We didn't have many facilities and we set up villages. If you're hungry, they'll feed you. If you catch your neighbor doing something wrong with you, they'll punish you.
This discipline and culture of his people never left him. Igbo culture was like a turtle shell for Dozzy. For years, for millions of people in the bright lights of Lagos, he often returned to the village, telling stories, and sang Igbo songs to his children by the fireplace.
In the early days of Nigeria's hopeful independence, in the 1960s, the youngest and brightest people from the village were sent abroad, ready to help their country build a better future for their studies.
Dozzy was one of them. He won a scholarship to study economics at the London School of Economics. There, young Dozzy, studying money supply and economic growth, sat in the same class as the sloppy, long-haired British man, obsessed with muddy seas and Howling Wolf. It was Mick Jagger who gave up on rn'b's LSE in the Rolling Stones.
“I thought Mick was different,” Dosey smiled at his trademark deadpan wit. “We were very conservative and he had long hair. As an African from Nigeria, we didn't understand him. It was against grain for me. In the village you grew up in, you just play music if you don't do anything else.”
Young Dorsey had a lot to do when he graduated with a Masters degree in Administration from the City University of London. First he joined many African alumni who work at NEDO's Economic Planning Forum in London.
The house was pulled hard that year, but the pain was strong.
The Separatist Biafran War broke out in 1967 and was enraged until 1970. Dosey's family was caught in the middle. The pain in Dosey's face was a sharp thing he talked about about his time. There were 100,000 military casualties, and up to 2 million people died from starvation.
“It was a very traumatic time for us. The bombs were everywhere and you didn't know what the truth was. People were avoided everywhere.
Dozie got a job in Uganda and was waiting for peace and return. He finally regained it in September 1971, caring for his mother, suffering from illness.
When he returned to Lagos, he founded his first business, the African Development Consulting Group.
From there he made contact information and eventually became one of the biggest names of Nigerian retail banks.
Wisdom and wisdom of the creator of wealth
Dosey was a gentle-talked-out man who wasn't afraid to speak his heart. He believed that Nigeria could be a goldmine for entrepreneurs. If only the country could fix that huge infrastructure gap and take charge of government from business.
“This is the only country in the world where people ask what kind of business you are, and the response is politics!”
I will never forget the afternoon I met a grand old man in business in West Africa.
We ran across Lagos Street, across the pothole, and swinging past the old abused car. Two times we were pulled by the traffic police. Traffic police jabs their fingers and unleashed a tillard of language strong enough to make experienced journalists blush.
I gave the story a compliment when I waved Dorsey's hand on my way to the office. He said with a smile: “Welcome to Lagos, the only city in the world to exercise all faculties known to others!”
They both laughed. It was the wit and wisdom of one of the great creators of Nigeria's wealth.
Richer and more glamorous billionaires will emerge from Nigeria. But there are few things that are erudite, wise and dignified.
