John Olajide, a Texan millionaire born in Nigeria, came full circle at the Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) US-Africa Business Summit in Dallas. The son of Unilever distributors from self-described “very humble beginnings” in the Lagos slum of Ajegunle has emerged in recent years both as an indispensable diaspora leader in the US and a major investor on the continent.
After making his fortune as a healthcare pioneer, the CCA’s first-ever African-born leader looks to bridge the gap between the United States and his continent. Olajide credits his entrepreneurial upbringing, US education and business-friendly Texas for his achievements. In a state that is home to the largest and most prosperous African diaspora, the tech leader stands out as an American success story.
“In a lot of ways, I think I humbly embody what we’re trying to do as far as US-Africa is concerned,” Olajide tells The Africa Report. “I have successful businesses in the US, successful businesses on the African continent, and I want to make sure that I’m able to help be a bridge and translate, because there are things that African say that land a certain way in the US, there are things that Americans say that land a certain way in Africa. In some ways I’m fluent on both sides.”
HEALTH MEETS TECH
Olajide’s American odyssey began in the early 2000s during his time studying telecommunications engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas. With health spending accounting for some 17% of US GDP, Olajide quickly saw the need for creative solutions to try to rein in costs. At the same time the Internet was blowing up all around UT Dallas in the famed Richardson Telecom Corridor, home to hundreds of tech companies including AT&T, Verizon and Texas Instruments.
Combining the two made perfect sense for Olajide, who was first introduced to home healthcare during a visit to his aunt. Soon he was consulting for home healthcare organizations.
“I already had it in my subconscious that I wanted to do something that straddled healthcare and technology,” he says. “Technology gives you rapid growth. Healthcare gives you a large addressable market.”
Olajide launched Axxess as a consultancy to the home health industry in 2007. Today the Dallas-based software company is a recognized global leader in the field, relied on by more than 9,000 organizations serving some 5 million patients worldwide.
TEXAS VALUES
The Nigerian businessman points to the “Dallas DNA” for helping make his dreams a reality. Like many diasporans, he found a uniquely welcoming presence in his adoptive state of Texas, which continues to lead the nation in annual job creation. Africans in turn have flocked to the Lone Star State, which now leads the country with more than 225,000 African-born residents, or 12% of the national total.
Prior to heading the CCA, Olajide cut his teeth in regional business development. In 2020, he served as the youngest-ever chairman of the Dallas Regional Chamber of Commerce board, one of the largest chambers in the country with 3,000 member companies and organizations employing some 600,000 people in a 12-county area. He points out that unlike big cities on the East and West coasts, “there’s no reason for a city as successful and vibrant as Dallas to exist”. Land-locked without a major waterway, “there is something in the DNA of this community”, he says.
“What spurred or powered the prosperity in the city is the most important resource for prosperity, and that is human potential,” Olajide says. “Without a doubt, it’s a welcoming business environment, where it doesn’t matter what your last name is or what part of the world, you’re from, if you raise your hand and you have a ‘can-do’ attitude and get things done, you will prosper here.”
NIGERIAN CONNECTION
Even as he was busy building his US business, Olajide stayed in touch with his homeland through regular trips to Lagos and his country home. As he got richer, so did his giving. Soon, however, he decided to apply his entrepreneurial spirit to the challenges facing Africa. Convinced that “business is a force for good”, Olajide launched the Cavista Holdings investment vehicle in 2019.
“Candidly, it got to the point where I realized that philanthropy wasn’t going to move the needle as far as the types of outcomes that I wanted to see,” he tells The Africa Report.
“The three reasons I’m interested in Nigeria, in the African continent broadly, is: jobs, jobs, jobs,” he says. “Let’s create more jobs and more opportunities for people.”
Today the Cavista umbrella covers a range of investments including in technology, agriculture and hospitality. Cavista Tech, Olajide says, is the largest employer of software engineers in Nigeria.
Agbeyewa Farms spans 6,000 hectares (15,000 acres) in Ekiti State. Olajide hopes to eventually process its cassava all through the value chain.
Glocient Hospitality operates Ikogosi Warms Springs and Conference Centre between Lagos and Abuja, voted the best holiday resort in Nigeria in 2023 by Hotel Managers Conference and Awards. Cavista plans to expand its hospitality investments to Botswana this year.
“We’re evaluating different opportunities across the country now,” Olajide says. “We want to build a world-class hospitality brand in that space, and all over the African continent eventually.”
LEVERAGING THE DIASPORA
While local Nigerians visit Ikogosi year-round for its unique confluence of warm and cold springs tucked away in the lush forest of Ikogosi-Ekiti, Olajide says diaspora customers made up the bulk of last year’s Christmas holiday. It’s a testament to the growing power of the African community living abroad, notably in the United States where an estimated 400,000 to 500,000 citizens and legal residents were born in Nigeria.
Olajide has long been a leader in the diaspora, sponsoring cultural exchanges while cultivating ties to political leaders on both sides of the aisle. “I learned very quickly that they thought Africa was important to the US. But guess what? There wasn’t any thoughtful, intentional, methodical … strategy about how to engage with Africa,” he says. “So, I said, we need to figure out a way to rally people together to make sure there’s more thoughtful engagement.”
Soon after, President Joe Biden hosted the US-Africa Leaders’ Summit in December 2022 and announced the creation of an advisory council on diaspora engagement. Meanwhile, African nations are also paying more attention to their diasporas.
Once denigrated as political exiles or economic migrants contributing to “brain drain” on the continent, diasporans are now prized for their remittances and,
increasingly, as a source of human capital and investment. Olajide’s native Nigeria has been leading the charge on that front with this year’s launch of a $10bn diaspora fund to raise foreign capital.
Olajide hopes to build on those dynamics as the new chairman of the CCA, the only national US business organization uniquely focused on Africa. In January he replaced Jeffrey Sturchio, who had served in the role since April 2016. “This is the beginning of a wave of diaspora-structured investments all over the African continent,” he says.
For the past several months he has been working on a strategic plan to grow CCA membership. It is expected to be finalized by the end of this month. “We’re growing CCA,” he says. “All the smart businesses or smart money doing business on the African continent should be a member of CCA.”
By Julian Pecquet – The Africa Report (Diaspora Journeys)
Leave a Reply