Oshiobugie: OAP who quit paid employment to start cheap school for orphans

One of the hallmarks of great entrepreneurs is their ability to sustain their vision and remain resolute even in the face of setbacks.

This best describes Zion Oshiobugie, a former on-air personality who, at one-point in life, got sacked by his employer. After searching endlessly for another employment without finding any, he took up menial jobs to survive. Today, he has emerged from that setback to become a success story.

Oshiobugie, a serial entrepreneur, is the founder of Clever Minds Integrated Services, a consultancy firm he started in 2017 with a seed capital from Tony Elumelu foundation. His outfit provides educational training and other allied services. He was born in Kaduna State, Nigeria, to a middle-class family and as the second of five children, he lived a reasonably simple life until things went awry.

He recalls that while growing up, his father lost his job at one time and life became progressively hard, especially in light of the constant religious and political crisis that bedeviled Kaduna. His family had to move to Warri in Delta State while his mother became a petty trader, with each of his siblings taking up menial jobs to survive.

He says that in a bid to survive, he resorted to carrying cement blocks as a job while assisting his mother in hawking plantains.

While hoping for the better, things grew worse as he eventually became a houseboy for a distant relative. It was during this stormy moment that he made the resolve to become successful.

The graduate of electrical engineering, who wears a cap as a school proprietor and prides himself as a social edupreneur, explains that his love for education dates back to 2010 while working as a school teacher.

“I first conceived the idea of starting a school in 2010 while working as a teacher in a private secondary school. I noticed the lack of quality education in the riverine and poor communities in the Niger Delta. I was moved to tears and got stirred up to start a school that would provide the right education,” he says.

But he could not immediately implement the idea to start a school because of lack of funds.

“Not too long after, I lost my job as a teacher. It was suicidal for me because I felt all hope was lost. I looked at the job and typical of people in paid employment, I saw it as my only source of livelihood. I was depressed and frustrated.”

Interestingly, in 2014 he got a job as an on-air personality in a radio station, but that did not last long as his desire to solve a problem in the educational sector kept driving him.