How Nigerian Entrepreneur Sam Ojei Built a Multi-Million Dollar Workspace in Nigeria

Nigerian entrepreneur Sam Ojei is the founder of the largest workspace in Nigeria, Workcity. He is an alumnus of Harvard Business School where he studied Business Analytics.

Ojei created Workcity to serve as a co-working space for professionals in Nigeria. It is the largest so far in the country with 23 branches across Nigeria and Africa.

The young entrepreneur’s journey began in primary school where he ventured into photography at an early age. After pursuing his academic and career goals to a certain level he founded an agency business that helps student to process their visa to study in Canada.

Following the success of his first venture, Ojei started another business venture, an e-commerce company called Niiyo Nigeria.

Face2Face Africa shared that things were going well for Ojei until 2015. He saw a financial turbulence after he lost nearly $1 million in revenue from his business and all his efforts went down the drain.

“I lost everything into everything into investing in something new because then I just wanted to do everything,” Ojei told Founders Africa.

The entrepreneur didn’t remain on the ground despite his loss. He picked up the pieces and started all over with new business strategies. He began his students recruiting business again, and after a while, he hired 10 sales agents.

A month after restarting his business, Ojei had earned enough to recover his investment and pay an extra month for his rent.

“All these were due to hard work,” he told Founders Africa. “I had no friends then, just myself alone, home to office and back, I get home around 9-10 pm and I’m back in the office the next morning by 8-9am.”

Ojei was not only able to save enough to get his own workplace, but enough to own the largest co-working space in Nigeria. He said, “building Workcity is like me giving back like I’m producing my experience, that’s what Workcity is all about.”

According to the company’s website, “Workcity is a community that brings startups and entrepreneurs together to collaborate, inspire innovation and harness various skills that are geared towards economic growth and community development. It is a space full of fun, energy and where people achieve more.”

Ojei’s business focus is to build something positive for young people and to promote collaboration and innovation in his community.