Nollywood actress Iyabo Ojo, who has risen to become one of Nigeria’s most successful actresses, is also one of the latest celebrity landladies.
In a recent interview with Independent Newspaper, the single mother of two shares her success story,
“I have been learning the art of doing business, making money, and saving over the years. I have been in the industry for 22 years. Yes, it affected my business. A lot of the time, people say you do a lot of businesses, you are a jack of all trade and master of none, but in Nigeria, you have to be a jack of all trade and a master of all.”
Explaining how she was able to acquire enough wealth to buy off such a multi-million naira house, the self-acclaimed Tiktok queen says, “I had already been saving for my house even before the lockdown. The house is not something I just woke up one morning and bought. I had been saving, a lot of people don’t know, I had been saving. I also saved for my children’s school fees ahead. It is easy for me to do these things because I plan for them. When my kids were in primary school, I was saving for their secondary school. When they were in secondary school, I was saving for their university both abroad and in Nigeria. They are almost done with their university, and I am already saving for their Masters, and it is the same way that I had been saving for the house I eventually acquired. So, it wasn’t yesterday’s efforts. It was just like when I started my business. When I started my first shop, I eventually closed it down because I couldn’t manage it alone. So, in life, as you pursue, you will fall, but the beauty is that you have to learn how to rise again. And then you don’t blame anybody. When you fail, you are learning; try to keep it private. When it is right, the world would see. Many young girls who also do business and acting in my industry do it because we told them that they couldn’t survive in an industry where the money is small, do other businesses. For me, with the help of other platforms, I have been able to survive. what the platforms need is to know that you have the credibility to pay back.”
Iyabo Ojo also said a prayer for her colleagues who are yet to own their own houses, “As a new landlady, it is my desire and dream to see a lot of young people get their property.”
