The Chief Executive Officer of Dexterity Plus Events Styling and Decoration, Mr Favour Essang has revealed that his passion for event decorations and styling was developed from watching his mother at a young age.

Making this disclosure during an interview on “Meet your African CEO”, an inspiring programme about African entrepreneurs on CEOAfrica Online Television, Mr Essang noted that decorations has been a part of him since childhood as he grew up watching his mother decorate their church altar every Sunday.

He stated that when the family eventually left the church, he stayed back to continue decorating the church in place of his mother. “When my family left the church, I was left behind after so many pleas to continue with the decorations in my mum’s place,” he said.

 According to Mr Essang, it was while he was involved in decorating the church altar that opportunity to decorate events like; birthdays and weddings came knocking at his door. “While decorating the church altar, I started receiving calls to decorate events at different places. Eventually, as a result of the job demand, I realised that I needed assistance, so I called up a few people and organised some trainings in decorations.”

Still speaking about his journey to building his decoration organisation, Mr Essang noted that it had not been easy. He said “There were times I would make mistakes and I will go to my mum who would encourage me to keep on trying. Of course I kept on trying and here we are today.”  

The young entrepreneur also disclosed that the inspiration behind the name ‘Dexterity Plus’ was God and the people working with him then. He said “The God factor in my business cannot be over emphasised. At some point, I got overwhelmed by the demands of simultaneously running my studies and my business. Then I came about the name ‘Dexterity’ when I organised my first decoration workshop to train friends.”

Mr Essang admitted that when the decoration workshop started, he got discouraged and frustrated because after distributing thousands of handbills and banners, only eight people turned up for the first workshop he organised.

He noted that his mother however continued to encourage him not to lose sight of his vision and he kept on trying until subsequent workshops he organised witnessed high turn-out rate of about 160 participants.

He further disclosed that some other challenges he faced while building up his business was the inability of his father to accept his dream to go into decorations, being robbed, duped and battered at different points in time.

Mr Essang narrated “My father wanted me to be a medical doctor, as such, he was disappointed because I wanted to go into decorations. So, he subsequently sent me packing from the house and refused to pay my school fees all through my university education. I ended up sleeping in the church for two months because I didn’t have where to go. It was church members that eventually came to my aid.

“Also, I have been robbed, battered and duped several times. There was a time I was called for a job in another state, I got duped and I had to beg for transport fare to return to Ibadan. It has really been challenging, but God has always been on my side.”

Speaking about his evaluation of success, Mr Essang stated that he measures success in the number of lives he has been able to affect and the number of people he has been able to impact; not the amount of money he makes. He said “In my evaluation, if you start measuring success by naira and kobo, then you are a failure.”

He advised those who wish to venture into any business to be focused, determined and consistent, adding the idea of moving from one business venture to another is not advisable. “Even if business is not moving fine or going as planned, instead of jumping from one business to another, try to stay focused on one and keep pushing. There is no business that is not viable, it depends on your commitment to the business,” he admonished.