Mr. Alexander Amosu is an erudite businessman and designer of some of the world’s most expensive luxury products.
In case you haven’t noticed, his last name is Amosu and that is a Nigerian name. He is a Yoruba from Abeokuta, 34 years old. “My father is from Abeokuta,” he tells me in a thick British accent, “and my mother is from Ikorodu.” He was born in London and has never been to those places before. His last visit to Nigeria was in 2008 during the TV Reality Show, Dragon’s Den, which he had a stake in. This was after a 16-year absence.
“I am coming home to establish. I need to connect with Nigerians,” he says excitedly, but his tone almost immediately falls. “There are a lot of successful Nigerians in the UK that can’t come to Nigeria,” he states matter-of-factly. “They say that there are a lot of bad things happening in Nigeria; that there are armed robbers, kidnappers and that there’s no safety here. They hear all the negative things people are telling us for us not to home back but I believe that the more we come back home with the exposure, experience and wealth, we have garnered from around the world, the more we’ll be able to make Nigeria better.” Picking up enthusiasm again, he continues: “I am coming because I want to celebrate the fact that I am successful all over the world and I am selling to international stars and I want Nigerians to be able to say that this is one of their own.”
“So when I meet people in the UK and they tell me that Nigerians are fraudsters, I will tell them No! We don’t do fraud; we are doing successful things. Go and check for my name in the Guinness Book Of World Records. Do you see any fraud there?
Nigerians are doing successful things all over the world and we have to start coming back home. I am hoping that if I am here, people would say that if Alexander Amosu can be there, then I too can be there. Why would Nigeria not be like or even better than London?” he asks.
Coming from a very humble beginning, Alexander was brought up by his grandmother who couldn’t afford the luxuries that a youth needed to “belong” with. So he got his first job at 12 as a paper delivery boy in his neighbourhood and earned 10pounds a week. By the time he got enough money to buy himself a NIKE trainers and wear it to school, he was overwhelmed by the kind of attention he received and thus started a quest to make more money. He ventured into event organizing in school and diversify into various jobs. He had a cleaning company by 19 years which he sold at age 24 when he accidentally stumbled on ringtone creation. By 25, he made his first million. And from then on there’s no stopping him.
Alexander was awarded Young Entrepreneur of The Year at the Institute of Directors by Black Enterprise Awards 2002, Africa’s Best Award at the GAB Awards 2003, also receiving London African CaribbeanEntrepreneurs Award 2004. For a second year in a row, Mr. Alexander Amosu is on the top Britain’s 100 most influential black Britons. He is now in Guinness World Records books for creating the world most expensive suit. He was also awarded with the honorary degree of Doctor of Business Administration by his old university London Metropolitan University. He is also interested in Charities and is the first person to create a Free Ringtones Day and donated the proceeds from over 75, 000 orders in one day to the Teenage Cancer Trust.
