In the sweltering, congested heart of Lagos Island, beneath the battered zinc rooftops and the ceaseless chorus of market traders, a boy once learned the value of a needle, a customer, and a shilling. That boy—Razak Akanni Okoya—would one day build an empire so sprawling it would reshape Nigeria’s manufacturing skyline and gild the edges of Lagos with real estate dreams.

But how did a child of Oke Popo, educated only through primary school and family toil, rise to become one of West Africa’s industrial titans.

This is not just a rags-to-riches tale. It’s a case study in calculated risk, shrewd reinvention, and a kind of ambition that no MBA can teach.

Genesis: From Spools to Sky-rises

Okoya’s first lessons weren’t taught in a classroom. They were absorbed in his father’s tailoring shop—lessons in grit, in negotiation, in eyeing profit margins the way a hunter eyes prey. By 17, he had saved £20; by 18, with £50 from his mother, he began importing goods from Japan.

He was still a teenager when he discovered a truth that would shape his entire destiny: “The salary earners rented homes. But the traders—those who dealt in goods—owned them.”

So he traded. Furiously. First in wristwatches, then shoes, then plastics, then almost everything a Nigerian household could need. At 21, he was a landlord. At 40, a tycoon. Today, he’s the founder of the Eleganza Group—a name that rings from Lagos to Lomé.

But behind the gates of his 30-bedroom Lekki mansion, beneath the chandeliered opulence, lies a mind that has long thrived on suspense—and survival.

Eleganza’s Hidden Power

In an era when many Nigerian magnates focused on importing luxury goods or chasing oil dollars, Okoya dug deeper into domestic manufacturing. It was unglamorous. It was unpredictable. And it was wildly lucrative.

Today, Eleganza’s six massive factories in Lagos churn out plastics, jewelry, electric fans, cutlery, and coolers—products found in homes across West Africa. With over 5,000 employees and growing.

The Eleganza industrial city in Ibeju-Lekki—thirty hectares of concrete ambition—stands as a defiant answer to anyone who believes local manufacturing is dead.

Land, Power, and Lagos Real Estate

But Okoya didn’t just want to build products. He wanted to build the land itself.

RAO Property Investment, his real estate arm, is now a dominant force in high-end housing. The crown jewel: Oluwa Ni Shola Estate, a gated fantasyland of Italian marble, imported elevators, private cinemas, and tennis courts, where Rolls-Royces idle beneath chandeliers and foreign diplomats sip tea at dusk.

What They Don’t Teach in School

Okoya has never been shy about his lack of formal education. But he has used it, weaponized it almost, to prove a point: business isn’t theory—it’s instinct, observation, and the guts to act when others hesitate.

He’s spoken about walking through markets just to study what people buy. About asking women what jewelry they desired, then building a factory to make it. About reinvesting profits not in champagne but in steel, concrete, and labor.

In an age of startup pitches and digital disruption, Okoya’s style is refreshingly analog.

Next In our Entrepreneurship Series is the Innovative Musician: Rema. Be on the look out.