By Adebamiwa Olugbenga Michael
Writer & Public Affairs Commentator
For over 40 years, Mrs. Funke Otti has built an extraordinary, multi-sector legacy spanning media, manufacturing, furniture, interior design, construction, precast technology, mortgages, oil and gas, shipping, and now fintech. Her journey is a study in discipline, resilience, and visionary leadership, powered by a value system anchored in fairness, integrity, and an unshakeable belief in human potential.
A Philosophy Rooted in Humanity
Mrs. Otti is driven by a deep commitment to dignity, justice, and the idea that nothing is impossible. She despises wasted potential and sees ability where others see limitations. Behind her gentle demeanor lies an intense drive curious, restless, and unafraid of the difficult road.
From NTA to Entrepreneurship
Her career began at NTA, but routine could not contain her spirit. She craved bigger challenges and business became the natural path forward.
Carpets, Courage and the ACB Breakthrough
With no capital, she got carpets on credit, installed them, and paid later. Her big break came with the African Continental Bank (ACB), where her flawless execution stunned skeptics and earned her full-scale furnishing contracts. This phase revealed her trademark ethic, no shortcuts, no guesswork, absolute accountability.
Mastery Before Business
The ACB guest house project pushed her into furniture and interior design. Refusing to sell what she didn’t understand, she immersed herself in manufacturing knowledge, design training, and global standards a principle that still guides her: “Master it before you offer it”.
Breaking Barriers in a Male-Dominated Space
In the 1980s and ’90s, manufacturing and construction belonged to men, but she broke in through sheer grit, attention to detail, and consistency. When local suppliers delivered poor-quality inputs, she refused to be limited by broken systems.
The Taiwan Turning Point
In 1992, she took a bold trip to Taiwan on a risky one million naira loan. There, she discovered the true backbone of industrialisation, structured cottage industries, specialisation, and systems built on discipline not improvisation. It changed her worldview and set her miles ahead in technical mastery.
Diversifying into Construction, Finance and Precast Solutions
Her work expanded into major hotel and federal government projects. She later studied finance in the U.S., set up a mortgage-support firm, and championed precast building technology as a practical answer to Nigeria’s housing deficit. To her, every venture addresses a different structural problem in Nigeria.
Faith, Survival and Divine Alignment
Her life includes enormous challenges failed systems, global business setbacks, hostile markets, even surviving a plane crash incident. Yet each season reaffirmed her belief, “This is the Lord’s doing.”
Why Nigeria Struggles With Industrial Growth
Her critiques of Nigeria are honest and incisive:
- Institutions prioritise paperwork over production.
- Agencies duplicate functions instead of enabling innovation.
- Accessing funding from BOI, DBN, and NEXIM is very difficult, highlighting the need for the government to simplify processes and make these funds more accessible to the real sector.
- Skilled graduates lack practical manufacturing knowledge.
Her conclusion ; Nigeria suffers from a system failure rooted in a lack of structure, discipline, and industrial interdependence.
Fintech With a Difference – NairaPoint
Her latest venture, NairaPoint, is built on four decades of real-sector experience, ethical lending, transparency, and a mission to strengthen SMEs not exploit them. It is not just fintech, it is the sum of everything she has learned.
Integrity as Capital
Her biggest tests came from dishonesty within Nigeria’s business ecosystem. She consistently chose the harder, honest path even when it meant losing money or walking away from lucrative deals. For her, credibility is the true currency.
Setbacks, Reinvention and Comeback
She has faced painful sector collapses and heavy losses, but each time, she rebuilt smarter, stronger, and more diversified. Her story is defined not by uninterrupted success but by relentless recovery.
Legacy and The Future She Wants
Mrs. Otti believes Nigeria’s biggest deficit is real mentorship. Her dream is to groom a new generation grounded in discipline, integrity, technical knowledge, and industrial capacity.
A Torchbearer of Possibility
Mrs. Funke Otti is more than an entrepreneur. She is a force, a symbol of what is possible when mastery, integrity, courage, and faith collide. Her life remains a blueprint for purposeful nation-building.
Happy birthday to a woman of profound impact and unstoppable excellence.
Adebamiwa Olugbenga Michael is a
Writer and Public Affairs Commentator
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