Sola’s story: building wealth for the next generation
Sola's company is supporting people across Nigeria to make, manage and multiply their money.
Sola Adesakin is on a mission to help Africans build wealth. Her company Smart Stewards, supports people from all over the world to make, manage and multiply their money. Here, she shares how the Road to Growth programme supported her to strengthen her business in order to keep helping her community become better-off.
“My name is Sola Adesakin and I am 42 years old. I am a personal and business finance coach and a chartered accountant. With 22 years of experience, I am the founder of a personal and business financial literacy platform with a mission to help Africans at home and in the diaspora build wealth. Over the last seven years, we have helped people from all around the world navigate the dynamics of making, managing and multiplying wealth.
When I got an email to put in my application for the Road to Growth programme, I was excited, as I had always wanted to get involved with the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women and learn from the rich curriculum offered. Getting selected and going through the programme was an amazing experience. The connections made, the facilitators, and the learning curriculum online were fantastic. I found the entire programme worthwhile, and it opened my eyes to a lot of inadequacies in my business. As I started to execute what I had learned, it opened a lot of opportunities.
I wasn't the only beneficiary of these learning points, I went back to teach my community, and we have all become better for it.
We go to school to learn how to become doctors, accountants and lawyers, but we are seldom taught how to make, manage and multiply money. So, despite being a chartered accountant, I was totally clueless about financial literacy. The programme opened my eyes to the world of building and scaling business, which is very important. In Nigeria, it is common to see a lot of first-generation businesses, but hardly any second generation, or third generation businesses because we are not taught the dynamics of how to scale and sustain a business.
It is also quite difficult for women to access capital, due to stereotypes, but the programme imparted tools and resources to help us.
It is also quite difficult for women to access capital, due to stereotypes, but the programme imparted tools and resources to help us. By putting the necessary financial structures in place, using the right terms, approaches and connections, we too can access financing.
Going through the programme made me realize that I had to separate personal finance from business finance, to allow the company to grow. It helped me analyse the state of my business and put corrective measures in place. Up until then, I had never won a financial grant for my business. Thanks to everything I learned, I have now been able to secure grant funding. Being a community leader and a leader of women, I wasn’t the only beneficiary of these learning points, I went back to teach my community, and we have all become better for it.
We teach our children how to manage money from a young age. It is not enough to teach them that money doesn’t grow on trees. We need to explain to them how to make money, how to manage it, how to multiply it, so that they do not make the same financial mistakes that we made. To this end, we have created a ‘junior club’ for children where we teach them, provide them with resources, and everything that they need to know in this regard.
As a personal and business finance coach, I work with individuals and small business owners to put structures in place regarding their finances. Having completed the Road to Growth programme, I am now able to impart the knowledge learned to the people that I consult for.”
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