Kelvin Obasuyi says his mother used to tell him that there is dignity in labour. It is a piece of advice that has guided him through years of work that rarely looked dignified from the outside: a chocolate popcorn business that folded within a year, selling varsity jackets, and freelance data analysis for anyone willing to pay.
“I was [doing] anything I could do for money,” he says.
Years later, as an entrepreneur, his mother’s words stopped being about his own survival and became about everyone else’s.
“People [who] work for me are depending on the business to feed families,” he says. “That gave me a different idea about what entrepreneurship means to me.”
Today, that idea runs through two companies. Obasuyi is the co-founder at 56 Capital, a finance firm lending to informal African businesses, and chief executive of Vector Innovations, a cross-border fintech company.
