By Raheem Akingbolu
Today is the birthday of one of Nigeria’s most successful young men in tech and entrepreneurship, John Olajide, who is making Africa proud across the world.
Before 2022 when I first met John in person, I had read about him in 2020 in the online version of The Dallas Morning News, under an article titled; ‘John Olajide Wants to Make Home Health Care as Easy as Hailing a Ride’. The article detailed Olajide’s success story as a Nigerian-born tech giant who has gained attention in the United States for offering cloud-based technology services through his company, Axxess, helping home health care companies manage their back-office operations, customer relations and electronic medical records.
Today, Axxess offers a suite of enterprise software solutions for health care in the home that can help companies streamline their operations and grow their organizations. As president and CEO, Olajide has grown the business to one that serves more than 3 million patients and with a presence in over 50 countries. And without taking on venture capital funding, he built the business into a unicorn—a term for startups valued at more than $1 billion.
According to the newspaper report, John had spotted this technology black hole while getting his degree in telecommunications engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas. He was said to have paid for his tuition by helping home health care companies convert unreliable and fraud-prone paperwork into streamlined, automated, and verifiable online records.
A few months after I read the story, that was after the COVID 19, I saw a picture of the same Olajide being hosted in Ado Ekiti by the then Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. John Kayode Fayemi. Fast forward to 2022, after our amiable current Governor, Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji won the governorship election and was meeting Ekiti stakeholders across the country. According to a news report, Olajide’s CAVISTA office in Ilupeju Lagos also topped the list as one of the places BAO visited. A few weeks later, the same Olajide was invited to Ekiti to give the inaugural lecture that preceded Governor Oyebanji’s inauguration into office.
Welcome to the world of John Olajide, CEO of Axxess, and a former chairman of the Dallas Regional Chamber. His businesses in Nigeria include CAVISTA, a software engineering firm, Agbeyewa Farms Limited and Glocient Hospitality, the new concessionaire of Ekiti’s flagship tourism asset, Ikogosi Warm Springs Limited. With a strong and determined mind to be a change agent and trailblazer, Olajide has since spread his tentacles to the Philippines, India and Botswana.
In 2019, Interim HealthCare Inc., US oldest and largest home health care company, designated Axxess as a preferred vendor for its network of 300 independently owned franchises throughout the United States and in nine other countries. Jennifer Sheets, president and CEO of the Fort Lauderdale-based company, was quoted to have said that Interim was then gradually adding Axxess offerings to its network in the US and abroad.
In 2020, the Dallas Regional Chamber saw a combination of entrepreneurial success and cultural inclusiveness in Olajide and chose him to be the second Black person to chair the 111-year-old organization and its youngest. Olajide thus took over the chairmanship of North Texas’ largest business organization in January, 2020 shortly before all hell broke loose.
Outside the US, I have since read and watched about how Olajide is meeting world leaders, including President Bola Tinubu on how to further enhance technology as a platform to engage the youth population and boost the economy.
According to him, his purpose in life is to serve others. “I get up every day thinking about how I can leverage my platform, my talent, my resources—all that I am—to make the world a better place,” Olajide said in an interview.
And speaking on his decision to look inward and think of investing in Ekiti, his state of origin, for cassava revolution and lifting up of the Ikogosi Resort to the world standard, Olajide said; “As an entrepreneur who started Axxess at the age of 26 and grew it into a global corporation disrupting the industries we operate in, I owe my success to spotting business opportunities long before they become obvious. I believe Ekiti’s prosperity is possible. I truly believe that with the proper mindset, anything is possible,”
His story is that of starting small but starting well with focus. Olajide’s dream was to come to the United States and get his engineering degree at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Unfortunately, while his grades were strong enough to get in, his finances weren’t.
Instead, at 16, he came to Dallas, where he earned his two-year associates degree at Richland Community College before transferring to UTD for his telecommunications engineering degree in 2004.
“I’ve heard people describe UTD as the MIT of the South. So that’s the closest I came,” he said.
Olajide is among the university’s most ardent supporters.
In 2016, he became the youngest recipient of UTD’s distinguished alumnus award. He broke the record for table sales when 50-plus friends and family members flew in from around the world to attend the awards gala.
But one other thing has continued to work for John. He has a good support system from his elder brother, Ron Olajide and his friend, Andrew Olowu. John and Andrew grew up in the same neighborhood and were both boarders at a military high school in Abeokuta in the 90s. Today, Axxess is run by John and Ron.
Ron Olajide became the chief financial officer two years after John started Axxess. Prior to that period, Ron had been working at a large advertising agency. Andrew Olowu is Axxess’ chief technical officer.
For me, it’s John’s humility and unassuming personality. Yes, you have told me often that you prefer the media to project the businesses and focus more on ways to grow them rather than beaming the searchlight on you.
I agree with your advice but you will also agree with me that today is about you because it’s your birthday.
Happy birthday, the enigma.