‘School business is not for those eyeing quick money’

[Mirror]

Pastor Adewunmi Okupe is the proprietor of Messiah Praise International Model College, which is located in Akute, a suburb of Lagos.

He says when he ventured into the school business in 1998, it was more of a divine call than for gains. He says, "Starting a school is not an easy task because it involves a lot.

When I started out fifteen years ago, it was with ten students. I am into the secondary school business and that requires more capital than primary and nursery schools. It was actually divine inspiration that led me to start a secondary school. At that time, secondary schools were not many.

In the whole of Akute, there were not more than four secondary schools." Okupe says of the early days of his school, "It was not easy. I was lucky to have a building of my own before embarking on the business. That went a long way, because that was not part of my expenses when I started.

In terms of the cash I started off with fifteen years ago, I had about N200, 000 which went into registration with the Ogun State Ministry of Education, staff salaries for at least six months and other miscellaneous expenses. To the glory of God, the business is worth millions today."

For would be investors, Okupe says that erecting buildings that would house the necessary offices such as classrooms, staff rooms, proprietor's office, bursary, etc, would require at least N10 million to N20 million. "This figure includes the cost of buying a big plot of land, staff salaries for at least six months, registration of the school and erection of the school building.

"Although some investors rent buildings for schools, government has started insisting on custom built buildings owned by the school as against rented apartments.

That is why the business is so capital intensive." Despite the huge amount required to start the business, Okupe describes it as lucrative.

"Apart from the huge capital needed for the business, it is a very lucrative one because education is one of the top priorities in the society. Even if you don't have money, you will still ensure that your children go to school to secure a brighter future. It is a priority any day. "It takes time to start getting back returns on investment.

You have to work hard for sometime before the money starts rolling in. You have to be patient." Okupe submits that the business has numerous challenges, which are mainly finance-based. "Because of the capital intensiveness of the business, raising funds to start it is not an easy task at all. Again, the issue of debtor parents is another big challenge. A lot of parents will owe and will not pay.

They will continue to beg and plead with school owners that they would pay up before the end of the term. At the end of the term, you will find them withdrawing their children to other schools to go and start that process all over again. It has been a very big challenge for us.

"Another challenge is the issue of multiple taxation from government. Most of these taxes are fixed arbitrarily by government agents. They simply believe that school business is lucrative and as such, they come up with all kinds of taxes and levies.

"Special centres are another issue. A number of parents will prefer to go and register their children for WAEC at these special centres instead of registering them for WAEC at the school that has been teaching them all along.

"Here at Messiah Praise, we try to make our students realise that they don't have to cheat or engage in exam malpractices before they can be successful in their examinations and this had always yielded results."

National Mirror