Dare Babalola
Afrobeats star, Mr Eazi, has narrated how he lost N19 million in a failed diesel supply venture before finding fame in music.
This singer, while speaking on the 90s Baby Show, disclosed that the incident happened when he was just 19 years old.
He said he borrowed the money from his uncle, a medical doctor, and his wife, with hopes of supplying diesel to telecommunications giant, MTN.
“I started this business, and I took money from my uncle and his wife. The plan was to supply diesel to MTN, but it failed,” he recalled.
Mr Eazi explained that the money represented his uncle’s life savings, which made the loss even harder to bear.
He recalled that after paying for the diesel, a sudden government deregulation policy scrapped fuel subsidy, causing prices to crash and leaving his capital tied down for months.
“But then they had done deregulation of fuel, so the prices crashed, and our money was stuck for probably three months. By the time they released the diesel, the MTN deal was gone, and we had to sell at a loss,” he said.
Despite the huge setback, the singer described it as one of his earliest business lessons, long before his eventual rise to global recognition as both a musician and investor.
