EFIWE GISTS: From Failing A Bank Employment Test to Having Tony Elumelu As Client 15 years Later | Fashion Businessman Seyi Vodi Adekunle Shares His Inspiring Story @seyivodi @tonyoelumelu @tonyelumelufoundation


Seyi Adekunle, the CEO of Vodi Group has shared an inspiring message via his Instagram handle of how he failed to get a bank job 15 years ago, but refused to give up, as he kept working on growing his fashion business, which he started few months prior.



Today, Tony Elumelu, the founder of the Standard Trust Bank (STB) – which famously took over United Bank of Africa (UBA), where Seyi had applied to, is one of his clients.


Read below:

Exactly 15 years ago, after writing the Standard Trust Bank (STB) entrance examination with the hope of being employed as a banker, I was sad when the result was released and I wasn’t taken. Meanwhile, my friend, Balami Yerima got the job.

However, despite my disappointment, I decided not to give up what had also become a passion at the time and that was the fashion business which I started a few months to that time. That, as it turned out, was just the beginning of my story with Standard Trust Bank though in a direction I never envisaged.

As I pursued my passion in fashion, the STB office on Ademola Adetokunbo Crescent in Wuse 2, Abuja became my major port of call in wooing clients. Many of the staff turned out to be my set of clients by patronising the Aba-made white and sky blue shirts I started out with.

That was how I met friends like Aisha Bubaram (now in First Bank), Niyi Adeseun (now in Heritage Bank), Kunle Oketikun (now in Fortis Bank), Saleh Mohammed and so many bright chaps whom have become respected professionals in their chosen fields.

However, there is a subtext to this story which turned out to be the most important: I met a man who is arguably one of the best entrepreneurs that has emerged from Africa. I am talking of no other than the simple and unassuming United Bank for Africa Chairman, Tony Elumelu.

 That chance encounter,marked a turning point in my life and career.

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