At 24, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu initiated a disruptive shift in the plumbing sector, which revolutionised the vocation and aided its transition from the trade of unskilled artisans to professional occupation.
The young freshly graduated Sanwo-Olu, in the early 1990s, incorporated “Dial The Plumber” – an engineering and business-centric coy that leveraged the limited telephone technology of the period to create hands-on solutions in the plumbing ecosystem for the growing oil industry in the Niger Delta.
The disruption created huge opportunities for local skilled plumbers until the mid-1990s when advanced technology swept through the sector and created a wide knowledge gap for local professionals. With no Government incentive and support for up-skilling, the firm had the market out of its reach and became disadvantaged.
The short background narrative about his start-up experience set the tone for the robust conversation Governor Sanwo-Olu had, on Thursday, with dozens of under-35 young executives in Lagos tech space, telecommunications, Fintech, banking, arts and creative industry, health, agric and logistics sectors.
