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Mon, Dec 23, 2024 | Jumada al-Aakhirah 22, 1446 | DXB
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Dubai: Meet the Nigerian couple helping others build thriving businesses
The duo brings Nigeria’s rich culture and operates out of two continents with a head office in the UAE and its branch offices in Abuja and Lagos
- By
- Sandhya D'mello
KT Photos: Muhammad Sajjad
Dubai-based Nigerian couple Timilehin Adegoke and Mayowa Adegoke are building their venture, Archgoke Interactive LLC in the UAE. Both professionals with illustrious careers decided to combine their skills to create and nurture their vision.
The duo brings Nigeria’s rich culture and operates out of two continents with a head office in the UAE and its branch offices in Abuja and Lagos, covering Nigeria and West African clients.
36-year-old, Tim arrived in 2015 in Dubai, while Mayowa, 35, joined her husband in 2019, bracing for the summer in Dubai.
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The two met in a community church, in Lagos, Nigeria, and started a cordial friendship which later blossomed into a romantic relationship in 2018.
Mayowa recalls getting proposed to at the Dubai’s Atmosphere Burj Khalifa and getting married in 2019, to begin a new chapter by moving to Dubai the same year. Today, the couple has been married for five years and have a four-year-old son.
Timilehin Adegoke, Operations Director - Archgoke Interactive, said: “In October 2021, at the beginning of Expo 2020 Dubai, an opportunity with Dubai Tourism surfaced, looking to engage an entity to produce media content for the African market, which is Mayowa’s strength, skill and passion as a seasoned media professional.”
During that same period, Timilehin had already started talks with a business setup consultant to decide on the nature and number of business activities to adopt, based on the couple’s individual skills, MBA degree, passion, and experience.
“We were better positioned to get in to the market and birth our venture with our first major client ready to engage. Archgoke Interactive LLC was born,” he said.
Mayowa Adegoke, Creative Director Archgoke Interactive, attributes her success to her mother, Bolanle Ogundele, who has been the biggest influence in her entrepreneurial journey, which started well over a decade after she graduated in Mass Communication and built a career in TV broadcasting.
“I played an active role, since I was 13-years-old in my mother’s multiple business ventures. I was assisting her during market runs, being her shop assistant during the holidays and weekends, and promoting her business when I went to the university. All these things formed the foundation of my entrepreneurial spirit,” said Mayowa.
“I remember making a career in design in my final year and deciding to pursue it for a decade after which I planned to set up my own venture.”
Mayowa transitioned from TV career in Lagos called Channels Television which is the biggest TV station in West Africa to join Timilehin in Dubai as an International Journalist and Producer.
“Coming to Dubai inspired and sparked in me the desire to create and pursue the opportunities to build a bigger brand and explore my entrepreneurial potential, bringing my multiple years of experience, skills, and knowledge in the media space to bear in our company,” said Mayowa.
“We became an entrepreneurial family by a drive to have better control over our earnings as a family. Our foray into the world of business was thanks to a combination of challenges in our separate jobs and business opportunities that presented themselves to us. Although we didn’t set out with a definite plan at the beginning, the business has grown and evolved in response to our entrepreneurial appetite and more opportunities opening up within our area of specialty,” she added.
Timilehin is a civil engineer and a construction professional, with many years of training and experience across Africa, United Kingdom and the UAE, where he has now lived for about a decade.
His qualifications include a bachelor’s in Civil Engineering from the Institute of Civil Engineers UK, as well as a Masters in Energy Engineering and an MBA in Organisational Behaviour from Heriot-Watt University.
His motivation to relocate to Dubai was to be a part of the construction haven the fast-developing city it has become — where great ambitions are turned into monuments and sometimes record-breaking infrastructure.
Timilehin grew up in a family where both his parents were career professionals who worked in the United Nations and Nigerian Navy respectively before giving the rest of their lives as missionaries to serve and help people.
“My mum had an acute business mind, and as a young kid, I followed her to the market and trade shops observing her negotiate the prices of goods. This later grew into my first business, where I began selling male corporate clothes at the university. My mum’s business birth from her shopping for my Dad and suiting him up with the finest and neatest corporate fashion threads at that time,” said Timilehin.
Having a regular job and life as an entrepreneur are two different things. Asked if the role of a mentor was critical in an entrepreneur’s journey?
Timilehin replied: “My mentors helped me recognise not just my knowledge for business but my instinctive negotiation skills and appetite to just go for it.”
The couple attributes its success to the UAE which provides all the ingredients for business success, starting with the ease and variety of business setup options, to the well-regulated and advantageous regulations, and the most important of all is the wide range of clientele including individuals, corporations, residents, tourists from different nationalities, which they serve through storytelling and media consulting through the lens of African heritage.
“The competition in the UAE market keeps us on our toes, coupled with the spirit of excellence which has become the standard for business operation. The government keeps innovating, attracting millions from across the world, which means there is a steady supply of potential clients, our job is to attract them with our unique value proposition,” said Timilehin.
Tips for young couples
Do not spend much time in the overthinking zone of the 3W's (What, Why, Where).
Start by recognising and taking advantage of each other's interests and strengths.
Identify areas and opportunities for service, create value, and collaborate in an industry of shared choice or interest.
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