Nigerian-Million-Maker (Isaac Durojaiye)

          ISAAC DUROJAIYE

"Shit business is serious business" -Isaac Durojaiye, Founder DMT Toilets, Nigeria. 

Isaac Durojaiye, or Otunba Gadaffi as some have chosen to refer to him, is a Nigerian in the business of shit. Okay, sorry, he is an Environmental Sanitation Entrepreneur- better? But whatever names or synonyms you’d rather use to describe what he does, he really doesn’t care! All he smells is "money and not the Shit" since his business started in 1992.

Walking on the street of Okeke Okonkwo close to the Hausa settlement in Abakaliki, a town formerly in Anambra state which now became the Ebonyi state capital around 10pm was a man called Isaac Durojaiye. This is a man who evacuates human waste with buckets on his head and broom dangling in his hands. He was on another routine call to the area.

So was the life and living condition of young Isaac in the late seventies. He was very young, poor Nigerian, but very determined to make something out of life. He was born and brought up in a neighborhood with a very big compound of one room apartment each (popularly called face-me-I face–you in Nigeria local parlance.) People who do the kind of job he was doing were regarded as failure and relegated to the background in Nigeria.

Isacc   Durojaye was born in Lagos and had his Elementary Education there. He also attended Ipetu – Ijasha grammar school Ipetu – Ijasha, osun state Nigeria, Accra polytechnic Ghana and Eastern College of Technology in United Kingdom where he studied Graphic Design and Business Administration.

He did all kinds of jobs to survive during his study in England including working with American Express Card and U. K. security division as a credit and fraud investigator.

He took a tough decision to return to Nigeria to contribute meaningfully to the development of his father’s land. Surviving them became more difficult for him to the point of selling his car stereo to feed and later thinking it was a wrong decision he took to return to Nigeria. Thank God for the encouragement he got from Danladi Bako who knew his potentials and urged him to stay back.

He got a job as the chief security officer of late Chief M. K. O. Abiola. This opened a new chapter in his life and the entrepreneurial industry in Nigeria. The tuning point came during Kola Abiola’s (M. K. O. Abiola’s son) wedding. He noted as the chief security officer that only two toilet were available for over 10,000 guest expected at the occasion. He was mandated to look for a mobile toilet company when he brought this to the attention of the planning committee. He couldn’t see any, because there was none in existence in Nigeria

He quickly thought of construction one, and with three shipping container, he constructed 18 toilets, and this worked well. Years later he decided to put tires on his invention and the first wagon mobile toilet was in business.

However, for four years, the wagon toilet was displayed but there was no single order until 1996 when somebody hired the wagon toilet. And ever since then, it has been a different story. In 1999, on a trip abroad for an Interpol conference, he saw some plastic mobile toilets, took interest and later imported 40 of them. It later became difficult to keep importing. This made him look inward and from 2002 till dates DMT Mobile Toilets, his corporate outfit has been able to manufacture thousands of mobile toilets equipments of international standard.

Many of these toilets were purchased in foreign countries while the rest are used in Nigeria. The first mobile toilet was constructed with N90, 000 and today he has invested well over N100, million without owing any individual or bank. They have become official toilets in some Nigerian states with over 19 branch offices in Nigeria including Lagos and Abuja as the strongest points, as well as 7 other branches in the West Africa sub-region. About 300 DMT mobile toilets were used by the Government of Nigeria during the 8^th All African games COJA , in Abuja in 2003 and during the Common Wealth Heads of Government meeting CHOGOM hosted by Nigeria in December 2003. It is gradually being appreciated in major events organized by individual, corporate bodies and government.

His vision is to make available a functional toilet facility within three electricity poles, an idea he got from Dr Sullam of Indian who has about 1.5 million toilets scattered all over Indian providing job for about 4.5 million people.

DMT is also looking into processing human waste into fertilizer; and other things by acquiring ten-acres of plots of land in Ogun state Nigeria for its manufacturing plant. He has received many national awards

He gets Inspiration from the works of Bishop David Oyedepo, Mike Murdock, Dr D.K Olukoya, Robert Schuller, Aliko Gangote, Razaq Okaya and other role models.

-He had to sacrifice personal comfort and enjoyment in the beginning of his business.

-He started small, patiently and painstakingly built DMT to a reputable standard. And now he has become one of the outstanding and successful millionaires in Nigeria.