Mr Eazi recalls losing ₦19m in failed diesel venture at 19: ‘It toughened me up’
Nigerian singer and businessman Oluwatosin Ajibade, popularly known as Mr Eazi, has opened up on one of the biggest financial setbacks of his early life—losing ₦19 million in a failed diesel investment as a teenager.
Speaking on a podcast interview shared on X, the Legalize crooner revealed that at just 19, he convinced his uncle, a medical doctor, and his wife to loan him money for what appeared to be a secure venture. The plan was to buy diesel in bulk and supply it to major clients, including telecom giant MTN.
Like many young entrepreneurs at the time, he relied on middlemen at Lagos’ Apapa port to access diesel stock since direct tank farm allocations required bigger players. However, just as the deal was about to take off, the Nigerian government deregulated fuel prices. Diesel prices plunged overnight, leaving him and his partners with stock they could only sell at a heavy loss.
“When I was about 19 or 20, I borrowed money from my uncle and his wife. The idea was to buy diesel and supply it. I was too confident, I told them MTN is going to pay us, bro, I’m a salesman, I can sell anything. But after deregulation, we had to sell the diesel at a loss,” Mr Eazi explained.
Breaking the news to his uncle, who had committed his life savings, was, according to him, one of the most difficult moments of his life. “Explaining to my uncle that his life savings were gone was one of the hardest moments, and he was devastated,” he recalled.
Despite the painful loss, the 33-year-old star said the experience was pivotal in shaping his business resilience and entrepreneurial grit. “It was a painful failure, but it toughened me up for the journey ahead,” he added.
Today, Mr Eazi is celebrated not only as a global Afrobeats sensation but also as a savvy investor with ventures spanning music, tech, and business across Africa.
Opinion:
Stories like Mr Eazi’s highlight a truth often glossed over in glossy success narratives: failure is rarely the end—it’s often the foundation. At 19, losing ₦19 million and shattering a family’s trust could have easily derailed his ambitions. Instead, he treated it as a brutal but necessary tuition fee in the school of entrepreneurship.
It’s also a cautionary tale for young dreamers: enthusiasm and vision are vital, but experience, research, and risk management matter just as much. The deregulation that ruined Mr Eazi’s deal shows how external forces can crush even the best-laid plans.
Yet, perhaps the greatest lesson here is in his perspective. What could have been a life-defining failure became a stepping stone. That resilience—the ability to get back up, recalibrate, and push forward—may be the real secret behind Mr Eazi’s enduring success in music and business alike.
For every aspiring entrepreneur, his story is both a warning and an encouragement: be prepared to fail, but also be prepared to grow stronger from it.
