Alma Oputa recently went viral for an interesting tweet about her life-long academic success. Today, she has co-founded an investment company. She recently shared details of her fascinating story with PiggyVest — from her early saving and investment habits to her entrepreneurial drive.
Tell me about your family. How was growing up for Alma Oputa?
It was school, church, and home. I was born in Kaduna, but we lived in Jos for about seven years. But because it was school, church, home, I don’t think I know a lot of places outside of the barracks we lived in. I’m the third of five children.
Your dad was in the military? What about your mum?
Yes, my dad was a doctor and consultant in the military. He is retired from the military now. My mum was initially a career woman in the food technology space, but she later became a civil servant.
After Jos, where did you move to?
We came to Lagos. This was just before the Jos crisis became intense. In Lagos, I attended Airforce Primary School in Victoria Island.
Your dad was a doctor. Did he and your mum have expectations for your career?
Not strongly. My parents gave birth to intelligent kids and were the kind of parents that would ask “What percentage?” even when you topped the class.
Speaking of that, you tweeted about topping your class. Now, it sounds like a family thing. Is there something your parents did?
It was probably the books. We read lots of books (non-academic and academic) growing up, and my dad used to reward us for reading them and answering something about the book you had read. My dad used to teach us English and Maths; my mum handled the core science subjects. But I don’t remember my parents suggesting a career for any of us.
Interesting. You mentioned that your parents moved to Lagos. Was there a particular reason for the move?
My dad became the Chief Medical Director of the military hospital in Ikoyi. And I think there was a rumour of a crisis in Jos. He was already in Lagos at the time. He travelled frequently and must have thought about the possibility of returning home and not meeting anyone.
You seem fond of your dad.
Yes. For a long time, I wanted to study medicine just to be like him. I was so confident that I filled only medicine in UNILAG as my first choice in my JAMB form, and left the second choice blank.
We were able to retrieve the form back though, and then the VP Academics suggested I put in computer science and Covenant University as second choice. Somehow, I didn’t get into UNILAG, so I went to Covenant University.
Did you fall in love with the course?
Yes. By my second year in CU, I was no longer interested in going back to rewrite JAMB for Medicine. The environment was nice and my mates and teachers in school were okay.
Did you get into business at any point?
Yes. In my 300 level, I was introduced to a businessman who wanted to enter into the Covenant University market. I helped him sell shoes.
Were you good at it?
I was. He said the money I helped him make in my 300 and 400 level paid for his flight school.
He’s a pilot? And did he pay you?
He wanted to become one at the time. He wasn’t paying me; he asked me if I wanted to get paid, and I said no. So he decided to give me pairs of shoes for certain milestones.
So did you graduate best in your class?
Yes. I had a 4.99 GPA.
That sounds like “best student” GPA…
It was. For all the colleges and the entire set that year in Covenant University.
Applause. Did you do anything besides read?
[Laughs] The craziest thing is that I don’t think anybody would have described me as a bookworm. I was at social events and church events. I just didn’t use to go outside school to party.
I was the PRO for NACOSS (Nigeria Association of Computer Science Students) in Covenant University. I even had a boyfriend and people knew.
Wawu.
I used to only read during exams. But it helped that I never missed class. I knew that if I understood the foundation, I would be able to understand concepts when I am reading. And I took tests seriously. That took away pressure from examinations.
This academic supremacy: was it present in primary school?
[Laughs] Yes. I was either first or second, but then I can’t remember every class report card.
So after leaving school, what was your first job?
It was in Covenant University. I was asked to come do some research with a lecturer. That was during NYSC. It wasn’t a very good time. It was at that point that my love for computer science died because if everything went well, I would have been able to know what to specialise in. Instead, I was idle. So after thinking about what to do, I started a business.
What did you do?
I sold shoes and clothes to CU students. This time I brought them from Lagos myself. I got sales reps in the five female halls. People would pay 50 percent of the cost of the shoe before I went to market.
Was it a successful venture?
I made my first million from that business!
Levels!
[Laughs]
What was supposed to be your CU salary?
I never got a dime from the man I was supposed to be working with even though I had been promised payment in euros. I just had the ₦19,800 from NYSC. My father was also giving me an allowance. So I was living on my daddy’s money and saving my allowance.
That was smart. After your service, what happened?
PushCV happened. I think it was just getting off the ground; I don’t really remember. From an internship, it became an actual job. This was 2015, and I was there for six months.
Why so short?
Another company poached me. It was a company in the lifestyle, beauty and fashion industry. It was hard to leave PushCV though.
What was the pay difference between both companies?
I went from ₦100k to around ₦150k.
What were you doing with them?
I was a software developer with them, which was funny because I had stopped thinking about computer science for sometime. But it didn’t take them long to understand that my interest was not coding.
They moved me from their lab to their fashion arm. I was also there for six months.
What happened again?
It was time to go for an MBA. I had gotten a partial scholarship to a school in Pennsylvania. Some people wanted me to do a masters in computer science, but I really did not want that.
Anyway, I didn’t get a visa on time and was asked to come the next semester. But somehow I had lost the scholarship. I had two options: take a loan or forfeit the admission. In the end, I didn’t take the loan.
Must have been tough. So what do you do now?
I am into finance now. Something I didn’t mention earlier is that I have been investing for a long time. I was saving a part of my allowance each month when I was in school. And when I was earning about ₦60k during my IT, I was saving it all because my dad was giving me an allowance then, too.
After school, I had money in my account and went to a bank to find out what to do with the money. The bank introduced me to treasury bills and that’s how my journey into investment started.
Super impressive stuff.
I also had schoolmates who were starting businesses after school and needed money. I’d give some money as a loan to some of them. That was the other way I invested.
How did that take you into finance?
When I returned to Nigeria after the scholarship fiasco in 2017, I was tired. Then in 2018, I decided to go back to try the MBA. I didn’t want to go back to Covenant University but that is where I went back to.
The Lord works in mysterious ways.
Indeed. My dad had told me he had seen in a vision that I went back to CU for my masters. And so it was. But after I got out in 2020, nobody was getting employed because of COVID. Fortunately, I got referred to two jobs: one was for an operations manager for a tech startup and another was executive assistant to a lady in an oil and gas company. The salary for the latter was four times that of the tech one.
Decisions, decisions. What did you choose?
I took the tech job. I wasn’t sure that the executive assistant job would not involve things I wouldn’t be happy to do. And then something happened at the tech firm. One of the owners of the company interviewed me and called me later, asking what I think about starting an investment company. I was surprised. He said he noticed that I was interested in the area of investment. And he had wanted to venture into that space for a long time. But he had worked in manufacturing, doing core business, and wanted to partner with someone passionate about investments. I agreed and that’s how Avant-Garde Capital Limited began.
What a story! What’s your title?
Managing Director.
What is your income like now that you are the queen of the world?
[Laughs] I get dividends, but let’s keep it at seven figures.
Applause. Big madam!
[Laughs]
So you guys don’t have core investment banking experience…
We don’t have that. But we have done many investment courses. I am the kind of person that would pay ₦1m to have a 10-minute conversation with Dangote. I’m not saying we have spoken with Dangote, but we have invested a lot into learning from experienced people in the field.
Given that you have thrived in vastly different spaces, and are now in finance, what advice will you give someone looking to do the same?
You have to demonstrate commitment. People reach out to ask me how to get into finance and I tell them you have to be willing to get knowledge. With finance, you can never stop learning because it’s new everyday. A lot of the time, that willingness is money. You have to pay for knowledge. People don’t think it pays back, but it does. Paying for knowledge puts you in the position to meet the right people. We started an arm in Tanzania and the person who got us in was a person we met from taking a course.
You also have to be disciplined. We all have 24 hours in a day. To grow in your career or succeed in different paths, you have to be disciplined and start from where you are. Finally, I can’t take out the God factor. Besides trying to act like superwoman, there is a place for grace. For instance, we run a debt fund and have had a 100 percent success rate in people paying back money. The people who have lost money also did due diligence. But there is a place for grace. Hard work is important but there is a major God factor.
