Chairman and founder of COSCHARIS Group, Dr Cosmos Maduka (left) and Dr Stanley Uzochukwu, Chairman and owner of Stanel Group
Chairman and founder of COSCHARIS Group, Dr Cosmos Maduka has revealed how he empowered Dr Stanley Uzochukwu, Chairman and owner of Stanel Group with a business start-up capital of One Hundred and Fifty Million Naira (N150,000,000) and made him one of Nigerian youngest billionaire.
Maduka made the revelation while sharing in Uzochukwu’s success stories during the just concluded ‘Stanel Youths Empowerment Master Class’ held at Stanel Dome in Awka, the Anambra State capital recently where he was one of the Keynote Speakers.
He inspired the participants with Uzochukwu’s humility and submission of self to be mentored by Nigerian political and business leaders that have placed him (Stanley) where he is today.
Maduka said that, at first, he mistook Uzochukwu for a 419 from the way he was following him. But he said what confused him more was the fact that each time they met, Uzochukwu always tried to give him money instead of asking for money.
With the permission of Dr Stanley Uzochukwu, Maduka narrated how he became a friend with Uzochukwu, a boy that could be his fifth son.
In his words, COSCHARIS Boss said, “The young man we are all here for or celebrating his impact on youths development today could be my fifth son if I had a child every two years. But I am going to tell you a story of how Stanley came to me.
“There was a day I went to the Villa and I saw this young man. This boy was just coming close to me. I paused and said to myself; who is this boy? Is he not a 419? I avoided him like a plague but he kept coming very close to me.
“Each time we meet, he would like to give me money. That act made me to be afraid of him. Why should this young man give me money?
“One day I was coming down from NICON Mega Hotel, Stanley saw me and knelt down before me and said, “Please Sir, just lay hand on me and say a word of prayer”. I told him, Stanley, get up let us go inside but he said no. He said, “Do it here”. I couldn’t help but to lay my hands on him and said, Lord, whatever virtue that is in me that this young man desires, grant it unto him.
“All of a sudden, while I was laying hands on him, I felt his hand in my pocket. I grabbed his hand because I felt he wanted to steal my money! But behold, Stanley stocked fifty thousand naira (N50,000) in my pocket. As I entered my car going to the airport, my head was pilling, thinking; where is this boy coming from? Why should he give me money? I was thinking about all of these but it wasn’t long that a boy that is about my fifth son became my friend.
“Stanley walked himself up to me. He was not coming to me to take money. He was not disturbing me financially and I became his friend and started talking to him.
“One day, I invited him to Lagos. I took him round Lagos to show him a few of my investments to humble him. I took him to about eight or nine different corporations I have in Lagos. In the end, I said to him, when you go back, you will know that I am not a small man you should be giving money.
“One day, Stanley called me and said that he wanted my favour to introduce him to First Bank if the bank could do business with him. I then asked him if he had an account with the bank and he said yes and I then asked him to send me his statement of account to see his inflow.
“He didn’t ask me for money. But when I saw his statement of account, I surprised him! I transferred One Hundred and Fifty Million (N150,000,000) to his account. I don’t need to introduce him to the bank. I told him to do whatever he wanted to do with the money and return it to me without interest but I warned him to be careful. There was no agreement between us but he faithfully returned the money in full at once after a year. We didn’t go to court. This was several years ago.
“We are not here to advertise Stanley but I feel very proud that he (Stanley) is a billionaire today and I share in his success because I impacted his life.”
To learn about how this encounter shaped the life of Dr. Stanley Uzochukwu, watch the video below