How N100, 000 turned Lawal into a mega entrepreneur

Lawal Akintayo is the chief executive officer of TCMB Professional Services Limited, a health business that is focused on medical billing, debt recovery and claims reconciliation.

Having gained experience in the health sector for five years, Lawal was inspired to start a mega enterprise as he wanted to provide solutions to some of the challenges faced by players in the industry.

To provide health solutions to Nigerians, he established TCMB Professional Services Limited in 2015.

Lawal had to take up a loan of N100, 000 from a money deposit bank to setup his business, a loan which he fully repaid after the first month of operation.

The Business Administration graduate said his business was able to achieve this feat because of consistent hard work and its willingness to seek other opportunities within the sector.

Today, Lawal’s services are in high demand in the industry.

When asked how his business had been surviving recession, Lawal said that despite the economic downturn impacting businesses negatively, his enterprise had continued to grow because of the array of services it currently rendered to its customers.

“Everybody is looking for more customers and part of our services is to help providers to get and retain the customers. Our mission is to contribute to the growth and profitability of our clients’ businesses,” he said.

When asked what his biggest challenge was, Lawal said they were breach in contractual agreement and poor accessibility to funds.

He stated that trust was also a big challenge to his business as most of the players in the industry always preferred giving contracts to businesses with big names, giving little or no room for start-ups.

Poor power supply and tough business environment were taking toll on his business, he said, adding that the business had survived and grown despite pressures.

“The challenges are huge but what we are doing differently at TCMB Professional Services Ltd is to help providers harness their full potential by reducing outflows and increasing inflows. Our services include HMO/medical billing, debt recovery, claims payment reconciliation and logistics,” he said.

“So what we basically do at TCMB is to take the administrative burden off health practitioners and allow them to concentrate more on the clinical aspect of the business,” Lawal added.

He stated that the Federal Government could revolutionise the health sector through the provision of funds for private hospitals to enable them source for important medical equipment.

“Government needs to come up with a special loan package with zero interest rate for private health care practitioners to acquire the needed equipment and consumables because they do not come cheap,” he said.

“Government needs to revise the laws governing the national health insurance scheme because you cannot be the player and the referee in a game,” he further said.

The Business Administration graduate said he would tell his younger self to look out for problems in the society and provide solutions for them. He would equally tell his younger self to be prayerful, avoid distractions and be passionate about realising his dreams, he stated.

When asked how Nigeria could grow its health sector, he opined that government must dialogue with all the stakeholders in the sector to develop a blueprint on ways to move the sector forward. He also called for increased funding of research to the sector.

“To grow the health sector in Nigeria, government needs to call relevant stakeholders to brainstorm and develop a footprint, increase funding and also participate actively in research that will benefit the health sector,” Lawal said.

Josephine Okojie