By Bomba Dauda
Rijo Shekari (FCCA) is a magnificent gentleman whose enduring life goals are to be educated, successful, be great and have tremendous influence on his environment. With the passage of time, he has achieved a lot more because he spends his life on more worthy pursuits. As it is now, Rijo has grown accustomed to managing success.
At this young age, he has tangible accomplishments to brandish. Here is why: in academics, he often puts up a stellar record. While in business, he is shrewd and has a strong work ethics, and is meticulous to details. As the CEO of Kamrum Integrated Farms, he has lifted the company’s profile and increased its fortune exponentially. Being a chartered accountant with over seventeen years of experience in commercial and
investment banking, risk management and financial advisory has helped him in the prudent management of his entity’s resources.
In addition, he is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Accountants, United Kingdom, and is a Commonwealth Scholar. He holds a BSc in Accounting from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and an MSc in Finance and Management from Cranfield University, United Kingdom. Rijo has been involved in farming for a better part of his adult life, growing corn and ginger, and engaging in animal husbandry. All of this coalesced to give Kamrum Farm a competitive edge.
Rijo Shekari at his farm
His numerous achievements across political and business spheres have added layers in the Rijo conversion, from one discerning mind to another, Rijo has become a reference point of innovative ideas. The young innovative mind has grown from the abstract to the concrete pulling along with him many young innovative minds – too. Rijo is a mentor with a horde of mentees that are learning the curve in politics, business and innovation. If Rijo’s growth continues, he will undoubtedly create impact beyond his current sphere of influence.
His success story is a combined effect of nature and nurturing processes. These viewpoints correlate with the Great Man theory which suggests that nature plays the dominant role in leadership ability. Evidently so. Rijo is intelligent, smart and full of empathy. To say leadership qualities are innate and inborn traits in Rijo is no-brainer. More so a cliché?
By all standards, Rijo is a leader because he has carried people along with him to share in his space. A friend and confidant, Mr. Edward Auta described Rijo Shekari as being “visionary” and “full of empathy for the have – nots.” Even with his numerous achievements, Rijo is humble, has humility and integrity, and is courageous. Talking about courage, it is on record that Rijo is the first young man to have contested for the Southern Kaduna senatorial seat and who is also an investor that plowed in his hard-earned resources into large scale farming, a sector notable for its high premium risks.
If leadership quality depends on the innate characteristics of individuals, which in turn shape their environment, then, Rijo has been identifying community needs and using his personal wealth in providing adequate solutions that are yielding greater benefits to a large district of people. Rijo has shown leadership skills by standing in between social needs and provision.
For instance, before the beginning of the current rainy season, he built drainage and prevented floods that for years made life unbearable to the Zakwa community in Kaura LGA of Kaduna State. In May, 2024 Rijo registered 480 persons to multiple cooperative societies in Zango – kataf LGA. In his characteristic benevolence, he offered grants to 5 students to read Medicine at the University. He shared Sanitary pads to students of Government Girls College and Government Secondary School, Zonkwa in Kaduna State.
Students of Government Girls College and Government Secondary School, Zonkwa displaying the pads that were distributed to them
In fulfilling its objectives of contributing to national food security, and the development of human capacity, Kamrum Integrated Farms, in partnership with Ahmadu Bello University, University of Jos, and University of Abuja, would be launching the Kamrum Farms undergraduate Agric – scholarship Scheme, commencing with the 2024/2025 Academic session. The scholarship’s singular aim is to identify and develop talent for tomorrow’s opportunities in the agricultural – sector.
It is not a surprise that youths in Southern Kaduna are pleased by his tectonic rise. No wonder Youths in the geopolitics under the auspice of the Southern Kaduna Youths and Students Forum, SKYFOM felicitated with Mr. Rijo following his appointment into the technical committee for the review of the Nigerian Youth Investment Fund (NYF) by the Minister of Youth Development.
Rijo’s business acumen is topnotch. He has mustered guts and delved into what many youths locally and globally are unlikely to make sense out of it: farming. He has created niches in the private sector and in the business cycle making him one of the rising youngsters in innovation, creativity and risk taking. Indeed, his success story runs in the loop.
He is among the coterie of young investors in the forefront of re-conceptualizing the thought process of the Nigerian youths. When he made inroads into agriculture, he definitely brought closer insight into the future, a re-engineering of thought processes and a mega shift from too much focus on white-collar jobs. Rijo pooled humongous resources and prodigious amounts of time into agro-business and deployed technology to maximize and ensure quality yield that will meet international standards.
