A new definition of sweat and Fun..... the Rapid Paintball Arena!

magine yourself as a member of a SWAT team trying to raid a building where some people are being held hostage by gunmen-guns filled with bullets, helmets on, protective masks, protective pads on your knees and elbows, etc bullets fired at you from different angles, you dock sometimes, you get hit sometimes….the anxiety, the fear, cold sweat, your heart’s racing,…. that kind of feeling! In this case the only difference is the paintballs replacing the bullets and the markers replacing the guns but the feeling is the exact same thing!

For all you fun-loving and adventurous people who seek where to channel all your adrenaline, Rapid Paintball Arena (RPA) is the right place. For me, I’d say its way too much stress and fun at the same time because it carries along every single nerve you’ve got. Visit the place “rapidly” because Rapid (as it is fondly called) is the very place. I had one of my best interviews with the Managing Director because it was filled with fun and laughter as he expressed himself in a very ardent but modest way. Be inspired as I take you through it all……

· Please introduce yourself…

My name is Akintunde Rotimi and I am in my early 30’s. I am the MD/CEO of Rapid Paintball Arena (RPA).

· We wanna get to know you….

I was born and bred in Lagos state, I have 2 siblings and my parents are both civil servants. I attended Pampas private school where I did my nursery and primary education after which I attended International School of Lagos for my secondary education. Upon the completion of my secondary education, I got admission into University of Lagos where I studied Survey and Geoinformatics, I graduated in 2006.

· Tell us about Rapid Paintball arena, how did it all begin?

After graduation in 2006, I had a group of friends here in Abuja. We all finished from university at the same time and all our parents were in Abuja as well. During youth service, most of us were serving in or around Abuja so we used to hang out together and do the same regular Abuja activities (clubbing, visiting restaurants, drinking etc). We got bored quickly because most of us lived in Lagos and the fact that we were doing virtually the same thing over and over again made things worse. I had an idea to do something out of the ordinary so we sat down to think of activities we can put together and do-something that is not yet in Abuja or even in Nigeria. At that time, we were 4 of u right now we are 6. The ideas we came up with were Go carting, paintball, tag, port-biking, off-road carting in fact, it was a long list. This was way back in 2007. Afterwards, we agreed to put one of these things in place- initially, we chose Go carting but the cost of putting that on ground was way beyond us because we were young and we didn’t want to borrow money or take up loans from banks so we ended up with paintball. We officially kicked off in 2013 at Maitama amusement park and we are proud to say that we are the first paintball company in Abuja. We have four staff- 2 permanent staff and 2 temporary staff and that’s about that.

· What/ who inspired you to do what you do?

Looking around and seeing how things were and how they should be was an inspiration- there was really nothing different to do at that time in Abuja. The nightlife controlled the city so we wanted something “everyone” could do during the day. Also we wanted something that would not be gender selective- women cannot play football or any other sport with men and vice versa, something that people from different races and religion can accept and it has been successful so far. The basic idea is come, play and have fun and we have been able to achieve that.

· How do you promote your business?

Social media- we have handles on twitter, Instagram, a facebook page, etc. we also made flyers and distributed to people around at some point, we even had a banner in Silverbird Galleria and also public relations as well.

· #TelltheTruth- what are the difficulties/challenges you faced/face in your business?

Initially when we started at Maitama amusement park, the place wasn’t really selling and to make matters worse, we had issues with the management of the place which led to an entire shutdown. That was a major setback for us. We also had financial issues- this is due to the fact that we refused to take up loans from banks and decided to strictly fund the whole project privately so it’s been very slow but really steady. Furthermore, people’s opinion concerning the entire thing could be negative sometimes- initially we were faced with security agencies particularly the Nigerian police coming around to see what we are doing, whether we have real guns and bullets in our possessions or whether we are trying to kill people, etc even FCDA and FCTA asking questions and all that but we conquered all that after we showed them all our equipments. Some of them even watched us play sometimes, when they were convinced that what we do is completely harmless, they walk away smiling.

· What are your dreams for RPA?

RPA is just one out of our bucket lists of things we want to do so it’s a step and we believe there is going to be an expansion. Secondly, we hope our clientele grows so well because we intend to organize interstate tournaments where individuals from different parts of Nigeria compete for the goodies we will set as prizes- that’s our dream!

· #dropitlikeitshot – say something to inspire someone out there.

Keep your feet on the ground and keep doing what you love.

Thank you Mr. Akintunde for your time….. God bless you!

See photos below;