I
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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……
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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).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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#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.
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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!
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#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;
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| Paint on board! |
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| she is all geared up! |
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| all fun and games! |
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| fun all the way! |
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| Aim!!!!!!! |
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| she is all ready to play!! |
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| Tutorials! |
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| It is not gender specific!!! |
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| getting markers ready! |
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| Teammates! |
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| so cool!!!!! |
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| Squad! |
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| Unity in diversity! |
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| run for your life!!!!!!! |
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| The Arena!!! |
