Category: Small Business and Entreprenuership

Ngozi Okonta Simeon, an agro-allied farmer and entrepreneur of over one decade is the Managing Director/Chief Executive, Cycalis Integrated Concepts, a startup which makes colourful and creative aprons, raincoats and hair accessories. In this interview with Yetunde Oladeinde, the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA) graduate talks about how she started small and grew bigger making distinct products and carving a niche in an unbeaten track. Excerpts:

What or who inspired you to go into the sector?

In any human endeavour, there is always a need to be attended to. To succeed it is important to look at a need and identify what to do in perspective. Once this has been done, then we can tackle it. For us, we discovered that most hair covers in the market are either too small or not durable at all. In addition, we also realised that with the trend of big hairdos, it was important to come up with something bigger, colourful and durable.

Interestingly, the inspiration came when a friend saw a sample of this kind of cap in my bag and her swift reaction to the size and colour inspired me to go for it.

What was it like at the beginning?

I would say that the beginning of every success story is never smooth. However because it’s my vision and with the inspiration which I believe God is with me, I was determined to face it headlong. I was determined to make it no matter the challenges that will come my way.

What were you doing before this and what was the experience like?

I have always been an entrepreneur and I was always waiting and hoping for every opportunity to prove myself. I was so sensitive about this aspect of my life that I can grab every opportunity to hone my skills. And after my National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) I worked with Genevieve magazine, there I gathered some managerial skills to prepare myself for my aspiration. Then when the time was right for me to venture into the business, I started gathering my resources together and the rest is what we are seeing now.

Let’s talk about some memorable moments in your life and career?

For me, the memorable moments in my life would be when I had my first son and when I started getting orders from my products as a beginner. Another memorable moment for me would be when I got income from the business. It was very inspiring and memorable for me.

What are some of the challenges encountered?

For me, the challenges started when I began to ask myself how I was going to launch myself to the market. In addition, I was also worried about how to get the machines required to do the great job as well as surviving in the market with the ever elusive capital. However, I remained unshaken because I am determined to succeed and make a difference with my business. From the onset, I already knew that I should not despise every little beginning, so I forged ahead from there and was determined to conquer the market. Initially, we started with 50 items and now we have grown to supplying   thousands of our products to our numerous clients.

How do you cope with the challenges? 

For every challenge, there is always a solution and they actually make me stronger. I actually believe that challenges come and go. It is only somebody that is not ready to grow, that won’t be ready to face the challenges of life and business.

Who or what do you consider as the greatest influence in your life and career?

The greatest influence in my life is my passion and it drives me to do more. I strongly believe in the never give up spirit; this keeps me moving all the time. I must also say that my husband has been a great pillar of support for me and he keeps encouraging me to do more. In addition, my friend (my business mentor) Margaret Osinaike has been my push as well as my support beyond my imagination.

Let’s compare when you started doing this and now, what has changed?

Yes, I must say that a lot has changed and is still changing in the business. From the number of product we started with and the creativity that has gone into what we do. Also, we have added some new products and it’s still on. In addition, we have been able to put up a business structure in such a way that our business is a growing concern for our competitors in the sector. One other interesting fact is that we have also added some technology into our production process. That is not all. Along the line we have also increased our capacity in terms of volume of our production and personnel.

In what ways has being an entrepreneur changed your lifestyle?

Life as an entrepreneur is very interesting. In the process, I have been able to appreciate value addition in what we do. This is reflected daily in terms of new innovations that we rolled out with strategies, process, discipline and corporate culture which are hallmarks of a good entrepreneur. I am also more matured now than then and totally in control. Going a step further, I can proudly tell you that I am also more at home with my customers now, unlike what obtained at the beginning of the business.  I am also more competent and more mature in the way that I deal with riding issues now than when I started.

What are some of the changes that you would like to see in the sector?

I would like to see a better enabling environment for business, especially businesses owned by women. It is also important to have easy access to business funds without encumbering bottlenecks, tax rebates. Furthermore, I strongly believe that it is important to have more training opportunities for entrepreneurs by the governments. And for those of us in the sector, quality of product should be the key in whatever we do.

What are some of the lessons that you have learnt while doing this?

I have learnt over the years that success is achieved through determination, focus and patience. Business is a risk, so it is very important to always calculate your business risks. Also when you have a vision do not procrastinate because more than a million people are also thinking of that same thing in your mind. So take action and do not delay.

What are some of the new areas that you would like to explore in future?

We have a lot of product lines that we have already started in our business model. We shall follow our business strategy in other to bring out the best and satisfy our customers at all times.

The management and board of LAPO Microfinance Bank, one of the leading microfinance banks in the country has assured of its commitment towards support start-ups.

Giving this assurance at the weekend was the Managing Director/Chief Executive of the bank, Dr. Godwin Ehigiamusoe. He spoke at the customers’ forum in Lagos.

While noting that the purpose of the forum is to institutionalise the bank’s customers’ eccentricity which is basically to put them in the centre of transaction, he was however quick to add that the bank periodically assesses its relationship with clients and take action, but the gathering is still necessary to deepen the bank’s culture of engagement with people at the bottom in the society.

The bank chief revealed that the bank in the last four years adopted Alternative Channel department to enhance delivery financial services to its clients.

He promised the forum that the bank will continue to expand its footprints and prioritise provision of financial services especially credit to people who are excluded from mainstream financial system.

Speaking on default as the fact of lending, Ehigiamusoe said the bank which started over 25 years ago as non-profit organisation, has over the year developed appropriate and effective strategies to ensure mitigation of the risk of default, saying though the bank like any other lending institutions has not completely eradicate possibility of default but able to manage it over the years.

Speaking on how regulations of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has impacted on microfinance banks in Nigeria, the bank chief opined that regulatory environment particularly for microfinance bank by the apex bank has been significantly enabling compared to other African countries.

He highlighted that the microfinance banks may not have the volume of loan access compare with commercial banks but their significant impacts in the society is enormous, ranging from meeting the needs of large number of people and helping their businesses to improve standard of living.

Answering question on plans by LAPO to begin electronic banking to ease some of its manual processes, the bank chief noted that though no any separate delivery firm or company at this point can ignore technology and its impact but while making decision on the choice of channel to use, they should take to account the nature and characteristics of their clients base.

According to him, “I strongly believe that there are challenges in the operating environment, but what is more important is the fact that this is a nation of very high population of very enterprising people. And so when you have a nation of enterprising people and you have regulatory environment that is significantly enabling, that pose a fertile ground for microfinance banks to blossom in Nigeria.

“On the average we put in 13/14 billion naira every month to the market for people to improve on their businesses. And when you come to a forum like this listen to testimonies of people talking about assessing LAPO loans over the years have been able to improve their businesses and translating to improvement in their welfare, supporting their children’s education,” he explained.

Some of the customers of the bank gathered at the forum, who could not hide their joy, commended the microfinance bank for its reliable and huge supports in time of need and promise to always support the bank to grow to an enviable height in Nigeria.

Nigeria has its own pool of fearless and talented women entrepreneurs who have made a mark for themselves. One of them is a Lagos currency trader, Miss Doris Ojuederie, who has established a thriving venture, DANIEL ESSIET reports.

Doris Ojuederie is the CEO and Coordinator of Block chain African Ladies. She is a passionate entrepreneur driven by the belief that entrepreneurs solve problems and create needed human transformation, and that the world needs more empowered entrepreneurs.

She makes $100 a day doing digital business, using block chain described as an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything of value.  She is a certified block chain expert.

She trades in digital currencies, using block chain technology.  Speaking with The Nation, Miss Ojuederie said she was caught by the bug of crytocurrencies very early. Her desire to learn and understand the block chain technology was kindled six years ago while she was a university undergraduate. As a young entrepreneur, she invested in crypto currency. She bought them low and sold at higher prices. She made  good money as a young crypto trader. As she advanced and got out of college, she discovered that there was more to this technology than just trading cryptos as she conducted diligent research. She then realised that crypto currency is only a product of the block chain, the technology behind it. She also discovered that there was so much more about the block chain. She began to study the tech behind block chain and to understand why it is so important for the average person. She started investing and trading. After months of practicing and trading she started to understand the basics and started doing well.

According to her, she spent hours a day learning about blockchain, finance and technology.  She is into the technical analysis side of things and she has made ‘crazy’ gains, sold and invested in different digital currencies.

She said she makes not less than $3000 per month, putting her money in different digital coins. Her earnings are enough to take care of her basic needs. She has become financially independent.

After making consistent profits, she made up her mind, which is making a career in crytocurrencies trading. She has been doing well with minimal effort and research. For her, crypto is really addictive. She has been trading full time because she’s making that much money.

As many see crypto currency as scam and Ponzi, Miss Ojuederie has risen to the challenge of educating Nigerians that it provides sustainable means of livelihood.

She has started crypto currency training, educating people on the true description of the block chain technology and crypto currency.

One good thing about block chain is that transactions around the world are transparent and open for everyone to see. The nature of block chain as a distributed ledger now provides unprecedented transparency. Block chain is built to be tamper proof.

The introduction of smart contracts also makes block chain even more powerful. Payments aren’t the only transactions that can be kept in the transparent ledger. Proof of property such as land titles and other asset certificates can now be stored in the block chain as well.

With crypto currency fast becoming serious business, Miss Ojuederie said young women can join the digital revolution and make money for themselves.

According to her, digital currencies can help grow savings, generate extra income and make the world a better place.

She is on the mission to help entrepreneurs navigate the crypto currency space and keep a step ahead of the changes happening in their financial future.

While educating people, she discovered that only a few women attended her classes.

To correct the gender gap, she is empowering women with financial freedom. She  has created  the Block chain African Ladies (BAL), an all-female organisation spreading across Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon and Egypt  among others. BAL unites African women for the purpose of learning about potential block chain opportunities and how they can leverage this technology to become financially independent.

The forum encourages women to own block chain businesses.

Enormous international corporations such as JP Morgan and Microsoft have begun experimenting with virtual currency, a realm once regarded as being primarily for dubious purposes.

She said there are jobs for Nigerians, who want to specialise in block chain technology. This is because demand has grown as large companies have begun to work on projects that make use of the technology. Facebook, Amazon, IBM and Microsoft are among companies that have job listings at the moment for block chain engineers.

At the moment, these types of jobs tend to carry titles such as back-end engineer, systems engineer or solutions architect. According to her, block chain is a technology that will continue to be around for a long time and it’s a place Nigerians can build a career around.

She is determined to spend the rest of her life thinking about block chain technologies. The Block chain ladies conference, which held in Lagos saw a gathering of thought leaders and influencers in the industry.

With most digital products and applications doing well in the market, there is the need to build product managers (PMs) capacity. Against this backdrop, a forum was held in Lagos to equip product managers and train new ones, DANIEL ESSIET reports.

How do successful tech firms, such   as Amazon, Inter switch, Paystack and Flutter wave design and develop the products that  sell and return millions to investors?

This was the issue addressed by Product Tank MeetUp, a group of aspiring and serving product managers (PM), which held in Lagos.

The  first speaker was Paystack Head of Partnerships, Khadijah Abu. She has 10 years’experience in fintech and payments. She had worked in operations, business process re-engineering and product management. She has also managed products processing billions of dollars yearly.

Miss  Abu said majority of tech firms spend money to structure and staff a vibrant and successful product organisation. This, according to her, is to help them discover and deliver technology products that customers will love.

She maintained that the best firms are built by extraordinary product minds.

She explained that they set the product strategy, designed to achieve the corporate vision and goals as well as manage the marketing and development of the product.

Generally, she explained that the product manager is responsible for the strategy and roadmap of a product or product line and that this may include marketing and forecasting.

She said they also work with other key leaders in engineering, sales, support, and marketing to ensure that their firm builds the right product.

She said the demand for qualified product managers is growing.

As a product manager, she spends most of her time with the development team and customers. While she enjoyed the business side, she wanted to get more hands-on with technology.

She loves the collaboration between her and other departments because she gets to learn something new from her peers daily.

She added that product management has continued to expand as a profession.

Miss Abu said even if one was not a product manager, one could learn strategies that make talented PMs successful.

Other speakers included product luminaries Group Head Payment Processing, Inters witch Group, Ina Alogwu. He started his session with career story.

He explained the five rules of a product manager.

He spoke about the things that are  necessary for an evolving product manager, such as understanding the difference between features and user experience and that DevOps collaboration and involvement at the beginning of the product is what gets the work done.

Alogwu said the product team would have an impact on what a firm becomes. He explained that product managers use data to align stakeholders with roadmaps, track efficacy of what’s been built, and prioritise what to build next.

Prior to venturing into technology, he spent some years in management consulting. It’s his job to ensure that developers build new products.

Toyin Oshinowo and Adrian Agho later joined Alogwu and Abu on the panel session.

Oluwatoyin Oshinowo is the Co-founder and Vice President of Product at Fieldinsight, a firm that helps large organisations use data to manage and monitor their distribution assets.

Oshinowo said one major skill of a good product manager is discovering gaps in user experiences and anticipating product flaws through research.

TeamApt Product Manager  Adrian Agho, after graduating with a computer science degree from the University of Lagos, worked first as a software  developer and  later as a  product manager.

Switching to product management allowed him to combine multiple loves: building products that improve people’s lives using technology, problem solving, vision setting, exploration,  communication, and ideation.