At age 28, David Sowemimo, takes the driver’s seat as the Chief executive officer of Cosulto DITT Limited, a company that combats the menace of abandoned vehicles and associated environmental challenges in Nigeria. In this interview with Justice Ilevbare, Assistant Editor, Online, the Oyo state born and Bowen University graduate spoke on the rationale behind the establishment of the company, mode of operations and efforts to ensure a cleaner environment.
What is the rationale behind setting up of Cosulto DIIT Limited?
Most of the pictures portrayed of Africa by the western world are of sickness, hunger, war, corruption and general backwardness. We are classified as belonging to the dark ages in the area of the environment, particularly the absurdity of abandoned vehicles that adorn our roads and communities. The painful thing is that our own people corroborate these claims through the wheels of our widely-travelled Nollywood movies, music videos and magazines. Like goitre in the neck of a man, everywhere our media products appear, you must find one or two derelict vehicles on the background. This saddens me. When the government of Lagos State came up with the vision to upgrade Lagos State to a Mega City status by 2020 and added the political will to it with amazing results in transportation, education, infrastructure and the environment, I said to myself, “this is the time!” That was what gave birth to the company.
How do you carry out your operations?
This depends on the laws of the land. But generally, when an abandoned vehicle is found, it is removed to the auto cemetery or the collection centre immediately if it constitutes an immediate danger to the public or marked for removal for the owner to remove immediately.
If in 24 hours the vehicle is still on the same spot untouched, it is then removed to the auto cemetery or any other designated location. If the owner comes to reclaim his/her vehicle, he pays a fine and the vehicle is marked with a chip which alerts us if the vehicle is picked as an abandoned vehicle again. In the case where the owners cannot be found, publication of such vehicle is made on the authority of the government and if after the time approved by law, the owner is still not forthcoming, the vehicle is advanced for recycling. But we do all we can to locate the owners of the vehicles for possible reclaim.
What have been your challenges since you started business?
I would say our success story is written in the ink of the challenges we have surmounted. My first proposal to a local government chairman to partner with us was torn into pieces and thrown back in my face. I cried and lost appetite for days, but I did not give up. When the government of Oshodi-Isolo under the leadership of the then Hon. Afeeze Ipesa Balogun gave us the nod to conduct our pilot scheme with his council, we needed N5million naira to rent a 2000sq/m warehouse for auto-cemetery and purchase the necessary equipment.
The architecture of the business is such that it does not lay any financial burden on the government. The banks said they won’t borrow us money, and thank God they said so because within three weeks we had N10million naira to execute the project without borrowing a dime! The biggest challenge came when the government of Oshodi/Isolo local government council changed. Hon Ipesa-Balogun left and Hon. Bolaji Ariyo came in. Our pilot was at its concluding stage and if this new man cancelled our contract, all our efforts would have gone down the drain. Amazingly, like a God-sent, he absorbed us and gave us every support we needed to succeed. This, we never forget.
What is the extent of government involvement or collaboration in your work?
The nature of this business the world over is that it is largely done in partnership with the government. Every level of government, from the local to the federal, has its legislated dictates of how to process abandoned and derelict vehicles within their jurisdiction and that is what we follow. At the moment, we are quite popular with the third tier of government, but their legislative rights are too weak, so we get harassed a lot by the police. We hope to work with state and federal governments someday. Then, respite will come.
Why Oshodi for a pilot and what are your plans to spread to other parts of the country?
Knowing Oshodi for what it is, our rationale was that if our kind of business can work in Oshodi and Lagos, it can work anywhere in Africa. I remember our first lawyer saying to us then that we young men were proposing to walk where angels feared to tread. I am glad we have been able to devise a model that is replicable anywhere in the world from what we gathered from Oshodi. No longer would criminals unleash terror on innocent citizens using abandoned vehicles as work station. No longer would the public suffer malaria that is caused by the water retained on these vehicles. No longer would there be avoidable floods. No longer will these vehicles be used by ignorant citizens as alternative to landfill sites. We were amazed by the facts we got from our pilot. We saw old women dancing and singing, thanking us for removing such vehicles from their community because it was in them many of their girls were impregnated and hoodlums unleash terror.
As a young CEO, you have older people working for you. How do you manage them?
Yes, I have much older people working with me but they don’t have a problem doing so. I sold the vision to all of them and they loved it. When disciplinary actions were taken on one of them the other day and he angrily left, he came back the next day and sighting me from afar, he started laughing. He got back on his truck and continued working. In our company, nobody presses anybody down. The goal is one. So, technically, they work for the vision, not me. We all work for the vision.
What is your background like?
I hail from Awe, Oyo State, Nigeria. I grew up in Ibadan and studied at Bowen University, Iwo, Osun State. I love to read books and to help people. I love Africa, I believe in Africa. I often say if the
Africa we inherited from our parents is the Africa we leave to our children, our generation has failed. I am equally convinced that Africa’s problems can best be solved by Africans and that God has given us everything we need to lead the world. I was 27 years old when I started the company and did not have N5, 000 in my bank account at the time but I believe if God gives you a vision, He will make the provision. Nothing is impossible.
What is your inspiration?
I owe a lot to God, my wife, partners and mentors. We withstood the storms of actualising this dream together.
