“There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries.” The foregoing words of ancient English playwright, William Shakespeare, probably sum up the young and eventful life of Madam Rita Nnennah Anoh, the Managing Director of Veroz Group of Companies, a Port Harcourt-based outfit that is into various business ventures that range from fast foods to construction. Now 34, the story of Anoh’s life is so amazing that it could pass for a fairy tale.
In 2006, as a young graduate about to go for youth service in Port Harcourt, her late mother, Mrs. Veronica Anoh, had to borrow N8,000 for her to travel. But within six years, she had risen to the top in a banking career that lasted barely three years. Since then, she has gone on to nurture from the scratch a multi-billion naira business with more than 250 workers on her payroll. She is a philanthropist who has used her wealth to quietly reach out to hundreds of people in the past.
Still, not much of her was in the public domain until she recently picked up Uzoamaka Chukwu, the 15-year-old orphan girl from Ohaozara development area in Ebonyi State allegedly molested by some men. Uzoamaka’s physical and psychological torture multiplied when her ordeal went viral on the Internet. The assault on her drew condemnation from the high and low. The alleged culprits were arrested and arraigned in court. This attracted the attention of Rita Anoh. She volunteered to not only rehabilitate the girl by adopting her, but offered her scholarship up to the university level.
Without a knowledge of Anoh’s grass-to-grace story, one might think she was one of the proverbial few, whose kernel, according to celebrated novelist Chinua Achebe, was broken by the gods. But while Anoh must have received divine help in one way or the other, hard work and integrity played major parts.
Speaking about her early years, she said: “I am from Onicha Igbeze community in Ebonyi State. I was brought up by a single parent. I was trained by my late mother who is also my role model. I have a brother.
“Growing up was not easy because my mother had to take care of us from primary to secondary school and to become university graduates. It was not an easy task for her. She was a civil servant with a very low income. She had to sacrifice to make sure we got education.
“After graduating from the university, I came to Rivers State for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme. That was between 2006 and 2007. As a youth corps member in Rivers State, I would go for my primary assignment and also engage in another job to earn extra income. As youth corps members, we were expected to teach. I did that in the morning, close around 1:30 pm and then resumed in the place of my secondary assignment, which was a job I found for myself as a receptionist in a hotel.
“I was doing permanent night shift so that I would have time to meet up with my primary assignment. It was not easy. I had to come from the primary assignment, immediately change my clothes and head to where I would do my secondary assignment. In the morning, I had to jet home, take a shower and proceed to where I was serving.
“It was stressful, but life is all about determination. Nothing ever is easy in life. I had to pass through all that, knowing that someday, it was going to be well. Although I was not actually seeing the end, I had hope and was enjoying keeping myself busy, knowing that that was the only time I could do that kind of thing. It was quite an interesting time. I was earning N8,500 as a youth corps member, and in the place where I was working as a receptionist, I was earning N14,000.
“As I finished my youth service, the job of receptionist also finished. I didn’t have anything to do, but I was also reluctant to go back to Ebonyi State because there was nothing for me to do there. I decided to stay and go job hunting in Port Harcourt. I got a job in a supermarket called Park ‘n’ Shop. The day I went to pick up my uniform as one of the sales girls, the human relations manager called me and said: ‘Come, you are a graduate. Why do you want to do this job?’ I told him I had not found my dream job and I just had to do something. He said there was a place that was employing and he was sure that I would like the place. I told him I didn’t know about the place and he gave me the address.
“It was a pension fund company. After the interview, they said they were going to give me N11, 500. I said no, Park ‘n’ Shop wanted to give me N24,000 as a sales girl, and here I was going to earn just N11,500, and I had to go round to register people for pension account? I told the person that I didn’t want the job but he encouraged me to go and do it because it was a career job.
“I took the offer and I was paid N11, 500. I was living on that but It was quite challenging. I was working with Pension Alliance, living far away. I got to know that a colleague of mine who was a driver in the company was living around the area. He asked me to be coming early in the morning to join him so that we could be going to work together while I could also join him to return home in the evening. That took away the transportation aspect of it.
“Early in the morning, around 5:30 am, I would wait for him at a particular junction. After work, I had to wait for him to drop one of our bosses and then he would take his own car and I would join him. He would have to load passengers in the car and I would help him to collect money from the passengers. He would drop them at a particular point and we would continue. He would pick another set of passengers and I would collect the fare. When I got to where he would drop me, I would calculate the money and hand it over to him. It was fun. The relationship was not that of a graduate and a driver; we were like brother and sister.”
At her job as a marketer at the insurance company, she was so target-driven that her colleagues gave her the nickname ’Performer’. She however, still was to have a date with destiny.
She recalled: “One day in the office, I got tired and decided to hide myself in the security room to rest. One of the managers of the bank we shared the property where my office was with came out. He said he wanted to make a deposit into his wife’s account and he would not be able to descend the staircase. He looked into the security room and asked who was there, and I raised my head and introduced myself. He asked if I could help him to make a deposit in his wife’s account. I took the money, walked down, made the deposit and came back to give him the duplicate.
“He asked me what I was doing for the insurance company and I told him. He asked if I was a graduate, I said yes. He asked if I would want to work with the bank and I said yes. He asked for my CV and I went upstairs, pleaded with the IT person to help me print my CV. I came back and submitted my CV and forgot about it. I continued with my job at Pension Alliance. “
While still struggling to make ends meet at the insurance company, she got the sad news that her mother who meant everything to her was dead.
She said: “For me, it was total blackout. I was very close to her. When I lost her, I virtually blanked out in everything I was doing. It was a big setback. I told them to take me to the morgue where she was kept. I promised her that I would uphold all her values and legacies. Even though I had nothing, I told her whatever I would ever have in life, I would name them after her.
I took stock of myself. I asked myself what I was doing in Port Harcourt. I was doing a job for which I was paid N11, 500. I decided that maybe I just had to go back to Ebonyi State and live. That was why years later after I established my company, I named it Veroz after my late mother whose name was Veronica.”
After her mother’s burial, she was still in Ebonyi State trying to pick the bits and pieces of her life when she got an SMS message inviting her to attend an interview for a bank job.
“That was two days after my mother’s funeral. Three weeks after the interview, I resumed work at Pension Alliance. I got a call and the person said, ‘Miss Anoh, congratulations on your employment at Afribank. Come over and pick your letter of appointment.’
“I said it was a joke. I called the person back and asked of the person who called me. He said yes, come and pick up your appointment letter. I went and got the letter. That was how my life started.
“That was 2008, precisely in June. I was put in customer service. However, when our regional manager came to our branch, he asked what I was doing in customer service. He said I was not employed for customer service, I should be a marketer. I was moved to marketing. In less than six months, I was able to do half a billion naira. I was nominated Marketer of the Year for the South South region.
“In less than two years in the bank, I was promoted as the head, financial institution and wealth management for South-South region due to my performance. As I was in the bank, meeting people who had businesses to execute, I listened to their business plans for the banks to partner with them. I also told myself that I could do something like that for myself. So, whenever I got transaction for the bank, I also would want to key into my customers’ business.
“Some of them who were into construction jobs and so on, I would always ask, ‘Can I supply something?’ They would ask, ‘Can you? What exactly can you?’ I would tell them I could supply chippings and all that. They will tell me supply this, let’s see. Due to the fact that I am from Ebonyi State, I knew we had quarries and stones. I would send my sister-in-law and tell her I needed so and so quantity from the quarries. She would supervise and load it for me.
“When I closed from the bank, I would have to go and change and come out and wait for the trailer drivers with the chippings. There is a law in Port Harcourt that you don’t do those supplies in day time, only in the night. When they come in, they would have to park and wait until night. I had to go and wait for them. I waited for them at the site to confirm that the quantity was what I ordered. When they had finished offloading, I would go back. Through that, I was making extra money. I had other things I also did for them. I saved money.”
Although for a young woman she could be described as successful and in a kind of position every woman dreams about but only few are able to achieve, she still wanted to achieve more.
“One day, I went to do something in one of our branches and I saw a house that had a ‘to let’ sign on it. I looked at it and thought it was a nice location. I called the number on it and asked how much it was to be sold. They told me. I didn’t have anything in mind as I was taking the place until I went in and I started thinking that this place will be good for fast food. I started renovating the place, opened my first branch and started from there.
“I resigned from the bank the very month I opened. When I tendered my resignation letter, my boss, then in Lagos, refused to sign it. She said she gave me three months to think about it. I told her I had already done that. She said it was not going to be rosy. I told her I actually knew but I didn’t want to continue to live a life that I knew that if you took it away from me, I could not afford it.
“The bank had made it comfortable for me with all the comforts around; the chauffeur driven vehicle and all that. The day I stopped performing for the bank, they would take away all that from me and I would be left with nothing. So, why wouldn’t I start now and I felt I could do it. Though it was not going to be rosy, in the, end it would make sense.
“She said she would still give me time and I said I didn’t need it because I would stop coming to work from Saturday. It was then she agreed. That was in February 2012. From 2012 till now, we have opened about five branches here in Port Harcourt. I was supposed to open one of our branches in Abuja last year but I could not because of some issues. We are still working on it. Currently, we have more than 250 employees on our payroll. Before the end of this year, we are still going to open some more branches. After that, we will begin to expand outside Port Harcourt. We have expatriates who are working with us.”
Asked where she got the strong will and unquenchable desire to excel, she said: “I am going to say it is natural, but I got it from my mum. It was so natural for her. Growing up, I saw her as that strong-willed woman. When I grew up, I discovered that I was a replica of her.”
Although she was brought up by a single parent, Anoh never believes the situation has affected her in any way. “For me, having a single parent or both parents is almost the same thing because I had a mother who never made feel the absence of a man in my life. My mother took all the risk. She made all the sacrifice, and she was willing to do anything to make sure I survived. So, she was rich in value, strength and morals. I really don’t feel the absence of a father in my life. My mother played the role of both in my life, 100 per cent.
“So, up till today, when people ask me how do I feel not having a father, I say I can’t explain because I don’t know what it feels like. My mother was a disciplinarian; a very strong one. I was satisfied growing up with her.”
Despite the strong will and determination to succeed, deep down, there was always the desire to help the less privileged. She talked about it: “It is a gift from God. I discovered while growing up that I like to see people happy. Whenever I see people distressed, it affects me psychologically. It is bad that when I see jungle justice being applied to robbers, I would start crying, I would want to rescue them irrespective of what they have done.
“I discovered that I feel good whenever I put a smile on somebody’s face. That is like paying a hundred thousand pounds into my account. I discovered that this makes me happy. This is my calling, I have to uphold it. That was how I ventured into philanthropy. “
Anoh also talked about the reason she reached out to Uzoamaka Chukwu: “Being an orphaned and growing up as someone who was deprived of certain things in the society, I just saw in Uzoamaka a girl who deserves a chance to prove to the world that there is something better that can come out of her, something good that the society can benefit from. When I saw her, I said to myself, ‘Waoh! This is a farmland I need to work on.‘ In Uzoamaka, I just fulfilled a call that I have to show love.
“Uzoamaka is a lovely and sweet girl; very determined. She will be somebody that people would be surprised by what she would become in future. I have seen that in her. She is a very precious child. I am sure she must have forgotten by now what happened to her. The day she went for her entrance exam and she did not do well, she broke down in tears and started crying. When they called me and told me what she was doing, that she did not know how to come back home and tell me she did not do well, I felt, she was getting somewhere, realising that she did not do well and cried about it and worried about it. That means there is hope that she will do well in future. I consoled her. She did not know it. It was because of her background and foundation. I told her she should stop crying and assured her she was going to get admission. I bought all her books. She is in school. She is a fantastic girl.”
Although not yet married, Rita Anoh believes marriage is an aspect of life that should be entered with circumspection and the seriousness it deserves. But as a second nature, she would continue to help the less privileged.
Asked how she unwinds, Rita said she hardly has social life: “I don’t have time to unwind. I am an indoor person. I lock up myself in my room and relax.
