Tunji Owoeye, a chartered accountant, is the Managing Director of Elephant Group, one of the leading agro-allied companies in Nigeria. He is also the Chairman of Rice Investors and Distributors Association of Nigeria. He spoke to OKORIE UGURU about his life and business. Excerpts:
You trained as a demographer. What are you doing in business?
My training as a demographer was just a phase of my life. It was just the first course of study. With my first degree in Demography, I trained as a chartered accountant in some of the renowned accounting firms that we have in the country. From there, the interest in commodities came up. We started that in 1994.
At what point did you decide that you’d had enough of paid job and wanted to be on your own?
Between 1991 and 1993, I was responsible for driving the revenue of a savings and loans company, as the general manager. We found out then that with the scarcity of foreign exchange, some of our customers were always looking for foreign exchange. We saw the scarcity and we saw a service scam in the foreign exchange system in the country. Because of that, I and one of my colleagues in the industry then decided to look at servicing the gap here. And how would we do that? We saw that one of the opportunities was to engage in foreign exchange earning. And what could give that other than oil is export of agro-commodities. That was how we started the Elephant Group in 1994.
You started with oil and agro-allied products in 1994. One would have thought that somewhere along the line, you would leave agro for oil, but you left oil to concentrate on agro-allied products. What informed that?
Two reasons informed that. One, I think it was divine. It was how God had ordained it to be. Two, we saw that there were limitations in growth in the oil industry then, because it was oil services. We saw that for us to grow, we needed to partner with the oil majors, the oil-producing companies. Then and even now, I think it is dependent on the way the producing companies feel before you are given the opportunity to be part of the value chain. In agro business, we found that there are no limitations. It is not dependent on PPRMC or on relationship with a particular CEO of an oil producing company you know. It was a free entry on agro business then.
It is good to work in an environment where you are not limited. That was a driving force in taking agro-business very seriously. If you knew what we wanted to do, we had market knowledge of origination, destination and quality, and package of finance. I think the opportunity was there for one to claim, and we took advantage of that.
Why the choice of cashew for example?
We also, in deciding which business to go into, looked at the ones that had the scale. So, we picked cocoa. Cocoa had the largest scale of export commodity system. And next to cocoa is cashew. We played cocoa, we played cashew, we played sesame, gum Arabic, cotton and all the agro commodities that were available in the scales that they were available.
Do you think this line of business is still lucrative for potential business entrepreneurs now?
It was and it still is. The only challenge has been market movement forces which everybody would have to live with. Opportunities in business in these products have never ceased. The only limitation is that government had not given the right support before the current administration. They are the ones that actually looked into agric as a business. Prior to that, unfortunately, previous governments did not see it as the next crude for Nigeria.
You are the chairman of the Nigerian Rice Investors Group, which includes importers and millers. We have a situation whereby going by the policy of the government, Nigeria is supposed to stop importation of rice this year. How do you see that?
Yea, you will first of all agree with me that policies are budgets, plans, and at any point in time, they are not sacrosanct. They are things that are flexible. And as you progress in the execution of a particular policy, you begin to flex it to take cognizance of indices that would impact positively or negatively on the policy. When this government came in 2011, it was a policy that was rolled out. It is laudable; one of the best policies that I have seen. We embraced the policy but we felt that the policy was a bit aggressive. As government plans, economic saboteurs also plan to sabotage policies. As laudable as the policy has been, the smugglers tried to sabotage it.
Why would they do that when government increased tariffs to discourage importation and encourage local producers?
It is a fantastic policy; I think government in its wisdom failed to realise the devastating effect the activities of smugglers are going to cause through the neighbouring countries. Unfortunately, Nigeria as a country could not stop this because it is not in control of the policies of neighbouring land-locked countries like Niger, Benin Republic and Cameroon. So, this has devastating effects on the policies to the extent that when tariffs in Nigeria were high and tariffs in these neighbouring countries were zero, smugglers began to have a good day.
Of course, economic saboteurs moved in and tampered with the lofty ideas of government. Thanks to government, as a soon as this was realised, we cried to the government that this is the problem that we were having, to the extent that smuggled rice was getting cheaper than locally produced rice. Government rose in our support and reversed the tariff. That is what we’ve had since July 2014. So, they reversed the policy irrespective of the losses Nigeria was going to incur in terms of tariffs. They reversed it to import substitution.
Do you think that the policy on self-sufficiency in rice production can be achieved without the government tackling the issue of smuggling?
A lot of things have been brought in. I think that when government is not doing something right, we as Nigerians are quick to condemn the government. But when government is doing something good, we don’t encourage the government so that they are also encouraged or motivated to do much more. Rice policy is a good example. For two years, nothing was happening because of the effect of sabotage from the neigbouring countries. Now, some of the policies that the government has put in place to assist local producers and investors include supporting us with subsidised fertilisers. Government takes off 50 per cent and farmers pay 50 per cent.
Recently, the government put in place the mechanisation scheme. About N300 billion was invested in that. What that means is that we are moving from the era of hoes and cutlasses to mechanisation. That is going to improve the fortune of the economy of this country and Africa. The government has also done so much in the area of irrigation. At Elephant Group, in our rice farm, we have crops in both the wet season and the dry season because government is supporting us with irrigation scheme.
There is also the common tariff that operates within ECOWAS. When we had a tariff of 110 per cent, Benin Republic had zero. That would negatively impact on our own policy. Now, the government has fought seriously that ECOWAS should go on the same tariff, and that started this January.
How about implementation?
It has to do with the ECOWAS team.
I know that your company, outside the huge investment in Nigeria, has other investments around Africa. When you decided to launch out as an entrepreneur 1994, did you know that you were going to grow this big? What were the things you did to grow your business to the level is now?
It is only God that knows tomorrow, but there are certain things, basic qualities that we should protect. Number one, integrity; nobody knows where he is going to be tomorrow; it is only God that makes a way. But as human beings, we must have a mission and a vision, which I do have by the grace of God. You must be disciplined, you must have a goal, and you must have the route towards your goal. When you have all of this and you put your best foot forward and put your whole body into what you do, of course growing big would not be anything that will be far away from you. Naturally, it would come by the grace of God.
As a business man, what is your biggest asset?
My time.
Time? Not integrity or knowledge?
You have to be conscious of the fact that the biggest thing you have in terms of resources is your time. You have the same 24 hours like every other person, so how you use your 24 hours is most important. Your time is your money. A lot of people have access to knowledge, but how they deploy their time is important. Integrity is also key. These are assets that cannot be taken away. Let your word be your bond. I think those are the two things that can make anybody to get to any level-time management and integrity.
So, are you all about business?
No, not at all. It is all about business and service to God.
A lot of people would tell you that the two, business and service to God are incompatible.
I disagree. Jesus Christ Himself is the greatest business man that ever lived. I don’t want to go into the scriptures. Why do we do business? I think that is the first question. It is to earn revenue. When you earn the revenue, what do you want to do with it? You are not impacting on the world until you begin to put smiles on the faces of other people. There is no way you can say you are successful if you are unable to put food on the table for fellow human beings; if you are unable to put smiles on the faces of the less-privileged; if you are unable to clothe people who don’t have clothes; if you are unable to support people to go to school; if you are unable to offer employment to people.
There are reasons we are all created. What is the benefit of the resources you are getting if it is not going to put smiles on the faces of people; if it is not going to add great values to your country, to your neigbourhood? It is nonsense. But this is a principle that we may not all agree. But I think that is the whole essence of our creation, that is the whole essence of our blessing from God.
How do you relax?
I relax just like any other person.
Do you go on holidays?
When the opportunities arise, I like to shut down, relax and have private holidays. I do that regularly, but it may not be for a long time.
Where is your favourite destination for holiday?
Which part of Africa?
That is a tough one. There are many destinations but I think first of all, Nigeria. Many people would not agree with me. If you go to my village in Ikogosi, you would be amazed by what God has done. If you go to Obudu, you would be happy to be in that place. There are other places, Senegal, Egypt, I love Africa.
