The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Business

  • ‘We started with ZERO CAPITAL but today, it’s a multi-million naira business’

    ‘We started with ZERO CAPITAL but today, it’s a multi-million naira business’

    When the  Chief Executive, EMVIRTUE, Emmanuel  Ezimai, started his brand of image consulting in 2012, the established practitioners were sceptical because his approach was quite strange.  It took a while to find his entrepreneurial groove, but once he did, things started moving fast . He shares his success story with  DANIEL ESSIET. Excerpts:

    WHAT inspired you going into business?

    Insight,  hindsight, foresight. By nature, I’m ambidextrous. I found myself. I discovered I could do a lot of things well. I’m spontaneous too; right brained who thinks more on his feet than on his back. I knew I would better serve the world if I develop my capacities and create value. That was how I started.

    How much did you start with?

    Zero naira. What I did was to first learn how to and what it means to start a business. I registered my company as a youth corp member in Benin. I was penniless when I started organizing social events for corp members. I did one successfully and that was how I started.

    What were the initial challenges?

    As is the case for every typical Nigerian startup, funding was my initial challenge (not like we’ve overcome that though). Then there were few social platforms that could support growth, penetration and consumer traction like we have now. So yes, funding, market access, and technology were and still to some degree daunting for startups.

    What was your first product or service?

    My first service was Image 50 in 2012. It was a 3 day image consulting training. At the time there wasn’t a lot of buzz on image consulting in Nigeria. There were practitioners but nobody had taken it to the scale that I designed. The idea was to establish a major image and brand consulting academy in Nigeria just like it is in America, or UK, Paris, and South Africa.

    How did the market react to it?

    Let’s just say Nigeria wasn’t quite ready for that kind of thing. We grew up with television advertisements that told us “Image is nothing, thirst is everything”; how time proved that to be wrong. Image is everything. First off we looked for sponsors and got none, not even one. Instead of being deterred, I moved on with the project. On the first day of the training, we were locked out of the venue because we hadn’t deposited a dime. We had charged participants N5000, but maybe about 3 people paid. Meanwhile I had engaged top class speakers who all showed up. Anyways we couldn’t start the first day. It was tough. I went home and cried so much. Managed to part-pay on the second day and went through with the event with about 15 participants who largely attended for free.

    How many hands did you start with?

    We started with 3 hands and we worked as a team.

    What is the worth of the business now?

    Right now we make proposals to the tune of 150 million naira in a fiscal year.

    What services do you offer in the market?

    We own the Annual SME Economy Conference and Exhibition. It is in its second year running now. Before then we launched the Beads and Arts Exhibition in 2015. We dovetailed it with SME Economy in 2016 and now it’s growing bigger and might just become the largest SME Advocacy platform in Nigeria.

    We currently opened our Business School called Startups Certificate Business Course (SCBC). This academy is designed to retool corporate executives with cutting edge entrepreneurial skills, whilst equipping entrepreneurs with the requisite business knowledge to compete globally and win. We just got affiliated with Business School Netherlands to certify candidates, that’s huge! We are determined to bring the world to Africa and help her emerge. We also offers marketing communications, media/brands consulting and event management services.

    Any plans for expansion?

    Yes! We are working on launching some revolutionary e-businesses and also enter the fashion world through a very unique tech-wearable product that will change the status quo. We are looking to service 35-45 percent of the market share which is by the way over 120million consumer capacity, in the next 5years.

    Advice to up-and-coming entrepreneurs

    Money is not your first problem. When you light up with a great idea, find people, mentally stretch the idea, work it out on paper, and seek counsel, be fervent, determined to succeed, be sure it is what you want to do, and God is up.

    Your philosophy

    Move swift like the Wind and closely-formed as the Wood. Attack like the fire and be still as the mountain.

  • Chamber of Commerce hails Executive Order on Ease of Doing Business

    Chamber of Commerce hails Executive Order on Ease of Doing Business

    The Lagos Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) has hailed the Executive Order aimed at changing the ways business are conducted in the country.

    In a statement signed by LCCI President, Mrs. Nike Akande, the Chamber appreciated the level of consultations on ease of doing business that preceded the signing of the orders.

    The statement maintained that the three main pillars of the executive orders namely promotion of transparency and efficiency in the business environment, support for local contents in public procurement by the Federal Government, and efficient operation and implementation of the federal budget, have been key focus areas of LCCI advocacy campaign over the last few years.

    LCCI noted that the executive orders will impact the ease of doing business, fast-track budgetary administration as well as promote made in Nigeria products. It urged the government to ensure that stipulated timelines are strictly adhered to by all the parties affected by the orders.

    It further asked for continued consultations and engagement with the business community and the bureaucracy in building understanding and buy-in of all stakeholders.

    The advocacy group pledged their preparedness to track the compliance with these orders by relevant Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) with follow up compliance and report outcomes and feedback from private sector players on an ongoing basis.

    LCCI called on the State Governments to replicate these reforms as applicable in their respective state. According to the statement, this is required to complement the efforts of the Federal Government on Ease of Doing Business in Nigeria.

  • No more business as usual

    •Fed Govt must ensure that its agencies submit budget estimates to National Assembly

    As if to remind Nigerians of how far some agencies of the Federal Government are from grasping the basic tenet of law and constitutionalism, the Senate,  last week, announced a list of violators of the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 (amended in 2011). The agencies – 38 in number – were found to have failed to submit their 2017 budget proposal to the National Assembly in line with extant law, for consideration and approval. Moving a motion calling on the agencies to do so within two weeks, it also ordered their supervising ministers to stop forthwith, all capital and non-essential expenditures for the current budget year, pending full compliance.

    That record number agencies would act so brazenly in defiance of the law is certainly revealing. More disturbing however is that the practices are being carried on under the direct watch of the executive branch.

    Section 80 subsection (4) of the 1999 Constitution (As amended) is of course clear on the mode of authorisation for public funds: “No moneys shall be withdrawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund or any other fund of the federation, except in the manner prescribed by the National Assembly”.

    Section 21 (1) of the PRA is just explicit on how the agencies of government can go about the use the funds in their care: “The government corporations and agencies and government-owned companies listed in the schedule to this Act (in this Act referred to as ‘the corporations’) shall, not later than six months from the commencement of this Act and for every three financial years thereafter and not later than the end of the second quarter of every year, cause to be prepared and submitted to the minister their schedule estimates of revenue and expenditure for the next three financial years.”

    Subsection 2 of the Act goes on to say: “Each of the bodies referred to in subsection (1) of this section shall submit to the minister not later than the end of August in each financial year:  (a) an annual budget derived from the estimates submitted in pursuance of subsection (1) of this section; and (b) projected operating surplus which shall be prepared in line with acceptable accounting practices.”

    While subsection 3 states quite expressly: “The minister shall cause the estimates submitted in pursuance of subsection (2) to be attached as part of the draft Appropriation Bill to be submitted to the National Assembly.”

    The brazen anomalies, though unfortunate, have been with us since the advent of the fourth republic. Whereas successive Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) administrations ran the agencies, particularly the so-called cash cows like the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) like fiefdoms engrafted to the presidency without any parliamentary oversight, and the apex bank like an island onto itself under a rather expansive definition of institutional independence, the result has been catastrophic for both the due process and the requirement for transparency.

    In the specific instance, the respective agencies ought to have sent in their budgetary estimates in August 2016 – four clear months before the presentation of the 2017 budget by President Muhammadu Buhari in December last year. That is what the law requires.

    Given that it is now some five months since, the question then arises – why was the issue not brought up at any point during the period that the budget estimate was with the National Assembly? By passing the 2017 budget while leaving out this critical requirement, is the National Assembly then – as always – not as complicit in foisting the anomalies over which it now complains?

    We hope that the latest development signals a new beginning, particularly with acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, not only issuing an executive order outlining the timeline and procedure for government offices to submit their yearly budgets but directing the agencies to comply. The law envisaged no less; if anything, we expect that strict adherence to constitute the template, going forward.

  • Osinbajo signs three executive orders

    Osinbajo signs three executive orders

    Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, on Thursday signed three executive orders that will significantly change some of the ways government business and operations are conducted in the country.
    A statement from Laolu Akande, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity Office of the Vice President said the executive orders were issued “in exercise of the presidential authorities vested in the Executive arm of government.”
    Specifically, Prof. Osinbajo signed three executive orders giving specific instructions on a number of policy issues affecting:
    *the promotion of transparency and efficiency in the business environment designed to facilitate the ease of doing business in the country,
    *timely submission of annual budgetary estimates by all statutory and non-statutory agencies, including companies owned by the Federal Government and
    *support for local contents in public procurement by the Federal Government.
    Akande noted that “ahead of the signing, the Acting President held an interactive session at the old Banquet Hall of Presidential Villa with all relevant government officials, including ministers, permanent secretaries and heads of departments and agencies among others. The session was meant to directly engage government officials who would be implementing the orders and the new instructions.”

  • Of drug war and marijuana’s business value

    Of drug war and marijuana’s business value

    As the youth grow up, they are warned about the “dangers” of marijuana and other substances. The supposed danger, as echoed by many, is that marijuana makes people become unkempt, irresponsible, lazy and ultimately, running-on-the-streets-naked (that is, madness). Some religious preachers go as far as to say that marijuana users are hell-bound. Since the 1950s, thousands have been jailed; countless properties have been confiscated by the government, and taxpayers’ money has been wasted on the war on drugs in Nigeria, through the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).

    Marijuana is a medical plant grown in various states across the country, mostly in the southwest of Nigeria, where the land is arable and fertile for agriculture. The popular belief is that, the plant was brought into the country by soldiers returning from World War II, who had access to marijuana seed via the Far East and North Africa. When the international community embarked on the war on drugs, our government introduced laws banning the cultivation, use and trade of marijuana.

    To date, these laws have thrown many citizens into jail, forced private property confiscation, and created discrimination against individuals who might only have a seed in their possession. Gradually, these discriminatory laws have influenced our culture, and now marijuana users are regarded as the scum of the society. Criminal activities like rape, robbery, kidnapping, and militancy are associated with marijuana and this has created the impression that anyone who takes the drug must be a criminal. More often than not, users are the first suspect in any criminal case, often wrongfully so.

    Where has this led us? The police carry out aggressive raids in communities where marijuana users live, often just to extort them. At checkpoints, anyone found in possession of even a seed of marijuana is automatically stripped of his rights, and if he “talks too much”, he would be beaten black and blue by law enforcement agents.

    Nigerians, especially human rights activists, rarely speak out on the brutalisation and dehumanisation of marijuana users in the country. And if one dares to speak out, it is first alleged that he must be a user, before being sent on discriminatory path.

    A politician accused of embezzling public funds in mind-boggling proportion can appear in court with 70 Senior Advocates in tow, but such act would not be excused if the case has to do with marijuana, a plant. Rather, junior lawyers take charge knowing full well that, because of the strict law in place, the accused is already guilty as charged.

    We need to review the laws surrounding marijuana usage in Nigeria, so we can reduce the number of individuals – especially young people – being jailed for the intake of a plant. In countries, such as The Netherlands and Spain, the use of marijuana for recreational purposes is tolerated. In a country that promotes agriculture as a major economic sector, hectares of land belonging to individuals in Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Edo, Kaduna and Plateau states have been seized by the government.

    As free people who are no longer under colonial control, why should the government decide what one grows on his farmland? Farmers are still required by law to pay taxes on their profits, and when there is no business for them, they’ll turn to other crops or different industries.

    Nigeria, being a producer of high-potency marijuana can profit from the marijuana business by increasing exports to countries with deficit of marijuana farming. For a country with a lot of traditional medical practitioners, the use of marijuana can also be encouraged with the lifting of the ban on the use of the plant.

    Our politicians, lawmakers, and civil servants are quick to brandish academic certificates on leadership and management, but none on public/consumer choice. It is as simple as it sounds. Individuals should be free to choose what they want for themselves and this, in turn, encourages production of goods and services.

    If we are truly equal before the law, no one should be made an outcast because they choose to grow or use marijuana. There is no discrimination for people who eat fatty foods, or consume alcohol.

    The freedom of Nigerians to choose what works for them should not be restricted to elections alone. The consumers should also have the liberty to choose what they consume, what they grow, and which business to go into, with the marijuana industry being one of them.

    Chukwuemeka Ezeugo is the Programmes Associate of African Students For Liberty

     

  • ‘How my mother inspired me to start my business’

    ‘How my mother inspired me to start my business’

    Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, PayPorte Technologies Limited, Eyo Bassey, is a man of many parts—techie, entrepreneur and venture capitalist.

    He is one of the most successful e-commerce entrepreneurs.   Whether it was his strong work ethic, never-give-up attitude or advice to just believe in him, Bassey is proud to say that the first support to start his business came from his mother.His mother, a civil servant, saved money to get him a computer, which he dismantled and coupled.

    Without her encouragement and belief in him, Bassey said he would not have been able to live his dream. Bassey started his first business venture at 21. Raised in the Federal Capital Territory, he was conferred with the best student award in the West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASCE).

    Bassey gained admission to the University of Ilorin where he studied Civil Engineering  and bagged a Masters in Applied Physics from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH).

    After establishing himself as a developer, he was given the contract by a state government to develop a  software for revenue collection. He introduced the e-receipt system to the government. But to execute the  contract, he needed money.

    To raise funds from the bank for the job, his mother allowed him to use their house. He has since proven himself as a risk taker, founding various companies and  established   online retail shopping platform – PayPorte.

    Launched in 2014, Payporte was the first to launch a 1k Store in the industry to support its customers through the economic downturn.

    He started  the business  with about $100,000. He founded PayPorte at the peak of the first dot-com boom. Few entrepreneurs dared to expand into several markets, while they were in their early stages. But  he  took that plunge headlong.  It is now a highly-valued business. The launch of  payPorte  can, in some ways, be explained as the distillation of many  experiences. Bassey is a successful tech entrepreneur  and  has built an enviable portfolio. He  has been ahead of others in encouraging firms to pivot—refine or change their business models.His investments include online marketplace , logistics provision and ordering app,  among others. At Payporte, he  has built an e-commerce firm that is capital-efficient than most other Nigerian  e-commerce brands.

    Despite the success of PayPorte, Bassey  maintained  that it is still morning for e-commerce in the country. He should know; he launched the company in Abuja  before  relocating to Lagos. He has seen it all—the dot-com boom and the challenge of foreign- funded ecommerce firms coming into the market. But he persevered. He is not afraid to change gears and has an uncanny ability to see beyond the short-term, and though pressure is high at the moment, his clarity of vision allows him to consider the more significant lasting effect of decisions.

    Bassey is hands-on as well,  as it  involves software development  and consulting for other organisations.  He has spent the last four years as the founder/CEO Rom-Flex Technologies, increasing and expanding the business in Nigeria, Africa and beyond.

    Most notable is the ‘Roll-Out Immigration e-Passport, setting up the largest e-library and e-learning hub in East Africa (MUBS Uganda)

    According to him, Nigeria is a large consumer market and its openness is very exciting—it allows players to come to in and push the boundaries of innovation.

    He believes that e-commerce is the future of retail and it will play a big role in Nigeria.

    According to him, the toughest thing about being an entrepreneur is to contend with the choices of what to sacrifice: “You surely can’t have your cake and eat it when you are bootstrapping a business, so making choices and being comfortable in your own skin about the decisions you make are essential.”

    Startup Grind Lagos’ Chapter Director, Uwem Uwemakpan, said the forum was held to highlight and proffer solutions to challenges the Lagos entrepreneur faces.

    Regional Programme Manager, Techpreneur Africa,Teleola Adegoke, urged young entrepreneurs to seek capacity building opportunities to enable them grow their businesses in the face of challenges.

  • Doctors in academia challenged to be business savvy

    Doctors in academia challenged to be business savvy

    Medical practitioners in the academia have been challenged to step out of their ‘comfort zones’ and start thinking on how to commercialise their God-given endowments.

    They were urged by Dr Felix Ogedegbe, a consultant orthopedic surgeon and the Medical Director, CEDACREST Hospitals,  who spurred his colleagues at the Lagos State University College of Medicine (LASUCOM) to add more feathers to their caps by becoming medical entrepreneurs. This according to him, is lacking in Nigeria.

    “All through my time in medical practice, I have observed that Nigeria, especially, lacked medical entrepreneurs. Those in the academia often love to sit in their comfort zones and hardly think of reaching out.

    “Having put in some years into government service, all we want to say is: ‘I have paid my dues after all’. Truth is, in genuine service to one’s fatherland, no one can pay dues; you continue to give your best to the country until you are no longer able to,” he said.

    Dr Ogedegbe was one of the lead speakers at LASUCOM Academic Leadership Retreat themed: ‘Academic Staff Leadership for Today’s Nigeria.TRES( Teaching, Research, Entrepreneurship& Service), Antidote to distress’.

    As a medical director of a state-of-the-art hospital with arms in Lagos and Abuja, Ogedegbe said he has traversed the length and breadth of Nigeria, adding that anywhere he went, he discovered that one issue or the other would be crying for attention in various facets of medical practice. “That is why we need to wake up and fill the void,” he added.

    He further challenged his colleagues to wean themselves of Nigeria’s suffocating business environment, which prospective entrepreneurs often use as excuse for business failure. With determination as their weapon, Ogedegbe said they could access a macro business loan with which they can kickstart a modest clinic.

    To make their ambition successful, Ogedegbe admonished them to draw a Business Plan, using the SWOT analysis, to strategise, project, make permutations, shop for like minds to work with, be ICT-driven and set benchmark with respect to global best practice.s

    Ogedegbe has a word of advise for government on how to help curtail capital flight through medical tourism abroad. “Government, for instance, regulates the banking and aviation sectors; but in healthcare there is no standard yet. Therefore, the government must take special interest in setting up clear standard for the medical industry. Government must also provide funds so that those willing to take the risk can meet this standard by setting up the kind of medical facilities that people run to in other parts of the world.”

    Former LASUCOMS Provost, Prof Olumutiwa Odusanya, admonished his former colleagues to see themselves as leaders in their respective departments, and therefore, be able to make individual impact for the overall success of the college.

    “The mere fact that you are the head should also make you see yourself as the least. To be a leader, we must bring down our level of authority to responsibility. It’s all about making a change. Once that is lacking, you cannot be an effective leader,” he said.

    Speaking on the rationale behind the two-day event, Provost LASUCOMM Prof Babatunde Solagberu, said: “At LASUCOMM, we are training medical students to become medical doctors; that is medical education. As doctors, we are also consultants in teaching hospitals which are the laboratory for teaching. Now we are raising experts at that level to those we call residents doctors who will become consultants. Now both of them are huge businesses and particularly because government also expects us to generate money internally; and we can now run skill-enhancing programmes that will serve the private sector outside.”

  • Ease of doing business improves, says report

    Ease of doing business improves, says report

    The number of days required for registration of new businesses in Nigeria has been reduced from 10 to two as a of a reform agenda put in place by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

    Besides, there is also now a 24-hour timeline for company registration from when application form is completed and all required documents made available.

    Also, prospective business owners can now search on Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) portal  (www.cac.gov.ng) to avoid duplication of names and prevent selection of prohibited names, while company registration no longer requires lawyers as it is now optional for SMEs to hire lawyers to prepare registration documents.

    These are among highlights of a report presented at a Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), earlier yesterday at the Presidential Villa, marking the end of the 60-day Action Plan on Ease of Doing Business in Nigeria reforms.

    The Council established by President Buhari is chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. But yesterday’s meeting was chaired by Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi, one of the several federal ministers who are Council members as the Vice President was busy with the work of the Presidential Investigative Panel.

  • Horrors Nigerians endure doing business with our embassies abroad

    Everywhere you go, Nigerians are completely disappointed with the service, no, non service, being rendered them by their embassy in total contradistinction to what obtains in embassies of even far smaller African countries. 

    First, the good news.  I do not know if there is any Nigerian columnist who is not sick and tired about the seeming disdain with which those in government treat their suggestions towards making governance more relevant to the citizenry, and that is where they read you at all. It is in view of that ugly truism that I personally feel elated, seeing  indications of some actions of  government,  coming so soon after the publication, only last week of ‘Wither Nigeria’, even if they happen to be merely coincidental. I had written the article of that title from both personal, and communal, fear arising from the total breakdown of law and order in our country; a situation which has resulted in armed robbers, but more especially kidnappers, operating at will anywhere in the country, even seemingly gaining the upper hand over the Nigerian Navy the manner in which they daily use the waterways to transport their victims from the Ogun/Lagos riverine areas to their operational base in the Niger Delta area. You can then hardly measure my joy reading in the newspapers this past week that the Southwest Governors’ Forum will soon meet to discuss, among other things, “the activities of some criminal elements parading as militants, now ravaging parts of the region.” Given the fact that murderous Fulani herdsmen have become totally untouchable, it is my hope that the forum will, in discussing this menace, turn a blind eye to party affiliations and adopt the Fayose Model which, happily, has legislative backing, of dealing with this national irritant. There can be no two ways to it if we do not want to turn Yoruba land to another Benue where people are so helpless, they are being slaughtered in their numbers.

    Although the recruitment of 10,000 policemen which the Police Service Commission (PSC)  Chairman Mike Okiro said would cost N8.6 billion has now been scaled to 155,000, according to newspaper reports, I feel happy they remembered anything about it at all, probably after reading ‘Wither Nigeria’. Both organs of state, the SWGF and the PSC need no longer be told that Nigerians are direly expectant.

    Now, the truly worrisome.

    News from the entire five continents of  the world indicate that nothing could give a Nigerian a worse headache than having anything to do with the Nigerian embassy in his/her country of domicile. To douse doubts or any suggestions of exaggeration, I request my readers to kindly watch the video: http://www.cbc.ca/i/caffeine/syndicate/?mediaId=2402334111 – a RAW Frustration at Nigerian High Commission, this time, in Canada. This has become a perennial horror for our compatriots overseas most of who left  Nigeria during the 16-year PDP stranglehold over our country. It is benumbing that after two years in  office, the present administration has not done anything to make matters better but concerning that, as in many other areas,  President Muhammadu  Buhari must be blamed squarely for his retention of  far too many appointees  of the last administration to the  utter bewilderment, countrywide, ,of those who worked tirelessly for his victory.

    In a  CONSULAR ADVISORY COMMENTS By NJOKU SAINTJERRY (Beijing) & Vera  Sam-Aniagolu late November 2011, it was shown that similar videos have erupted from Bangkok, Malaysia, even Senegal. Everywhere you go, Nigerians are completely disappointed with the service, no, non service, being rendered them by their embassy in total contradistinction to what obtains in embassies of even far smaller African countries. And it is not as if the officials involved are not aware of their complaints. It just so happens that it is forever beyond the ken of Nigeria, and those manning her embassies abroad, to solve what are mostly everyday problems. For instance, one of the strategies they sought to adopt in founding solutions, under the leadership of our dear friend of blessed memory, Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru, as Minister of External Affairs, was the Regional Conference for Heads of Missions divided according to the five regions. The minister, without any equivocation, “called on the countries heads of missions to consider the welfare of Nigerians that are resident in their respective regions their paramount responsibility.” How far those efforts, and possibly others, have gone in mitigating the problems of Nigerians in those countries are eloquently attested to by the following discussion, a few weeks back, on the ever vibrant Ekitipanupo web portal. Since I do not have their individual permission, contributions will not be ascribed. They are, however, presented, in seriatim.

    Happy reading.

    “Fact is that there are actually no public servants in Nigeria. They’re all public masters. You even beg them to do what they have been appointed to do and also have to send delegations to thank those of them who manage to do what is expected of them. It’s a different world in Nigeria”

    “They can’t even provide passport booklets which are usually paid for by Nigerians! I think it’s more than a shame”.

    “Even when the passport  booklets ‘finally arrive ‘from Nigeria, it takes between  3-4months for the Nigeria High Commission  in London,  that is not fit for purpose,  to process  and issue a new passport  —passport that should be a right of every Nigerian  and not a privilege as against  a maximum  of 2weeks to process  a British  passport. During  the time of Prince Ajibola as acting High  Commissioner, it used to take up to a year to get one if you were lucky and well connected or you were prepared to pay the EGUNJE fee!!!.What a rotten nation”.

    “Your mention of Prince Bola Ajibola who was the Acting Nigerian High Commissioner caught the eye. That man as far as I’m concerned had no clue of what the High Commissioner’s role should have been during his tenure. Siji Lapite’s case comes to mind when the poor boy,  bless him, was accused of being caught with drugs by the police in Hackney. He was later to die in police custody. Despite the fact that Nigerians came out en masse to protest the cruelty of the police in the way in which Siji was manhandled by the police that later led to his death, this man was busy blowing unnecessary grammar to the media instead of taking the British Government and their police to task for taking a Nigerian life. I should know as I was involved with the protest at the time and was part of the coordinators of my union showing disgust at the actions of the police.

    Nigerians in the diaspora are on their own as the Embassies are never there to protect them”.

    “l remember Lapite’s case very well. I am sure you are not surprised that the situation with our High Commission is the same today as it was during Lapite’s unfortunate tragic case. 23 or more Nigerians are deported every month from the UK. Those Nigerians are on their own with no inputs or help from our High Commission. The only time l can remember we had some semblance of what a High Commission should be was the five or six years Dr Christopher Kolade was our High Commis-sioner. I used to visit our mission then on regular basis for meetings and functions. Since he left, the place has reverted back to the dogs. l am sure you will recall the time of one hapless   Alhaji  Alhaji  was being  interviewed by the BBC and he couldn’t  look straight  at the camera  because  he was busy  reading  his prepared answers. Trust BBC to focus on his sheets of paper with his prepared answers. It was so embarrassing.”

    “My son who lived in England said that it made more sense coming back home to renew your Nigerian passport than to do so in London. He travelled home three months ago. He claimed that it saved him a lot in terms of money and time. The situation is even worse in a place like Canada, a country where many towns are separated from the capital by continental distances. There is no single consulate outside of the Canadian capital. It is therefore a big  project (air travel, hotel accommodation, hassles at the Embassy )to renew your passport.”

    To all of which I reacted thus: In a government of ‘change’, there should be change and we must all work towards it. I will, therefore, for the sake of our helpless compatriots in those countries, like to take this issue to the public space by running these comments in my column.

  • ‘Starting Jobberman was my best business decision’

    ‘Starting Jobberman was my best business decision’

    Lekan Olude is the co-founder of Jobberman, an online portal which has grown to become the biggest job online portal in Nigeria. In this interview with Bukola Aroloye he speaks on the mission and vision behind Jobberman, plans for the future and his management style. Excerpts:

    Tell us about your job at Jobberman

    I’m Lekan Olude, one of the co-founders at Jobberman. As the Operations Manager, l see to the day-to-day running of the business. There are other two guys who also run the company with me.

    What has been the challenges and achievements since you started Jobberman?

    In terms of the achievements, it has been quite tough trying to blow our trumpet. Based on what the market has shown, we are currently the biggest job board in the country and also in sub-Sahara Africa. In the past seven years, we have expanded to Ghana and have strategic partnership in East Africa.

    Overtime, we have been able to touch about 60,000 companies and at the same time, we have about three million candidates on the portal that applies for job online. Have we done so much? I will say no. Do we have a long way to go? I will say yes. Considering the fact that if you look at the companies registered with Corporate Affairs Commission, we have not even scratch the surface. If you also look at the workable population, we have not done anything. In terms of challenges, we have encountered challenges that every normal business in Nigeria face where you have to practically be your own ‘country’ in business. In terms of policies, we have had challenges in terms of support from the banks considering the fact that banks hardly support internet companies. This is because we don’t have assets and the only assets we have is our data and that doesn’t amount to anything for the banks. In terms of the country accepting the fact that the business has come to stay, it is also a challenge.

    Nigeria is country where the big companies don’t want to leave space for the upcoming companies. So you fight your way into the space. It has been interesting because Nigeria is an interesting place. When you wake up in the morning, your life can change whether you are making money or not.

    What informed the idea of Jobberman in the first place?

    For Jobberman, the idea came up when we were in school. There was strike and the three of us didn’t find it interesting going back home so we decided to make the most out of it. When we started, we didn’t think about making money. We decided to look into the internet space since we don’t need so much money to set up Internet Company.  We decided to go into jobs because we felt it’s going to create value to the youths and create biggest impact.

    We were pretty clear on what we wanted to achieve and how we wanted to go about it. While we were in school, we were able to take things one at a time and improve on them. The good thing is that 10 months before we left school, someone reached out to us and said he had been studying the website and wanted to be a part of us. So it gave us opportunity in terms of sustenance, and at the end, it brought us to Lagos. We had our first two major investments and the big break came when we had partnership with MTN. Before then, there were lots of challenges.

    What has been the success rate in terms of the number of people that eventually gets job through your portal?

    Recently, I read online where some people were saying Jobberman is not working, that people don’t get job on Jobberman. While I understand where their complaint was coming from, this is an opportunity to set things straight.

    Jobberman doesn’t give jobs, we only link candidates to available jobs. For example, if you are an engineer and there is engineering job in Kaduna and you don’t know about it which if you had known, would have applied for it, we link you to it.

    The company also does not know about you because if they had known about you, they wouldn’t have gotten an expatriate to do the job. That is one of the classic ways Jobberman operates.

    In respect of the number of jobs we create, the number of jobs is enough for the number of candidates looking for employment so that speaks to say that if you have one job and 100 people applied for the job, 99 of them will not get the job. We do 6,000 fresh jobs in a month but not everybody on Jobberman is actually looking for job. People get on Jobberman to reach out to a candidate.

    To determine the success rate, one will look at it from the perspectives of jobs clients gave to us and how many of them we are able to fill. We cannot provide jobs for everybody but the job that we brought out for people to see, the question is have we been able to fill those jobs? I will say yes. About 60 to 70% of the jobs that comes to us are filled. The remaining 40% is because some times, the skills needed are difficult to find in this country.

    If a client is looking for a candidate with a certain skill and we have not been able to find that candidate, we reach out to the client to tell him we have not been able to find one. We have lots of that happen so in terms of success rate, we have done above average. We still have lots to do to ensure more people gets job.

    How do you get information about vacancies?  Also, people say there are no jobs in Nigeria but from your experience, will you agree to that since you said you do 6,000 fresh jobs every month?

    There are jobs in Nigeria but the jobs are not enough. Access to information is not that strong. Employability is also a big problem. Are companies hiring? Yes they are. Are Nigerians filling all the jobs? No.

    But the country churns out thousands of graduates every year?

    Yes but for most of the roles that don’t get filled, they are not graduates roles. They are specialty roles and Nigeria has a huge brain drain. On a daily basis, people are carrying their bags and travelling out of the country and that is something to be worried about. Our educational institutions have not fixed the issue of specialist roles. For example, in the power sector, the technology is trying to change to make power more accessible and reduce wastage. But who are the people that are going to man these technologies. They have to bring them in. New roles are coming up but Nigerians are not filling them.

    Technically, jobs are being created on a daily basis and information is not totally out there. Words of mouth is still the biggest channel of communication for jobs. Companies approach us for candidates and we also go to companies to ask them if they have vacancies.

    Are you saying our tertiary institutions are part of the reasons we don’t have competent candidates?

    They are not solely responsible but they are part of it. The strength of an organisation is the people and when you have weak people, you have weak organisations and when you have strong people, you have strong organisations.  The people are the bedrock of a company. The people are formed within the academic world because they spend a lot of time acquiring knowledge. The quality of these people when they step out of school is extremely important. The incubation period is when people are in school.

    From your experience, what kinds of job do you think are in high demand? Could it be those  in administrative, ICT or those in technical field?

    If you take a business and break it down, you realize most of the guys are those sales which means sales related roles are in highest demand. Then you have in-between mid level managers in the administrative   field though not much compare with those in technical roles.

    Technical roles are also so much in high demand. As a nation we are not strong technically and that is why more often than not, companies tend to go outside the country and bring in experts. The approach of government to ensure people gets technically sound is very key. Most companies in Nigeria are within SMEs rate which tells us that the transaction size of their businesses is very small. That also means most of the demands for roles are within lower and mid cadre. If trainings are focused along that cadre, we will have competent people and companies will begin to hire them and forget hiring expatriates.

    We should be targeting people in the bottom of the pyramid, people that earns les than $3,000 a month and about 90% of Nigerians earns less than that.

    What are your future plans for Jobberman?

    One of the things we are trying to do is to increase our penetration along the recruitment capital value change. We are also trying to see how candidates can become more employable through Jobberman learning portal.

    To our clients, we also try to strengthen some of the value added services. We are trying to leverage on the Jobberman assets in Nigeria,Ghana and East Africa by centralizing human capital assets and give employers more access to people, better efficiency in hiring and access to lots of data to be able to deliver better value added services to our clients.

    What is your management style?

    My style is to make everything inclusive. My role is to create the right atmosphere and moderate the company in terms of rules and regulations.

    How do you motivate your colleagues?

    Every human being wants some level of dignity and respect even from the driver to the CEO. The good thing about Jobberman is that a lot of us are young so it is pretty easy to motivate them. We try to ensure that at the time any staff comes to the company, and wants to leave, the staff becomes a better person from financial and developmental standpoint.

    We try to ensure we pay our colleagues very well. We also bring in speakers to talk to the staff on any topic and have one-on-one interaction. Another thing we also do is organise social gatherings such as our ‘Thank God it’s Friday’ party where our staff have lots of fun.

    We try to ensure the office is very good looking. To make it easier for our staff to get to office, we had to leave our office at Lekki and move to Marina. We continue engaging them and create an open office where staff can walk up to the top management staff and share ideas.

     What has been your toughest decision?

    When I make decision, if it goes good, fine and if it goes bad, I take it. Any decision that I made and does not take your life but gives you room to correct things, I don’t regret it. I hate to make people sad especially when you have to let an employee go.

    What is the best decision that you have ever made?

    You can say starting Jobbermnan is the best decision I have ever made but it could also be the worst decision because at a time of starting the company, I had other offers. The other offer was a lot better than starting a Jobberman as at that time.

    However, I and my partners believed we should not dwell too much on our successes so it becomes very hard to pinpoint the best decision.

    What makes you special?

    I ask a lot of questions and talk to professionals whenever I want to make a decision.

    What attracts you to people?

    I love people that are intelligent, smart and knowledgeable. I like flexible people. I believe this life is not hard. I like humble people and those that love God.