| I use an average of N22,000 worth
of diesel per day, yet PHCN brings crazy bills monthly
By PETER ANOSIKE
Thursday, March 2, 2006
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•Adeyinka
Photo:
Sun News Publishing
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Mr Samuel Adeyinka is a small scale entrepreneur who is into
the production of ceiling and roofing materials. His choice
of business has therefore brought him into direct competition
with multinational companies, but he is not complaining since
the Nigerian economy still has room for both small and big
players.
However, what is threatening Adeyinka’s fledgling Royal
Ceiling and Roofing Industries Limited is the dearth of infrastructure,
especially electricity and road.
The managing director of Royal Ceiling and Roofing Industries
Limited said it is difficult to understand why PHCN (formerly
NEPA) should be sending bills to him while he is not making
use of its services. According to him, he spends an average
of N22,000 per day on diesel, yet, every month, PHCN sends
“crazy bills” to him.
Hear him: “The sound you are hearing now is that of
generator, but at the end of the month, they will bring crazy
bills. I don’t understand how they arrive at these bills,”
he lamented.
Adeyinka barred this and more to Daily Sun.
My name is Samuel Adeyinka. I am the managing director of
Royal Ceiling and Roofing Industries Limited. I am an electrical
engineer by training.
Royal Ceiling and Roofing Industries Limited was incorporated
in 1997, but we started two years earlier and since then we
have been doing our best to fulfill our mission statement.
Going into business
Well, what really inspired us into this line of business is
because of the housing needs of the country, which we felt
is inadequate. We wanted to contribute our own quota towards
the reduction of the housing needs of the country, so, as
an electrical engineer. I called my colleagues and we floated
the company.
Challenges
The challenges that we encountered when we went into business
was quite enormous. This is because we started from the scratch
and without any support or assistance from any quarter.
All the machines that we started with was invented by us.
Before we started, we thought about what we want to do and
what could work for us and then approached the people who
could do it for us. It was not easy to start something that
nobody has ever done before in our environment.
We have other big names in the industry, but what they are
doing is far bigger than what we are doing. We could not copy
them, so we had to cut our coat according to our clothes.
Other challenges that we faced include lack of infrastructure
like electricity, water and road.
Doing business in Nigeria
Nigeria is our country, so there is no other place we can
run to. That is why we have taken our time and money to invest
in it. But the truth is that doing business in Nigeria is
not easy. This is as a result of lack of infrastructure as
well as finance.
Electricity which is the backbone of production is completely
out of it.
I have always believed that government has good programmes,
but the problem is implementation. For instance, the financing
of small scale industries. The policy has been there, but
it has never been implemented. If you go to the bank for loan,
they will tell you that you have not fulfilled the statutory
requirements.
They will mention so many things which a genuine small scale
industrialist cannot afford.
Another thing which is affecting business in Nigeria is the
issue of copying. After one has toiled, researched and come
up with something, some fraudsters will copy it and begin
to produce it substandardly and begin to sell less than the
price of the standard one. You know that because of poverty,
most Nigerians go for quantity rather than quality.
This is also affecting our business. Earlier on, I mentioned
electricity in passing, but it is the greater problem that
we are encountering here. For one, even when there is electricity,
the voltage will be so low that it cannot carry the little
equipment that we use in our factory and because of that we
use generator almost the whole eight hours we work everyday
and inspite of that, we still pay electric bill.
On the average, we spend about N22,000 per day on diesel and
at the end of the month. PCHN will still bring exorbitant
bill. Sometimes, I wonder how they arrive at the figures while
we hardly make use of their services.
Reforming the energy sector
This is essential. They just have to do that because there
are so many things that people can do without, but not power.
That is the backbone of development in any country. Take the
area of tax as an example, if people have electricity, water
and good road, they would be productive and will be able to
pay tax instead of evading it.
The road that leads to our factory that is Iju Ajuwon is bad.
We had a case of a lorry coming to our factory which fell
into a ditch and everything it was carrying was destroyed.
I am therefore using this opportunity to call on the Lagos
State government to do something about the Iju-Ifako local
government road.
Management style
We are a family here, both the Board of Directors and the
workers. You can see for yourself the way the workers relate
to us.
We run a very open administration and it has helped us very
well. This is because we believe that for the work to go on
smoothly, everybody should be carried along. The workers are
aware of the challenges which the company is going through
and whenever there is anything to share, we share together.
Marketing style
We have our distributors through which we distribute our products.
We have cordial relationship with them. We are also like one
big family because we let them know the challenges that we
are undergoing. They show appreciation about our open door
policy so, they continue to patronise us.
On the other hand, whenever any of them has problems we go
to his or her assistance.
Apart from our distributors, we also use the media to advertise
our products. We also attend the Lagos International Trade
Fair exhibitions. Our outlets are in Lagos, Ibadan, Abuja,
Abakaliki and other places.
Govt assistants
If government really value what the cottage or small scale
industries are doing, it should see the need to put the necessary
infrastructure in place to better their lots.
If you look at the rate of unemployment in the country, you
will discover that it is alarming, but if the government can
encourage and support small scale industries to grow, they
can in-turn be absorbing those who are coming out of school
and that will go a long way in reducing the rate of unemployment.
Government should try to make funds available to small scale
industrialists and not making it available only in the newspapers.
The fund should be made to get to the people who really need
it and Nigeria will be the better for it.
Advice to would-be entrepreneurs
The hiccups in private business notstanding, I will still
encourage people to go into private business.
If you look at the technological development of the country,
you will see that jobs which were done by 10 people before
are now being done by a single man with the aid of a computer.
People who want to go into private business should arm themselves
with honesty, truthfulness and hard work. They should not
have it at the back of their mind that they will become millionaires
in one or two years of going into business. With endurance
and hard work, they will surely make it in private business.
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