Niger Delta crisis has boosted business climate in Imo – Ikoku
By CHRISTIAN OCHIAMA
Thursday, March 6, 2008

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Obiron Group of Companies, Evangelist Myke Ikoku has added a new twist to the crisis in the Niger Delta with the claim that it has actually given a boost to the economy of Imo State.
To him, the crisis, sad and unfortunate as it is, might have become a blessing in disguise for the business climate of the South East state.

“The problem in the Niger Delta has really given a boost to the business environment here because people find it more conducive, safer, more convenient to live in Owerri and then go for their businesses in the South South,” he said.

Ikoku who owns the five-star All Seasons Hotel, Owerri said “You see, mainly, the people that stay here are people from multi-national companies and most of them have their businesses in the South South, Anambra and elsewhere in the zone.”
The Chief Executive who sits on a multi billion naira business empire which also include real estate, electrical, electronics and manufacturing spoke on the cost of funds, exchange rates, interest rates as well as policy fluctuation and its impact on business practice in Nigeria.

Business climate in Imo State
To be honest with you, I think the business in Imo has improved tremendously when compared to what obtained when we started in 2004. It was not the same thing as today. People were not very keen on bringing investment down here because, may be, they were afraid of the profit margin which could be low or marginal. But we took the bull by the horn knowing fully well that a good product can sale no matter where it is. Good things must attract their own patronage. That gave us the vision to come here and we did it and we are not regretting it.

Now, things have improved very well. Even the problem in the Niger Delta has really given a boost to the business environment because people find it more conducive, safer, more convenient to live in Owerri and then go for their businesses in the South South. You know, Owerri is strategically located. It is like a hub in the South East. It takes less than one hour to get to every other South East state and South South. That means you can live in Owerri and do business in Abia, Anambra, Enugu, Ebonyi, Bayelsa, Rivers. Owerri is very safe. Night life is fantastic and that’s why we are really making it great here. In our kind of hospitality business, we not only give you accommodation we also give you happiness.

It is a total package. We give you everything you want, comfort that will enable you to run your business, your family, everything.

Infrastructure and business
The situation in Imo State is not different from what obtains every where else in the country. Energy, in particular, has been a source of worry, a source of problem. In trying to solve it, it has eaten deep into the resources that we would have used for other beneficial purposes. But notwithstanding that, we still try to manage to keep our heads above water. We have four standby generators here. Some are over 1000 KVA, others 650 KVA. With these, energy has never been our problem here. Our problem is the financial demands we have to meet in order to keep the generating sets running.

Government policy
Our line of business is for everybody. It’s hospitality business. The things we need for the industry to thrive is security of life and property as well as peace. The city is very peaceful. The people are peaceful. It’s not even government policy though they are also contributing in their own way. Because without government giving us the enabling environment for us to do business, we will not make any headway. But we still expect more from them.

Why hotel business?
I am somebody who is very happy in seeing people smile. Hospitality is all about giving people entertainment and happiness. For you to go to a hotel, that means you want to spend quality time in a place that is better than your home and a place where everything can be done for you. You just want to have peace and rest of mind. So, for you to leave your home and come to a hotel, you want to see everything being done for you.

Investment portfolio in this business
As of today, we have spent close to N2.2 billion on this hotel business. As you know, we’ve just finished our All Seasons Towers which has 76 exquisitely furnished rooms. We have the Nkemjika hall with a capacity for 1,500 people. We have a theatre and multi media room. We have an executive meeting room for 24. We have our presidential suites. You need to see what we have. We are proud of it.

What’s the management of the place like?
I have a very good management team, a company actually that manages the place – Havana Hospitality Services Limited, they have very well trained and experienced staff and they are doing well.

Your clientele
Most of our clients are corporate clients. We have multi-nationals and some high networth individuals who like good things for themselves, where there is security and the environment is serene.
You said Niger Delta crisis is a blessing in disguise. True?
You see. Mainly the people that stay here are people from multi-national companies. And most of them have their businesses located either in South South and parts of South East. They stay here and go for their businesses there. Because here is safer. Security here is fantastic. The night life is wonderful and they feel at home.

Night life
You can move around on your own by 12 mid night. No harassment, no intimidation. You won’t experience all those kinds of attacks we read in newspapers and see on television. You know that night life brings a lot of things

The political environment
You know that there is always turbulence in politics, but we don’t want to be part of it. We are into hospitality. We are here for every political group to smile. We play safe. The state government is doing its best to provide the right political atmosphere. We are not complaining.

How did business generally start for you?
It’s a long story. Actually, it started in Aba, down to Lagos. From Lagos back to the east. Actually, I started business very young. I took over my father’s little business. I had the idea to grow. I am very creative in nature. I started creating big things that seemed impossible for my dad. Fortunately for me, they all became possible. Wealth they talk about is all about ideas. It is not how strong you are but how fantastic your ideas can convince people and you make money out of it. You create things, you bring ideas that can turn around things that seem not worthwhile and they become flowing honey. So, that’s how it started far back in 1991.

Is it just hotel business or are there others?
We started from electronic, electrical equipment. That’s our major business. We are still there. We are into real estate. But the major business we started with is electrical and electronics products. We have our own brand which we market extensively. May be you must have heard of Obiron brand of stabilizers, electric iron and other appliances, ceiling fans, standing fans. That was our major business before we started diversifying to other areas. We are into food production, manufacturing, confectionery and bakery. There was a time we started music business. We are also into children’s toys, we are also manufacturers representatives.

Government support for entrepreneurs
The government today, I think, is very young. I am seeing some progressive minds in government at all levels. What I think that they can do for businesses to grow is to stabilize the energy supply. Everything we talk about starts from energy. If we can have constant power supply, there will be little or nothing to do in the maintenance of facilities because the moment light goes off and comes back, it destroys more than 10 per cent of your equipment and other appliances. That adds cost to you. Most manufacturing companies are down today because they cannot cope with the cost of diesel. It is very difficult to survive in that kind of environment. The government should also take another look at the cost of funds – interest rates.

The banks should look into the possibility of giving long term facilities not these short term facilities that kill business. You take a short term facility, you do the business for the bank. They make all the profit. You are not making any profit. The irony of it all is that they don’t know that they are not even making more money. But when they give you cheap funds on long term basis, you do business for long and grow from generation to generation and they will keep making money forever. But banks today just want to eat you and dump you. Those are the main problems to be solved – cheap funds and energy.

Interest, exchange rates
It is not very easy. But we have to be in business. We have close to 400 people on our pay roll. We have to keep them busy and then run the business even if there is no major profit coming in. I think we should continue until such a time when some policies that will affect our making better profit are put in place. Because when you throw those people into the streets because there is no money and government policies are not encouraging, they become potential armed robberies and prostitutes. So, that’s why we are in business.

We want to still have them notwithstanding the not too conducive business environment. But we don’t have to continue moaning about government. Government is all of us. We are always playing our role in any way we can to help the government to serve us better. Now about the exchange rate, it keeps affecting everybody. For example, about a month ago, we bought one dollar at N126. But today it has come down to N119. It is good that it is coming down, but what are you going to do with those goods you bought when it was N126? Automatically you have lost N7. Can you compete under that type of environment? That is a problem.

Foreign connection
Most of my businesses are in Asia – Japan, China, Korea and Europe. The only problem we have is the instability in government policies. Ban today, unban tomorrow. You make your long term projections, reach agreement with some people to set up a factory because the product is no long allowed into the country. After setting up the factory and bringing in equipment, the government will change again unban everything and then kill the factory before it takes off. Because they will go out there and bring in cheap ones and the business will die. We need to have stability in policies so that businessmen can plan, can have long term projections. That’s why our foreign competitors are having an edge over us.