Hard work, determination gave birth to what I have today – Chief Anagolu 

My name is Mr. Johnmary C.N. Anagolu, I am the Chief Executive Officer, E & C Logistics Company Limited. I am also known as Eze Si Na Chi 1 of Olo Kingdom, as my title. Any Igbo man without a title is an incomplete business man. I am from Olo in Ezeagu local government area, Enugu State.

I started my hustle right from my childhood; it’s not something that started today, it’s like a gift. Although, while growing up, I had wanted to become a lawyer, I remember when I was nine years old, I wrote Barrister Gbogbo on our door. In school, they nicknamed me Gbogbo, because my elder brother’s name is Ogbonna, and the short form is Gbogbo, I had thought I will be able to further my education and become a lawyer, but God had a better plans for me.

Growing was challenging, problems here and there, our parents have to struggle to ensure there’s food on the table, in the process, our education became impossible, so I had to join my peers in Lagos. My former boss, Mr Yakasson brought me to Lagos in 1994, I was with him for six years. There, I realized that being an apprentice was another form of education. I learned the act of trading, how to attend and treat customers. So while all these were going on, I still had plans to go back to school, probably, when I become my own boss,. Eentually, he settled me in the year 2000, so this is my 21 years in business.

So I was also studying part-time during my year of apprenticeship, but you know, it’s not always easy for someone who was just newly settled. We were into gas business, things got so tough I had to venture into electronics business. I remember when I had to wake up as early as possible, attend morning mass and then set out to buy goods from newly arrived container. It wasn’t easy at all. In fact, I had to return to my first business, but the unfortunate thing at the time was that, I was out of capital. I started running around to raise capital. I met a friend, asked him to lend me some money, he helped and I was able to rent a shop. I met another man, who was able to help with some gas products to display, sell and return the money to pick another goods.

In 2002, telephone accessories became an item in the market. So I raised some money, traveled to Dubai and bought some mobile phone accessories, brought them to Nigeria and sold them. I did this successfully until I had another challenge. I had given my goods to a cargo company called Swizz Cargo, there was a ten months delay, by the time the goods landed in Nigeria, they were already damaged, that was how I landed in some debt. I lost so much, I had wanted to give up, I have some boys working for me, I was feeding and clothing them. But I decided I was not going to send them away, so I started hustling again.

After sometime, I was able to raise 20,000 naira, and I took the money to an Alhaji in Alaba International Market. I asked him to make me some Agbada – native dress, he eventually did three pieces for me. So I started to rebrand and package myself. I will then go to people’s shop and pretend I am the Oga, when I see customers. I would ask them what they want, having told them I am the Oga, they would tell me what they want to buy, I would then advise them and help them get it. So I realized that the only way I could survive was by telling customers the truth. After some time, customers started coming, I raised some funds and started manufacturing local burners, I started doing well in that field too, until I was later frustrated out of the business again by some ungrateful customers.

So after all these failed hustles and other challenges, I decided I was leaving Nigeria for good, but there was nobody to help. So I started hustle again, don’t forget, I have boys I was taking care of, paying rent etc. It was really tough. Eventually I raised some money, but had to face another challenge with the person helping me with the traveling document for China. He gave me an option to either traveling to China with another person’s identity or start the traveling process again. I refused to travel with another person’s name, after all said and done, I got visa to Dubai, I did not feel bad because, I was already familiar with Dubai, I got to UAE and started hustling again.

It wasn’t easy settling in Dubai, especially getting a job. People already knew me there as a businessman, so coming as someone seeking a job was somehow funny to them. I have to peer up with about 18 boys in a single room, before finally getting a menial job. I was helping people to pack goods, A very good friend, Mr Patrick gave me the first opportunity to work for him, he is still my customer till today. I had to add creativity and honesty to my service, and before you know it, people started trusting me with their products. I applied several tactics, including customers satisfaction. From there, people started recognizing me in the business, I started asking people who want to buy and send goods from Dubai to Nigeria. That’s how the business of logistics started for me and business was booming, everything going on fine until 2008 when recession sets in. It was another challenging time for business owners in Dubai, so our people moved to China. Before then, I also had another problem with my cargo agent, it was a serious battle, yet, I couldn’t recover the thousands of dollars he was owing me. The money didn’t belong to me, that also forced me to switch business again. I moved back to Nigeria, I started buying foodstuff and taking them to Dubai to sell, that was another business God favoured me with, till today, I still have my foodstuff business in UAE. With various branches all over Africa and the rest of the world, E&C Logistics became what it is today as a result of God’s grace and hard work. A special thanks to my wife, who has been a strong supporting system, spiritually, physically and morally. She is a full time partner in progress. Some of our branches are in Trade Fair, Lagos Island, Alaba International Market, Oshodi, Ikeja, we are also available in Onitsha International Market. In Africa, we are in Ghana and Mozambique, also in Dubai.

Apart from my foodstuff and logistics business, I also do what you called motivational speaking, considering what I went through, I understand there are many young people who want to come into business. So l offer them motivation on how and what to do, so as not to go through what I went through. I do this by organizing motivational seminars. I started it seven years ago, since then, we have been able to motivate over a hundred young people in business, both new and established ones. There’s also one we call “Importer’s Best Friend” although it’s just five months old, it’s a platform we use in educating business owners on how to build their money. We make them understand how important it is for them to always tell customers the truth, no matter what, a good name with integrity is what will make you and your business stand the test of time. When you lie to a customer, you end up losing them in the long run and even you ruin your reputation. We also have platform where we catered for children and widows during the COVID-19 era. We rolled out loads of foodstuff, including money. This we also do with our annual end of the year Christmas party, which we always organize in our home town for children. We give out different educational gifts, food items among others. Although my beautiful wife is the brain behind it, we are passionate about giving back to the society, because we understand what it means to struggle hard without anyone to help.

You see the problem with most Igbo is that they hardly consider involving their wives in their businesses. As an Igbo man, we prefer our wives to have her own business, this I try to correct by telling those who care to listen that times have changed. Gone are the days when women are kept in the kitchen. We must ensure we get our wives involved in our daily to day hustle. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying other men should not follow their mind, but I think we are in 21st century. Our women deserve better. A man will die and you will start hearing or seeing cases of harassment from the in-laws, so in order to avoid that, try and get her involved. I am a one man one woman type of man, I don’t encourage too many wives.