Govt has no political will to develop power sector - Portland Paints MD

Bayo Osibo, MD, Portland PaintsIn this interview with Femi Ibirogba, Mr. Bayo Osibo, Managing Director and Chief Executive of Portland Paints and Products Ltd., speaks on the state of electricity and infrastructure and how it affects industrialisation in Nigeria. Excerpts:

Power and infrastructure are crucial to industrialisation, but they are not available. What is your advice to the government?
You have idenfied the correct thing that power and infrastructure pose a very serious threat to performances of companies in industry. Our experience in Nigeria goes further to confirm it. Nigeria is a case study if anybody has any doubt.

The government know what they can do but they pretend to be doing it. Much money is sunk into power and roads but there is nothing to show for it. So, the government should spend our money on our welfare. We pay all the taxes and the oil money comes from natural resources that belong to all of us.

It is not that the government do not know where the problem lies, they are only unwilling and they lack the political will. That is why they pretend to be doing it but at the end of the day, it is all the shout but no result.

That is why the last administration lavished several billions of naira on the power sector without a tangible result. The roads also gulped several billions of naira, according to their records, but the roads are not any better. Are they not the roads we drive on everyday?
So, telling the government what to do is not the question, because they know what they should do. They simply do not have the political will to develop Nigeria and her economy.

The competition appears to be sharp in the market for your products, how do you cope?
In any market, you cope with the competition by being ahead of the competitors. You have to think fast, think of innovations, develop your human resources and give better services.

Giving the best quality to the market gives us a good advantage. That is why there is at least a five-year warranty on our products. We have products that no other company makes and our services are better. That is why we are ahead of competition.

Unemployment is very high in Nigeria, what do you think is the way forward?
Industrialisation, that is it. Self-employment will also do. We should re-orientate our youths to be self-employed, not in criminal or illegal activities but in productive activities.

Technical education from institutes of technology and polytechnics should also be encouraged. University education is good and has its own relevance, but we have done that at the detriment of technical education which Nigeria actually needs for industrialisation and employment generation.

We should make official jobs less attractive by giving self-employed people prominence and incentives.

What is your view on the general business environment in Nigeria?
Very unattractive. Very many people at different fora have emphasised that doing business in Nigeria is the most expensive because of high costs of imputs. They have said it is the riskiest place to operate a business.
People keep saying these because we don’t have basic elements that contribute to success.
Things that are taken for granted in many nations and economies are lacking here and a business man has to go extra mile to provide them for himself for his business to survive. So, it still boils down to infrastructure, power generation and other facilities that are in gross shortage in the country.
Doing things that you should not necessarily bother yourself about increases costs and reduces profit margins. So, the environment is harsh.

‘Wealth Connect conference is to build brands’

Mrs Lami AbayiloMrs Lami Abayilo, co-ordinator of the forthcoming Wealth Connect 2008 Conference, slated for Westminster, United Kingdom , in April, in this interview with Akin Adewakun, expresses her expectations on the conference and the need for businesses, especially in Africa , to key in into the current trends in the global market. Excerpts:

What actually informed the forthcoming conference?
After much study about globalisation and different operations in the borderless world, it dawned on me there is something which could have been common at the global level but which I have not really seen here, in Nigeria . I’m looking out for businesses that think outside the box. Businesses interested in venturing out onto the global market. Wealth Connect simply means doing businesss in the global world and getting the right Return on Investment.

It will discuss different types of businesses, how at the managerial level, you can harness all these different business opportunities that abound to churn out that ROI you really desire. It boils down to acquiring a skill on training and development, market relations and knowing the current trend in the market places. You know sometimes you can actually be operating differently from the current trend and which may make you not getting the kind of result you should. So the conference will enable you discover what the trend is in the global market which you can then key into.

Besides all of that is the fact that the Wealth Connect Conference brings together people from different parts of the globe to rub minds on the various issues that bother on investment with the aim of improving their ROI. The target audience are CEO’s, CTO’s, Chief Technical Officers, CFO’s Chief Finance Officers, Human Resource Managers of banks, insurance houses and corporations.

These people are key in any organisation and that’s why we believe once they learn the dynamics of the global market, it is easy for them to pass on this message to their different organisations and effect the necessary change.

And, the benefits are many. It provides a platform for participants to network, discover business products and business opportunities.

They discover how to open new frontiers for business. How to build and sustain their businesses. And that’s why I said it’s about thinking outside the box

Don’t you think that a conference which has its major focus on financial empowerment should have taken place here , in Africa , considering the fact that this is one of the areas that poverty stands out most?
For me, I just see the world as a global village and the venue of the conference purely immaterial. For instance, this is the premier of the conference and it is going to be an annual thing. So, the fact that we are having it in UK this year does not mean we can’t have it in Africa in 2009. Since the conference is all about making businesses connect and financial empowerment, every continent is qualified to host it. And that is exactly what we are trying to do. I think where it is taking place is immaterial, let’s concentrate on the impacts this type of conference would bring on businesses at the end of the day.

And what has the response been like?
The response from the international community is remarkable and shocking as well, considering the fact that the host hails from Africa . As it is now, the outside world has really shown keen interest in the conference. And, to me this is amazing.

What informed your choice of resource persons?
One of the criteria used is the track record of the speakers. Their precedence. And, you’ll agree with me that these are renowned figures who have through their trades impacted on lives positively.

It’s a content-based decision. That is what the speakers have to deliver. It would interest you to know that two Nigerian speakers would also feature prominently at the conference.

Apart from this positive response from the international community, what efforts have you made to intimate and sensitise local businesses?
Many of the CEO’s of banks and corporate organisations, ministers, state governors and other top government officials, already have the conference papers or profiles on their tables. And, quite a number of them have responded. They’ve called to find out more about the conference, and some of them have even signified their intention to attend.