There is no doubt that Nigeria is the foremost country in Forever Living Product(FLP) business in Africa today. And in fact, we are ranked among the top countries in the whole world. Four years ago, Nigeria was not the number one country in Africa, but we soon took over that leadership position when the African Rally was held in Abuja, Nigeria. And ever since, we have maintained the top position in terms of continental sales in the past three years.”

This was the submission of the company’s Managing Director, Mr Cornelius Tay while speaking with journalists, recently, following the exceptional performance of Forever Living Products Nigeria/Benin Republic at the just concluded FLP African Rally in Sun-City, South Africa.

“We held that position in 2010, 2011, and this year, 2012, when the African Rally was held in South Africa. So, in the past four years, Nigeria has always set the pace for the rest of the continent. We are very grateful for the success of our distributors, and for their exceptional achievements in this multi-level marketing business which has become extremely popular and rewarding for all the Nigerians who are either fully engaged in it or are doing it on part time basis”, Tay said.

According to the FLP boss, Nigeria recorded a number of fists in this year’s African Rally. “First, Nigeria had the largest number of attendees. Ours was a huge number, almost 50 per cent of the entire rally participants were Nigerians.

For every two people, there was a Nigerian. Second, Nigeria was declared as the number one country in Africa on the basis of continental sales in the period 2011 / 2012”, he added.

“Third, Nigeria recorded the highest growth rate in terms of sales per year to date which the chairman of the company, Mr Rex Maughan, pronounced as 100 per cent growth. That is spectacular for us.

He also disclosed that the country produced the Sonya Queen for Africa this year, in person of Chioma Ajah, who beat all other contestants from all over Africa to emerge the continental queen in Sun-City, South Africa”

So, she represents Africa at the Super Rally in Phoenix, Arizona, USA, during the World Rally in August, this year. And as if that was not enough, Nigeria produced the highest number of profit-share qualifiers. Of the 120 profit share qualifiers in the continent, Nigeria produced 45 of that number, and of the US$3 million shared among African profit share qualifiers, almost 70% per cent went to Nigerian qualifiers. Nigeria received the two topmost cheques at the event.

According to him, the number one cheque of US$335,000 went to the Ekperigins, and the second topmost cheque of US$279,000 went to Kikelomo Apeji.

“In the top five cheques, Nigeria had four. In terms of the volume of business, turned over by the various distributors across Africa, Nigeria produced the first four out of the top five distributors in the continent, based on the volume of their business, the strength of their network, their team capacity and the overall quality of their multi-level marketing business. Also Nigeria is the first company in Africa to offer on-line registration for distributors. There are many other ways in which Nigeria is miles ahead, and we are just very grateful to God and we thank all our distributors for their support”, Tay added.

Sounding fulfilled by the performance of the company at this year’s Rally, Tay said he was humbled by the country’s performance. “I am humbled by this performance. But I must say very quickly that I only provided leadership and direction, I also provided the vision, I set the rules that will ensure that we succeed as a company. So, personally, I am not surprised that we achieved these results”, he added.

He also shed some light on why out of the company’s 250,000 independent distributors in Nigeria, only about 1,600 could qualify for the rally. “Every year FLP sets up a contest, aimed at encouraging people who are in our multi-level marketing network to build a good team through sponsorship and recruitment into the network. Also through their abilities to make our products available to families and individuals who desire to improve their health, and as they do this, they pick up points.

“And based on the number of people that they are able to sponsor in the contest period, as well as the volume of sales that they are able to generate in the contest period, they are ranked into categories. And these categories are called African Rally Qualifiers. They enjoy an all expenses paid trip to wherever the destination of the Rally is located annually”