Collateral free loans key to growth of Nigerian SMEs –Waheed Usman Ogunbiyi

With about 60 employees earning salaries from his startup, Waheed Ogunbiyi, the Chairman/CEO of Oguns Investments Nigeria Limited, a leading startups specialised in building and construction has carved a niche for himself in the nation’s SMEs space.

The ace entrepreneur believes that  startups in the country can be encouraged to grow if government makes the frantic effort of granting them interest free loans and without collaterals. He however lent an advice on business growth to young and budding entrepreneurs.

Excerpts

Starting up

It has been a long journey with a step at a time along the journey. It’s been about 27 years now. I started with my late father when we were involved in bringing in goods like stationery. I concluded my education and decided to be on my own. I had been hard working and focused and resolved that I was going to make it in business and even surpass my dad’s records. This had taken a long time of determination

The real estate business was started in 1993 from where we have been focused on spreading. That has been the story. To be candid, I won’t say I rode on my father name to affluence. All I can say is that I enjoyed his guidance. When we wanted to start the stationery business, he had no dime and I was the one who approached the Indians that were meant to supply us. I asked for credit.  By then, our supplier insisted we must get some money ready but my dad said we had just N2,000. We needed more but that was all my dad had to start. That was in 1987. With the N2,000 with us, we asked for credit facilities and I was the one reaching the supplier. The supplier saw that I was doing well and I was improving in my sales, then, he started giving me better credit and I was paying back as and when due. So, I can say that I never had the opportunity to be financially empowered by my father.

He was only there to guide my steps. Well, the advice served as the affluence he passed on to me because if I had not followed his advice and guidance, I won’t have been where I am today. We are into a lot but the major is the real estate. That is what popularised our name. We build complexes, malls, housing estates and the rest. Aside that, we have ventured into other things.

Initial capital

That N2,000 was the starting capital in 1987. It has been a long time. I tell youths that there are steps to attaining success in business. Failure to do so won’t make you make it in business. You must firstly have God. You must also be hard working, focused, concentrated and you must be trustworthy. You must be accountable too. If you fail from this factors or deviate from them, you cannot make it in life. When you say two plus two, you must always have four and when you say two minus two, it gives you zero. That is the guiding principle for integrity and accountability.

Challenges and competition

The challenges are enormous. God said in the Quran that he has created man to work and toil for a living. The challenges are there and you must keep managing them. It was Henry Ford who said that “failure is the only opportunity to begin again more intelligently”. Anything you do at all is worth doing well. That is according to Henry Ford too. You may need to first know that if you don’t have the interest, you cannot excel. You must discover your potential and pursue it vigorously. Some do the business for the money but for me, I do it for the passion to do it. What you love you will do effectively.

At Oguns Investments, we follow the best practices in the industry; we follow the creatives too. Everyday, the sector metamorphoses into a bigger level. For us, we are unparalleled. We build in such a way that nobody else does. We don’t look into the money in it for us, but we first think of passion and proficiency. We know that when we do that, the money comes in automatically. It is when people see what you are made of that they begin to come for you. The money follows after. We do not nurse any fear at all that any company can push us out of business. We are doing what we know how to do best. That make us stronger and concentrated.

Investment prospects

We have been here for a long while enough to make us know that the industry is so large that there is no amount of money that can be enough for investment. That is why we always seek to partner with corporate bodies, with the hope of delving into other investments. We also appeal to international bodies on construction to come to our aid. No amount of fund is sufficient for the business compared to the deficit. We meet up with targets and requirements of investors for a good turnover.

Profitability

It is very lucrative. When you pick food and clothing, shelter is the next basic necessity to think of. You can’t shy away from the fact that we all need shelter. If you get a shelter to live in, you are still likely to need an office. You need infrastructure too and that is part of our business. The business is very lucrative.

Lessons for growth

There is no shortcut to success. I have it that it is from sweat to sweetness. It is a ladder you must climb from the bottom to the top. Our youths would say they want to be like Dangote but have they imbibed the key principles I talked about? It is true that Dangote doesn’t have two heads but you must be hardworking and trustworthy. You must also be a man of integrity. With that, you can be successful.

Anybody can be Dangote. You must also learn to persevere. You can’t start a business and jump out of it the next minute. If you cannot face challenges, you cannot be rich. Money grows when watered. If you fail to plan, you have planned to fail. Success is not magical. I have lived an exemplary life which I can advise youths to emulate.

Encouraging young entrepreneurs

For me as an entrepreneur, I see a lot of potential and possibility in Nigeria if well managed by government at all levels. Government should help in the area of access to soft loans and must develop the small businesses. You can start by giving soft loans to small business owners. Give them N20,000 for their startups and increase it when they pay back. Capture their biometrics and they won’t run anywhere.

By simply capturing your thumbprint, all your personal information can be captured. Educate them too that when you give N20,000 to someone selling roasted plantain by the roadside and you tell him/her that when judiciously used and paid back, he or she will get back N40,000, they will be eager to pay back. Don’t tell them to get any collateral. Only get their biometrics.

When you default, it means you cannot do business anywhere again. That will ameliorate the rate of poverty in the country.  When they do well, the credit facility is increased. Such a small business owner will like to grow. I know this so well because I live with the people. Such people can in turn engage people in their businesses, thereby reducing the rate of unemployment and poverty.

Business goals

We are posed to creating more jobs. At the moment, we have over 60 employees earning salaries in the company. In few months time, we want to diversify into businesses like departmental stores and other areas of engineering and construction. We have a dream to go into mining, just to create more jobs for people. We also have an NGO which focuses on creating vocational centres for the youths. We are also looking at sponsoring cultural events as a means of corporate social responsibility. We want to alleviate poverty among our people and hopefully attain the status of the Dangotes of this world