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The Chairman of Cornfield Group, Tope Agbeyo, x-rays the dynamics of startups in Nigeria against the backdrop of his fleet of businesses which include Media Concepts International Limited, Botosoft Technlogies Limited, Cornfield Transnational Limited and the FOAM Studio Nigeria Limited.
For Agbeyo, capital infusion, product counterfeiting, among many other challenges, bedevil growing businesses in Nigeria, although such have been mitigated by certain governmental policies on SMEs.
In this interview, the business mogul also spoke on his business edge, while lending some advice to SME entreprenuers.
Background
We have been in existence for about 12 years and we have never had a year of draught whereby we say let’s close down the business. If we are not achieving our vision and mission, we won’t be growing. If we have not satisfied our clients, there won’t be a reason for you to sit down here to interview me. We won’t have the guts to be thinking of making our company global, competing with other companies abroad and matching other products abroad. We won’t be thinking of exploring other sectors of the economy across the world, if we know that back home, we are not good enough. We won’t have the courage to do all that. I went into business because I wanted to satiate people’s needs. When you are creating a product, you should be certain that it will be needed in the society, that it will solve a certain problem or problems and not that you’ll force it on the society. It should be what people will be happy to spend their hard earned money to buy. When you are buying it, you know that this is going to solve one or two problems, that it will fill a vacuum in your life.
Startup capital
That was tough. It came up in 2005. Our first project was with the National Examination Council (NECO). We needed about N40 million to execute it and I had nothing. The only thing I had then was my God-given talent. I had to start looking for money. It was my aunty who staked her house as collateral. Her name is Ireti Olubunmi Borishade. She did so at Guardian Express Bank. She said, “Tope, I am ready to offer my house as collateral because of you.” Her thank you gift is who I am today. That I did not disappoint her. It’s not returning the property back to her; it’s not giving her N1,000 but the joy of who I am today. Good parents provide for their offsprings and their generations to come. It is a foolish parent that will see an opportunity to provide for his generations to come and ignore it. There is nothing bad in a child pursuing part of his/her inheritance. My father was not rich but he gave me what he never got from his parents, and that’s education. At a point, my father nearly sold his only cocoa plantation to train me. The money your parents give to you, bit by bit, is part of your capital for education but when you get to school, if you use the money on cultism, or you become a prostitute and you don’t go to school, you have failed. I had a dream and once you have a dream, you need to mould your moral attitude. I knew that one-day, I would be great but I didn’t know how. That’s why I grew up like an adult. When I was in the university, I had no social life. Any little time I had, I was in my father’s farm at Aba-Ijesha havesting cocoa or kolanuts ready to sell.
Group activities
When you create a group, its components or subsidiaries must complement each other. When we talk about Media Concept, it does examination brochures, information about examination rules and regulations. When there was a need for us to provide ICT services to our clients, we realised we needed to create a system whereby you can use your smart card to automate candidate’s attendance through a mobile terminal. You can also use it to report malpractices right on that same day that the candidate cheated. The issue of impersonation has to be dealt with, and then Botosoft Technologies came on board. Another thing we explore is the mathematical set and calculator, because a lot of people can conceal a lot of things in their mathematical sets. And then, the calculators are like Google. They have internet on them and they put many candidates at advantage above others. Those that cannot buy the high-end calculator will just buy a calculator required by the exam body. So, we said okay, why can’t we make these mathematical instruments transparent and we asked what kind of calculator the examination bodies needed. They told us and we started working and made everything a single object, then Cornfield Transnational Limited was incorporated for the purpose. These firms complement one another. FOAM Studio is into monogramming. It’s a corporate gift avenue, because we see that some of our clients need this. The main body of the company is abroad but we are moving down to serve clients in various parts of Nigeria.
Advice for young entrepreneurs
There are many challenges. First, you need to have a dream and then support the dream with a passion. Then you ask yourself if you are solving a problem. If you can answer all these questions, then you talk about finance, then you talk about the factors that can make you do things that are fake and avoid them. If you can believe in yourself, you must also believe in your clients and trust your customers. If what you are going to give to them is what they will like, you can resolve those challenges. But we cannot all be entrepreneurs. It’s not possible. I want you to know one thing. If you are working with an entrepreneur, you are also an entrepreneur, because you are contributing something. It’s just that they are paying you salary. If you are starting up a business, because you want to be rich, you will never become rich. That business will never grow. My father always said, “Whoever loves too much money will never have money”. Youths of today should look beyond money and financial benefits. They should think of their identity and brand first and the quality of services they want to render to the customer and if they fail once, they should start all over again.
Addressing product counterfeiting
It is not peculiar to Nigeria. It’s everywhere. For every original bag or product you buy, there is a counterfeit. They are not of the same price but you can be certain you will get it at almost the same location. Go buy your favourite phones; you will realise fakes are there. Ask yourself where you’re buying your products and at what price. You know the price of the product. So, you don’t blame the manufacturer if you buy a fake product. You blame yourself. In our company, we have developed an application that is widely accepted that you can put on your products or your certificate and would tell you this is original or fake. It’s being pioneered by our company in the UK and one of its kind, globally. We call it Botoseal. It was launched in the UK because they have this similar problem of fake certificates and fake items everywhere. You know where originals are being sold. Go there! You know the prices of original items. Something is N100 and you buy it for N30. You have set yourself up for the counterfeit. All these things are affecting manufacturers. But with Botoseal, I believe counterfeiting has met its match.
Business edge
We may have the same IT firm but we have never copied any products or services. We create our own products. Everything we do, people do it after us. Our smart card, INEC copied from WAEC. WAEC used it before them. Not only that. For everything we produce, we were the first to produce it. I can show you facts to prove this. The calculator and math set produced is globally accepted today. Go and Google some of these things and see that we started them. We are touching every shore of Africa and beyond.
Evaluating policies on startups
If all you are producing is pure water and you have one million people to sell to out of the over 180 million Nigerians that’s good money for you. Let us have comparative cost advantage and see that people specialise in producing something unique. You can even go to Ghana to produce but the money still comes back to Nigeria. Only that, today, there is a tendency of stealing intellectual property. You float a business idea and some cabals just hijack it and empower their relatives to start. You then see them driving exotic cars all around town. Identify some youths and let them go into farming and you only have to create the enabling environment for them. When I see that there is a ready market for my produce, I’m encouraged to produce more. I support policies instead. Let’s look at policies that can help us as a country and let’s embrace them.
Success story and lessons
I have really gone through a lot. For two years, I didn’t have a television set. At a point, my younger brother came home with a spoilt computer, and I just hung it on my shelf just to beautify the house. At a point, my wife was almost going to take up a cleaning job. Most people are not ready to suffer first. I have said it before. Don’t let money be the reason you are in business. Let it be that you are in business because you want to serve. You can even do it free. When you do it free, people would then be willing to pay for your services.
Culled From Sun Newspaper, February 28, 2019.
