What is the state of
industry in Akwa Ibom State?
I am a firm believer in industrialization because without
industrialization you cannot have a developed economy, and it pains me to see
that in a state like Akwa Ibom where we have had so much money over the years
we have not been able to get real industrialization even after several promises
have been made to provide one industry in each of the 31 local government areas
of the state. Today, we cannot boast of even one industry and we have more
young people in the state looking for employment. And as a matter of fact we
still remain a civil service state. This is a serious issue. No matter what we
do, the economy of this state cannot grow except we change our attitude and be
more focus towards entrepreneurial development and industrialization. If you
look at Cross River State, for instance, you have several tank farms and people
are still looking for where to put more tank farms, and one is tempted to ask
how come we don’t have investors wanting to set up tank farms in Akwa Ibom
State? It therefore means that the level of attractiveness of business to Akwa
Ibom State is very very low.
You mean there are
more industries in Cross River State than Akwa Ibom State?
Yes, of course. It has to do with how attractive is your
location for investment, because it is not only your people that must invest.
You must be able to accommodate others from outside the state…..
Are these industries
in Cross River State built by indigenes?
No, most of them are built by non-indigenes. If you have a
good location for investment people can come and invest in your state.
Can you give us names
of some of the industries you are talking about in Cross River State?
General Electric is constructing right now in Calabar. We
have several companies in the free-trade zone in Cross River and they are owned
by non-indigenes. Flour Mills is there. Jackson Devos is also there, it is
owned by a non-indigene. It has a lot to do with the people’s attitude towards
investments, especially at the level of government support and encouragement. We
have a long way to go in Akwa Ibom State.
Are you attributing
the industries in Cross River to the state government there?
Yes, it is the doing of the Cross River State government.
The people there are also very receptive and supportive.
How about Akwa Ibom
people? Aren’t they receptive to investors?
We are not. We are not receptive in the sense that the
people representing us probably don’t have the interest or the understanding
that they need to be more open and supportive to entrepreneurs and investors.
This could be an
indictment. What evidence do you have?
If you have not had certificates of occupancy, for instance,
signed for organizations that have come in and applied to be given a space to
establish industry in this state…. Look, you can even do your own investigation
to find out how many certificates of occupancy have been signed and issued out
to people who have applied to invest in this state. If you have to lobby before
you can get your certificate of occupancy signed for you, then that is a put
off for an average investor, obviously.
Is that the only
evidence?
You know everything in Akwa Ibom revolved around an
individual or certain individuals, and investors don’t operate like that. If
you come in, you have commissioners for instance; the commissioners should be
able to take certain decisions and tell you we are ready or not. But having to
wait for a particular person’s approval in everything is a put off for
investors. It may sound simple, but it affects the attractiveness of a place to
potential investors.
We know Jackson Devos
is an old name in manufacturing; the company has been in existence even before
the creation of Akwa Ibom State. How is the company performing currently?
The performance is not as good as it used to be and it has
to do with the realities in the country; manufacturing is suffering a lot in
this country at the moment because the support base for manufacturing is not as
good as what you have, let’s say, with people who are into buying and selling
of goods. Let’s take access to finance, for instance. If you approach a bank to
raise money to dash into China to buy good, sell them back in Nigeria and pay
off the bank money, the bank would easily listen to you than a manufacturer who
is going to buy machines, test-run them and then go into production before he starts
thinking of paying off the bank money. The financial institutions in Nigeria
are not so helpful to manufacturing. Then of course we have the challenge of
infrastructure, electricity power supply in the country is a major issue here.
Your company is still
producing carpet?
Yes, we are still producing carpet….
No diversification?
Well, we had diversified. We went into hotel business sometimes ago. But
the core of our business is the production of carpet, and our carpet is still
the best in Nigeria.
Most old companies
which we could refer to as contemporaries of Jackson Devos folded up long ago.
What’s driving Jackson Devos? Is it family pride or profit-making?
Family pride is very paramount. Most importantly, we had a good
succession plan and we still maintain good relationship with our technical
partners. My dad who started the business had encouraged us early in life to
start having interest in the company. My fulfillment in life is to still
promote the Jackson Devos brand, and of course also make mega money from the
business.
Do you feel you’ve
done enough to promote the Jackson Devos brand compared with what your father
did in the past for the company?
Well, not enough really. You know we have a lot of
circumstantial issues surrounding manufacturing in Nigeria. So, within the
limit of what we can, I would say yes we have. In their time government
assistance and patronage was there, compared to what we are experiencing now.
You know so many things have changed over the years. Out of about 28 carpet manufacturers
in Nigeria up till about 1995 or thereabout, for us to remain among the only
four indigenous manufacturers of carpet today I think it is something worthy of
appreciation. Most other carpets you find in Nigeria are imported. In fact, the
only carpet-manufacturing company in this country that belongs to a Nigerian is
Jackson Devos. Other carpet-manufacturing companies in this country mostly have
Indians at the back of it.
As the leader of the
Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) in Akwa Ibom State we want you tell
us if businessmen in the state are networking among themselves and with the
state government.
I wouldn’t say yes or no. I believe individuals have when
and reasons or places where they meet….
We are talking about
official and corporate platforms like a forum of businessmen or maybe CEOs?
None that I know of that MAN is directly involved. However,
sometime ago we initiated what we called Forum of Organised Private Sector. We
have a lot of entrepreneurs, mostly small scale enterprises across the state.
Our tendency as business people in this state is not often to meet. There is
even a tendency to want to hoard information which is actually a problem here.
Now, belonging to organised private sector means that you could come in and put
your issues together because what affect you will most likely affect the next
person, we proffer common solutions and share information with one another. Yes,
it is true that in Akwa Ibom State we don’t really encourage
information-sharing among entrepreneurs. We also have a tendency to politicise
every issue in Akwa Ibom State. I have had a situation where I had a meeting
with a commissioner for commerce in this state, and instead of addressing me on
the basis of MAN that I went to see him, he was rather talking to me on my
personal political issues, and that had affected the way MAN could have maybe
complemented whatever the government was doing. I give you another example. The
Nigerian Export Promotion Council is in this state today because we had support
from the then commissioner for commerce, Elder Adasi Obolom, and that is one
federal government parastatal that facilitate export businesses. But we had to
pass through a lot of challenges before we could get the support of the state
government for the Nigerian Export Promotion Council to have an office here in
Uyo.
Is Akwa Ibom State
not making good use of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council?
The state is more focused on political issues than economic
issues. There is huge gap between the business community in this state and the
state government.
What’s the
relationship between Governor Godswill Akpabio and the business community in
the state?
I don’t think the governor has in anyway been an
encouragement to private sector development in Akwa Ibom. Let me give you an
instance. Some years ago we were invited abruptly to witness the signing of MoU
between Akwa Ibom State government and the Bank of Industry. From what we
gathered, our invitation was on the insistence of the MD of the Bank of
Industry who said that she wanted to have the organised private sector
witnessed and be part of it because the funds, about N15 billion counterpart
funding between the bank and the state government was earmarked for it, was
meant for Akwa Ibom people to access it, and certainly you needed the private
sector to be aware of it. But till today we don’t really know how many
entrepreneurs in Akwa Ibom have access the fund. We are not even aware if the
Akwa Ibom State government has provided cash backing for the fund, and meanwhile
this is supposed to be public information. I am aware that no member of MAN in
Akwa Ibom State has accessed the fund.
Governor Godswill
Akpabio has said severally that he could patronise local road construction
companies in Akwa Ibom State because he didn’t trust them to do a good job.
What’s your take on this?
Any government that cannot encourage local construction
companies is not willing to help in the development of indigenous businesses.
The mega construction companies we see today started from somewhere. In fact,
Julius Berger that we talk about today was a tiny and insignificant company in
Germany, they came and became big here in Nigeria. If you want to be sincere,
you can engage local companies to do your work; you give them the
specifications on what to do, pay them what you pay other people and they will
deliver. And if they don’t deliver, there are legal means of sanctioning those
companies. It is not an acceptable excuse to say that you can’t give jobs to
local contractors because you don’t trust their standard. As a leader you must
learn to have confidence in your people. Even when they don’t have capacity
today, it is your place to build them up till they have the capacity.
Let’s talk politics.
How’s your local government faring?
In Etinan, everybody needs change. We are tired of the
status quo. We will make APC win the election because that is the people’s
party.
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