Yemo Afoye
4 November 2008
THE Nigerian economy is evolving and different sectors of the economy have taken their cues in undergoing different reforms aimed at reshaping the sector to enable the easy discharge of business.
The power sector in Nigeria has not been left out as it has also developed new and modern ways of transacting its business, a development which has also made it possible for private investors and entrepreneurs to consider investing in the highly controversial sector.
Mr. Ayodeji Buschell is the Chief Executive Officer of Serve-All Group, an indigenous engineering and manufacturing company, which concerns itself with the complete manufacturing and production of different capacities of electricity transformers.
In this interview with Vanguard's Yemie Adeoye and Success Uzokwe, he opens up on challenges being faced by indigenous investors in the manufacturing industry especially when it is a highly capital intensive sector such as power, while also lamenting the inability of Nigeria as an oil-producing country to stop importation of transformer oil as well as the unacceptability of made-in-Nigeria products without the benefit of doubt even as according to him, such products have come to stay.
Can you tell us a little about yourself?
My name is Ayodeji Buschell, I studied Computer Science programming applications at the University of Calabar as far back as 1992, but it is one thing to study in the university for what you actually want to do and it is another thing to want to practicalise what you have studied.
I did computer science just because I needed to be educated, though I had wanted to go into pharmacy.
I was doing engineering with my uncle since I was nine years old. This basically has to do with domestic engineering and electrical wiring of the house. But there is this dream, the inner dream that comes up and I see myself around transformers and electricity atmosphere as far back as 1993.
I was opportune to see a transformer face to face because a company was folding up in Oshodi Industrial Estate, and they had these equipment to be sold. At that time I could go into companies to get equipment for people who need them and that was how I stumbled into the first transformer in my life. I could actually get a buyer for the transformer so the person I got in touch with has a workshop, Moe and Partners.
He saw the zeal in me and said 'ok come over boy, you will handle the marketing aspect of transformers,' but in the process of my training with Moe and Partners, he realised that I had more inside than what he had actually anticipated. So that was how the journey started with transformers and I was with Moe and Partners for about three years, then I took private lectures from international bodies on transformers and not electricity per-se, because electrical technology is a wide field and you have a lot of appliances that make up electrical technology, but my own specialty was based on designs, installation and repair of transformers.
In 1995, I established my own company after I left Moe and Partners so that was where my own journey started from. I looked at Nigeria then as dumping ground for electrical appliances with giants like Adebowale that had a bright future and dreams for Nigeria, but government policies then would not allow them to grow because everybody then was like trying to import everything into Nigeria.
But as we would have, it over time, we had a breakthrough actually in 1997, we were able to build and fabricate transformer tanks, and from there, we could repair transformers for PHCN (then NEPA) and may be some communities. We do installations for a lot of companies but that was not my own dream, my own dream was that Nigeria is too vast and it has all the necessary resources that can enable the production of transformers in this country.
Ajaokuta is not working, you have copper deposits in Bauchi, you have brass deposits in Niger State, a lot of raw materials that could make you have a total package for a transformer, because the transformer itself is made up of the insulating oil, the coal lamination which is the silicon sheet that Ajaokuta can produce for us, the oil section which is the transformer insulating oil which the oil companies can produce for us but they are not, the copper wires which normal electrical companies could also produce but they are not!
However, with the coming of democracy in Nigeria, things have changed for everybody in the country, because you could have a stake in your own country. You could say yes there is a continuous government policy, hence you are not afraid to establish. So that has been the journey so far. Basically, at this present state that we are, we are able to manufacture transformer from the design to the finish.
Can you clearly let us into your area of operation, are you marketing imported transformers or producing new ones?
As I am sitting in front of you now, I have never imported one single transformer in my life. What I did in 2002 was that I was able to know the different segments of a transformer. What controls the voltage, which is referred to as the tap changes, you have the accessories which we call the bushings, the low voltage side and the high voltage side of the transformer, these are the necessary accessories needed for you to make a transformer complete.
Then you will also need the insulations, it involves the paper windings, the sleeving, the press boards and so on. We were able to get into marketing agreements with companies in India because India for now is the only country that you can actually sit and get all components of a transformer and that is where Nigeria is supposed to be. Indians can sit in India and manufacture a complete transformer from scratch.
Are you reiterating the fact that there is an abundance of untapped raw materials in Nigeria?
Nigeria can supersede the European countries put together in technology! We have the brains, we have the manpower, we are also blessed with the raw materials, but it is sad, Ajaokuta is not working! We have companies like Coleman Cables, Kabelmetal etc. If Kabelmetal can produce copper cables and realise that the demand for copper insulating materials needed for transformer is high, then they'll veer into that sub-sector. But nobody is going to put his fund into a revenue that is going to yield 20 per cent. But if Kabelmetal realises that Nigeria has developed to the stage of reproducing copper wire, it will diversify because they have been in existence for quite some time in Nigeria.
We have Mecon Cables, we have a lot of cable companies in Nigeria, but Nigerians can't build a transformer from beginning. I can tell you that Nigerians don't need to go to Benin Republic or any other country to get the necessary equipment. In fact, paper is the major component of insulation.
Obukobou Paper Factory is not working, Iweku Paper Mill is not working, a lot of paper mills are not working, and we have the raw materials, so I can vouch for you 200 per cent without mincing words that Nigeria can manufacture transformers of high standard as good as any foreign country would.
What informed the present state of things that has brought us to the point where we can't even think of harnessing our natural resources to go into production of vital equipment such as transformers?
How many Nigerians are into manufacturing? Nobody wants to put his money into a venture that will not yield money because the banks will be on your neck to bring back the funds they have given to you. There are two different things about making money.
A businessman is a businessman, all he thinks about is profit-making but a manufacturer wants to impact the society, he wants to impact the economy even with a marginal profit, that is the manufacturing sector, and why can't we do that? Simply because most of the people that have the funds are not using the funds where the funds are supposed to be used.
For instance, the banking sector, a bank will tell you about your in-flow and out-flow, somebody is starting from the scratch, he has all the ideas and you tell him that his in-flow and out-flow are not enough even when you bring out all your best brains and you don't have a structure to show for it.
Take for instance this interview as a grace from Vanguard, if I don't have a structure to show for it, may be we sit in a snacks bar to talk, it doesn't hold any water, but because you are sitting here, you can see the next step that we want to get to, you can appreciate it, that is what Nigeria is about, and because very few people have the resources to get to this point, their dreams are dying.
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