One
thing that marks out entrepreneurs is their ability to recognize
opportunities that are not so glaring. While others walk past
opportunities without even noticing them, entrepreneurs can smell an
opportunity from quite a distance. Once identified, they move close to
it, seize it, run with it, change the course of history, improve their
own lot and leave huge imprints on the sands of time.
That is the story of Mrs Florence Seriki, Group Managing Director, Omatek Group of Companies. Mrs Seriki is an epitome of the entrepreneurship spirit. At an age when her colleagues were at sea concerning the direction their lives would take, she saw a gap, moved to fill it and as a result, got catapulted atop a multi-billion naira conglomerate.
Revealing her sojourn into the world of business, she said, “When I was in school as a Chemical Engineering student at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), I did a project that cut across the University of Ife and University of Lagos. Due to the sensitive nature of the project, one of my lecturers at Ife bought a computer; it was the first XT computer that came to the University of Ife. So, I had to learn programming and Lotus.”
She revealed that though she had no idea of how this knowledge would be useful to her after the project, her hunger for knowledge propelled her to equip herself with it.
“My knowledge of computer operations became useful when I was posted to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) during my National Youth Service Corps programme. At NNPC, I found out that many executives just decorated their tables with computers, which they were not using. Once the secretary was not around, the boss could not work on the computer. So I told my boss, ‘Sir, I used a personal computer to do my project, can I teach you how to use the computer?’ My boss asked if I really could and I told him I could. So, I taught my boss. He told another director, who told another director. Some of them then told their friends in other organisations that there was a corps member that could train them on the use of computer. That was how I started training executives on the use of computer. Later, I also began to train staff of banks and oil companies.”
Seriki added that so successful was her at the training programme that before the completion of her youth service, she was able to open an office on Victoria Island where she employed staff she trained to train others.
However, she never allowed the tremendous success she was able to record at this stage of her life to get into her head. She did not become complacent as she yearned for more success. Her eyes were already set on moving further higher.
“As I was training executives, I realised that many companies did not have enough computers. I saw this as an opportunity to start selling computers. So, I started initially by buying foreign brands and selling to my customers. As a result of the excellent sales performance achieved by Omatek Ventures, we were appointed as a premium partner of Microsoft. By this time, we had annual sales revenue of over $1million.
“Up to 1992, key computer buyers in Nigeria were banks and oil and gas companies. They were buying only finished products. The oil and gas companies were buying only from their offshore companies. Therefore, there was no opportunity for Nigerians to sell to them. I started a joint venture with two Nigerian banks. Thus, we got concessions for oil companies to do business with us but we were required to have offshore affiliates. So, we went for offshore affiliates.
“Some of our affiliates would couple the computers up a little bit and then ship them down here. We would then complete the coupling. When I discovered that some big names in the computer industry were going to Asia to set up factories there, I decided to bring the factory to Nigeria, to Africa. I sourced funding from the Small and Medium Enterprises Equity Investment Schemes (SMEEIS) funds. By 2003, we became a completely knocked down factory. We sourced the SMEEIS funding because we wanted to be able to compete with big companies such as Dell and HP in terms of quality. Our raw materials are sourced from the best manufacturers in Asia.”
Omatek exited the SME scheme through a private placement that culminated in the company being listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in June 2008 thus becoming the first Nigerian computer company to achieve that feat.
To enhance the visibility and accessibility of its products, Omatek established subsidiaries such as; Omatek Computers Limited (Nigeria), Omatek Computers Limited (Ghana); Omatek Ventures Distribution Limited (Nigeria); Omatek Ventures Distribution Limited (Ghana) and Omatek Engineering Services Limited.
In addition, it also established a chain of one-stop-shops. These outlets retail Omatek products either as a subset of the Group or as franchise owners on behalf of the brand.
Challenges
But it has not been a roller coaster experience for Seriki and her outfits. Speaking about her major challenge in business, she said while she had had a great experience as an entrepreneur that started at the micro stage and later moved to the small stage before graduating to medium and eventually landing on the big scene, she had a number of untoward encounters with individuals and organizations.
One of the major challenge she encountered as an entrepreneur was in 2009 following the banking sector reforms by the CBN. She explained that before the reform, her company’s major banker was Afribank (now Mainstreet Bank), which was affected by the reform. She recalled that apart from using her company’s accounts with the bank for many of her operations, Omatek also got a mortgage facility from the bank.
She explained that with the change of management of the bank, “All our facilities were collapsed, the 10-year mortgage collapsed after less than a year in the mortgage, the offshore guarantee that served as the collateral for our only facility and working capital was not renewed. The consumer schemes for over eight major parastatals and states were cancelled. This is a scheme in which Afribank was the beneficiary of the proceeds as global undertaking were already done for them and all payments domiciled to them,” she said.
“It was a major setback that nearly crippled our operations. There was nothing we could do. We could not even access our working capital,” Seriki said, adding that, “we were able to overcome that challenge with serious efforts by our management and the intervention of the CBN.”
New efforts
Omatek has turned out to be not just a computer company as it is pioneering innovation in power solution. The company is now into solar hybrid alternative power solutions with the deployment of LED bulbs for domestic and industrial use.
Seriki’s venture into this line of business started following an insight she got after a meeting with the Minister of Power.
She said, “I was at a meeting with the Minister of Power where he stated the efforts of the government to increase power generation. Then, it occurred to me that while the efforts to increase power generation should increase, it is also important that we bring down the rate of power consumption. I realized that most of the bulbs in use in the country are power guzzlers. It was at that point we decided to go into this line of business. If we reduce power consumption by using energy saving bulbs, we shall free up power for industrial use.”
She said the solutions combine the benefits of the solar system and those of the LED technology to provide solutions that reduce energy consumption considerably while saving costs by 60-85 per cent.
“The use of our solar/LED solution can result in significant operational and maintenance cost savings for schools, public offices, hospitals, hotels, street lighting implementation, rural electrification and rural water system. This is also a cost effective, efficient and eco-friendly lighting solution,” she said.
As appeared in Tribune
A wonderful story
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