Mr. Joseph Akindipe is the chairman of Idowu Lane unit of Lagos Computer Village. In this interview with CAMILLUS NNAJI, he speaks on the rapid expansion of the market, the falling value of the naira and sundry issues. Excerpts;
How tasking has it managing business and people?
Over two years since I assumed office, I have come to terms with the view that human beings are very difficult to manage; even more than business. Human beings are dynamic and complicated species. You cannot really predict them.
At the same time, our managerial skills have been challenged and put into practice. Don’t forget that at Computer Village, you will see people from all walks of life – a mix of the educated, semieducated, non-educated and touts.
In the market, I have come to see leadership as a call to both sacrifice and service. We have to build a relationship with individuals, factoring in their background, literacy level and needs.
We have a lot of miscreants here; we have a lot of fraudsters here too. Every day we are confronted with customers complaining about how they have been duped by these miscreants who sold phones and computer accessories to them. On this issue, we have a working relationship with the community police.
Where there is a need to arrest, we do that. Where there is a need to involve our task force we also do that. We work on this philosophy that if one customer is lost due to fraud, then a million dollars has been lost in the market.
How can you describe the successes and challenges of the market?
The association has become cohesive since our inception. We have fixed the roads and this has impacted positively on our customers. We have created a better business relationship with our customers and associates. We have also waged a war against the ‘fufu boys’ (those who specialise in deceiving innocent customers selling phones stuffed with fufu or cassava paste). We have kept our eyes open, watching closely so that they do not deceive more customers.
We have broken more grounds with the relationship we have established with the Nigerian-Mexican Chamber of Commerce. We have held several meetings aimed at promoting this relationship. Mexico is one of the world’s leading Information and Communication Technology manufacturers. They promised us tax reduction and the introduction of a variety of new businesses.
This is as a result of the business relationship we initiated with them. In future, the relationship is aimed at bringing them to open manufacturing plants here. Government should help us deal with miscreants.
Government should come and take miscreants away from the market. In the past, they beat up our customers. The emotional pain our customers suffer when they are duped cannot be quantified.
Business people, buyers should be wary of those doing business along the streets. They should walk into shops and request to see the owner of the shop before doing any transaction.
In terms of revenue generation, how can you score Computer Village’s contribution to the government’s purse?
Computer Village generates high income for the government.
For instance, an importer may be bringing in goods worth N5 million and spend as much as N500, 000 to clear it from the port. One computer, for example, weighs 3-5kg; 100 computers will weigh as much as 500kg, you can pay as much as N500, 000 to bring in those computers in form of tax. But when imported, our customers are not flexible with reality.
This time around, the dollar is very high, impacting more on SMEs. But at the end of the day, when you increase your price to suit the change in foreign exchange, the customers will never pay more than what he envisaged as the actual cost of the item.
What is the update on government’s planned relocation of Computer Village?
We have not had any meeting with the current Lagos State Government on that. The truth is that Lagos State Government does not want to spend money on relocation but still wants it to happen.
They prefer private participation in terms of funding. Relocation does not favour business people. We have tried to see how this will work. Take an instance from Tejuosho and Oshodi markets, it is simply not working. Do you want a market that is not working? Business people should understand that there is a common goal to meet. Business people think of profit and that is what is on their minds.
What strategy do you have against fires?
We have put in place machinery to checkmate this. We have the numbers of the Lagos fire service too. Our security men are detailed to patrol the entire market day and night and the have the mandate to lock up any shop that has its lights on. We have also worked on electrical connections, because we believe this is one of the causes of fire outbreak. Generator usage has been reduced because we have instructed that every line should have one or two heavy duty generators to power all the shops. In other words, we have placed a strong surveillance on possible causes of fire outbreak.
What measures have you taken on sanitary condition of the market?
Our sanitation strategy is relationship- based. We relate with Ikeja Local Government officials on this. We work with chairmen of each of the buildings in the market. We make sure, compulsorily, drainages are cleaned and swept. We relate well with Lagos Waste Management Authority. We pay up to date which means when they are not measuring up. We put them under pressure. If refuse is not packed here in this market within 48 hours, the whole environment will be messy.
No comments:
Post a Comment