UMAR YAHAYA KANSILA is the chairman/chief executive officer of UYK Limited, a firm specializing in building infrastructures in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions and other sectors. In this interview with BASHIR IBRAHIM HASSAN, GM, Northern Operations, Kansila speaks on how his passion for excellence is driving UYK’s commitment to development of infrastructures in Nigerian tertiary institutions and development of human capital, amongst others.
Can you tell us about your journey into becoming a businessman; how it started, and the journey so far?
In every journey, there is a starting point and our company is not different. We started formally in 1998, but the business actually started way back in 1996. I happened to be a civil servant until 1996, working with the Kano state government at the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Cooperatives as an accountant.
The type of upbringing I received from my family had a direct relationship on what I am doing today. My father, Alhaji Yahaya, Councillor, as he was popularly called, was a renowned politician and an ally of the late Mallam Aminu Kano. He was a businessman and amongst the first generation contractors in Kano state. Being the first male child, I used to be very close to him, in the early 70s from when I was just about six years old.
In everything, it is very important to define objectives and ask yourself “what will be my legacy, when I leave this world?”
That was the period of construction boom. Then, Nigeria had the oil boom and a lot of economic prosperity. So, some of the indigenous contractors started getting part of the jobs from the government. My father was amongst the very few indigenous contractors that got patronage from the government. As a boy, I used to go with him to a lot of construction sites. One of such projects was the low-cost housing project along the Kano-Maiduguri road. My father was part of the contractors that participated in the construction of those houses. He also participated in construction of the Government Girls College, Kano, amongst others.
When I established my own company, UYK General Enterprises, we started by supplying building materials and taking small and medium contracts from the local governments, building classrooms, etc. As the business was growing, my personal lawyer, advised me to increase the strength of our company, from Business Enterprises, to a Limited liability company. This led to the registration of UYK Limited, in August of 1998.
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From then, we began getting business patronage from the Kano State government, building educational and health infrastructures, amongst others. We didn’t restrict our activities to the construction industry, but also ventured into trading too. We did a lot in produce buying and textiles, including hides and skin. From the year 2000, when the 3rd Republic began, we got an opportunity under the Kano state government to construct shelter for flood disaster victims. That opened the doors for big contracts from other state governments – Kaduna, Jigawa, etc.
Can you talk us through the major successes, breakthroughs and accomplishments recorded by the company so far?
Our successes are measured by the major projects we handled all over the country. We have participated in executing projects in about 29 states and we are handling over 155 projects across the country, covering areas of construction, building infrastructures, supplies, etc. These projects have attracted positive commendations because of the quality of our deliveries. But what always makes me happy, is our contribution to human capital development.
I sincerely feel fulfilled when I look back at the number of people whose lives we have been able to transform. You see, in everything, it is very important to define objectives and ask yourself “what will be my legacy, when I leave this world?” From the beginning of this journey, I told myself that human capital development is better than material benefits. Yes, we are in business to make profit as a profit oriented organization, but in most of our decisions, we emphasize human capital development. We have an established system that allows individuals to develop themselves, once they joined us. If you work with us and we observe that you are not planning to develop yourself, we believe we do not have a place for you. We believe that no matter the infrastructures on ground, if you do not develop the human capacity to manage them, forget it, there will be problems of sustainability.
As an engineering company, most of our staff are professionals; architects, quantity surveyors, construction engineers etc. We find ourselves in a very lucky position, because most of our engagements and projects are in higher institutions of learning, such as Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges of education etc. These are institutions that breed these professionals. So, we take advantage to create a strong relationship with them to develop and also source most of our staff. We make sure that we identify and groom them from their third year in those institutions and once they complete their programs, they do their mandatory one year National Youth Service program, we give them opportunities to join us after they go through our integrity tests.
We are currently executing projects across the 29 States, spread across the six geopolitical zones. Out of the six states that make up each geopolitical zone, we are in at least five of those states working on various projects. In Abuja for instance, we are handling projects in the faculty of education, at the University of Abuja. We upgraded the Secretariat of the Academic Staff Union of the University, ASUU. We did a lot of projects with the Nigerian Immigration Service, the Nigerian Correctional Service, here in Abuja and we are handling the supply of state of the art equipment for firefighting for the Nigeria Fire Service NFS.
In the South East, we are handling more than eleven projects. Some of these are located at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where we are working at the Faculty of Agriculture, Department of dentistry and constructing road infrastructure in the University. Other projects include the UNESCO cultural centre amongst several others. We are also working on projects at the Abia state University, where we just completed the construction of the faculty of Humanities, amongst others. We are also handling several projects at the newly established Enugu State Polytechnic. We are the pioneer contractors there.
In the South South, we are handling about three gigantic projects at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, namely: the faculties of Education, Arts and Humanities and those of Engineering. These projects are about 90% completed. We are about to start construction at three faculties at the Akwa Ibom state University.
At the moment, we are the major contractors at the University of Ibadan. We recently completed the seven-story faculty of Arts. According to some of the University’s management staff, in the over 40-year history of the University, there is no one single structure that stands out like it. We have three other ongoing projects also at the University. At the newly established Federal University in Ekiti state, we have another contract for construction of five different faculties. We are also about to commence the construction of the state of the art Cancer centre and academic staff building at the Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, Ile Ife.
In the north central, we are handling projects at the federal university, Lafia, including two three-hundred-capacity male and female hostels. The Senate building of the Nasarawa state University is at 70% completion. We have a five hundred capacity lecture theatre under construction at the same institution. Recently, the Federal Executive Council FEC approved a N2 billion contract to our company for the construction of different projects at the newly created federal University of Health Sciences.
We handled a lot of projects at the Federal University, Wukari, starting from the academic staff building and procurement of fire fighting trucks, amongst others. At the Federal College of Education Yola, each year, we have been handling nothing less than three projects in the last four years. At the Federal University, Geshua, we are about to commence work in three faculties.
If you go to the Bayero University, from 2010 up till now, we have handled over 10 big infrastructure projects. We are very proud to tell you that the best Senate building in Nigeria, located at the Bayero University, was constructed by us. It is a six story building with over 5,000 square meters of parking lots. It is tastefully furnished with the state of the art facilities. The successful handling of that project, gave us eight other contracts from seven different agencies. We are getting patronages to handle one of the big projects belonging to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) because of the success of that project. We have been major contractors to all the three Universities in Kano as well as the Federal College of Education Kano, in the past 10 years.
What do you think has made it easy for you to achieve these successes in the construction industry?
It is always good for someone to properly define one’s vision from the onset. When we look into the construction industry, holistically, we understand that there are some areas that may not be very suitable for the kind of vision that we have. We clearly define our business relationship with the educational institutions.
Under the tertiary education trust fund, we decided to concentrate more in that area, because, we understand the system and we understand where our challenges are and where our successes will be. We realized early enough that nothing good comes easy. We also knew that we were going into a journey that will require hard work, dedication and strong commitment to excellence if we must succeed. But we also do not struggle because we know that whatever belongs to us, will come to us, because we have a good foundation.
In this industry, we also understand the Nigeria factor too. We knew early enough that corruption kills the economy and undermined development. So, in tender processes, we are always thorough, meticulous as well as careful in ensuring that the right choices are done. Because of this approach, we no doubt encountered so many challenges. But we also discovered that most of the Universities operate systems that are less corrupt. I am not saying that there is any institution with zero corruption, but the University system is less corrupt. Yes, some people will tell you that the academic communities are very difficult to do business with, but, you need to understand them. They are the most simple and reliable people to do business with. If you do your business activities objectively, be firm in your decisions, be meticulous in documentations, performing credibly well in your projects, you will be sitting in your office and they will be the ones looking for you to execute projects for them.
We are getting these patronages because we follow the rules of engagements of these Universities meticulously. Interestingly, in over 90% of the projects we are handling, we did not lobby anybody. In most cases they invite us to go and participate in the bidding process. What has also helped us so much in achieving these results, is the fact that we work with professionals who are also well motivated and they effectively deliver on every project we get.
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