• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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‘Government can leverage trustee business in the area of trust fund, projects’  

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Yinka Adegbola is the managing director of PAC Trustees Limited, with close to two decades’ experience covering legal advisory, company secretarial services and trusteeship. In this interview with IFEOMA OKEKE, he speaks on services delivered by PAC Trustees and reasons why corporate and government organisations should partner with trustees in their day-to-day operations.

Could you tell us briefly about PAC Trustees Limited?

PAC Trustees Limited is a member of PanAfrica Capital Holdings, a proprietary investment company with special focus on key sectors across emerging and frontier markets in Africa including financial services, hospitality and entertainment, real estate and infrastructure, agro-allied and FMCG, healthcare and ICT and media. We have been in the system in the last 13 years and for me, I have been in the industry for close to two decades and I have pioneered some trust companies in Nigeria.

How would you explain the concept of trustees?

Trust concept started in the 11th century and that was when there was the 11th century crusade between the Western Asia and Europe. Then when people went to war, they were not sure of their return, so there was a need for them to tidy up their house. So, what they did was to appoint friends who would oversee their estate in case they didn’t return. This was what led to the concept of trustees. Now take it down to modern day concept. Specifically, what a Trust company does is to hold assets in trust for the benefits of some beneficiaries. For instance, if you look at it in the corporate world, you see someone wants to borrow money from the bank; he gives assets to trustee to hold in trust for the benefit of the bank. So that if the person defaults, the trustee can sell off the assets and pay off the bank. So, trustees are like middlemen between the deficit end and the surplus end. So, we manage these assets for the benefit of some set of people. The person that sets up a trust is called a settlor, while the trustees are trustees and the beneficiaries are those for whom the assets are set up. So, you see us play in commercial transactions ranging from syndication, to debentures, to state government bonds and mutual funds amongst others. The trustees protect the interest of the beneficiaries as stated by the settlor in the instrument setting up the trust.

How has it been for you since you resumed as managing director?

For us in PAC Group, our major vision is to deliver exceptional services to our clients. My role is to make sure I drive my team to deliver those exceptional services to our clients. So, my main goal is to be able to harness the resources of PAC Trustees towards delivering exceptional services to our clients and stakeholders by extension.

Could you share some success stories you have recorded since the company started operations?

PAC Trustees happen to be one of the babies in the group. We commenced operations last year and since then, we have been able to secure major transactions and mandates in the area of corporate bond, State government bond and private trust services. We have had strategic alliances with some private trust companies off-shore, such that if you have transactions to execute off-shore, we have partners who can do that. We have strategic alliances across borders for our inter-jurisdictional transactions. We have been able to also deliver a lot of trust products for Nigerians in diaspora and the entertainment industry in Nigeria because we know it is a fast growing industry in Nigeria. We also keep looking at other sectors to deliver products to suit the Nigerian market. One other area we are looking at is to have a branch in Abuja and this is almost consummated. We take training seriously because we can’t give to the public what we don’t have and that starts from our content.

Having covered legal advisory, company secretarial services and trusteeship, what have been the challenges?

Typically, in Nigeria’s trust industry, there are some major challenges which have been there. In the area of public awareness, many people don’t know what Trust industry is about and interestingly, this is one of the major areas that can be used to drive the Nigeria economy. For instance, in the area of private trust, a lot of people die without wage. If you have trustees, they can hold your asset in trust for the benefit of your children such that what you have laboured for does not go in vain. A lot of assets have depreciated over a period because people did not plan. We also have a challenge of capacity. The capacity in the industry is evolving and the Association of Corporate Trustees has been trying to do a lot of trainings for our colleagues that are just entering the market. One other area of challenge is the area of fees. Our fees are regulated by Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), so we cannot charge beyond SEC has stipulated. In the area of private trust, typically, clients are not willing to pay. The last challenge is the area of regulation. There is a need to review the laws guiding trust business in Nigeria. Some of the laws are obsolete.

How has your vision as a person aligned with the firm’s vision to achieve its goals and objectives?

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The industry is as old as 50 years in Nigeria. So, our major vision is to transform the position of the company from where we are to be the top five in the industry. We intend to do this by delivering exceptional and value-added services. We also hope to tailor trust solutions to some of our clients’ needs.

PanAfrican Capital Holdings is a proprietary investment company with focus on various sectors across emerging and frontier markets. How is the firm able to achieve objectives of all these sectors?

Yinka Adegbola is the managing director of PAC Trustees Limited

If you look at the structure of PanAfrican Capital Holdings, it is a propriety investment company with special interest in several areas. In the area of financial services, we are looking at how trustees come in to add value in balancing the surplus and deficit end. For instance, if you want to borrow money to develop agriculture sector, there will be a need for trustees because you must get collateral. When you get collateral, trustees hold the collateral in trust for the syndicate of banks. At PAC Trustees, we are playing a role in agriculture as well. Hospitality is also growing fast and most of them require loans from bank. So, we are positioned to play a part in the fast-growing sectors of Nigerian economy.

Which sector among the several sectors does PanAfrican Trustees concentrate its efforts on?

All the sectors give us return on investment. As a businessman, you want to maximise the benefit of your investment but most importantly, we create value and deliver exceptional services.

Nigeria’s hospitality and non-governmental organisation sector seems to be growing exponentially. How well are you playing in this sector to reap its huge untapped benefits?

Hospitality business is fast growing and you see several NGOs springing up on a daily basis. For instance, if you start an NGO, focusing on empowerment, you are not expected to put in all your resources into the NGO. The role of Trustee is to give credibility to your NGO. If you want to access funds both nationally and internationally, what those concerned look out for is the structure you have. For you to be given fund, they want to see that you have a trustee that will help monitor the NGO. So, they won’t just give you money directly, they will rather route the money through a trustee and trustee will hold the asset in trust for the beneficiaries. Trustees give credibility to NGOs, foundations and endowment schemes. So, we are positioned at PAC Trustees to partner with NGO towards bringing credibility to NGO such that they can access funding locally and internationally. It also works the same way with the hospitality sector. So, trustees protect the interest of the investor and the lending company, so the money must be accounted for. And trustees are like watchdog. One of the areas that the Nigerian government can leverage trustee business is in the area of trust fund and projects that are being set up. I expect that all those funding that federal government put in the business must be protected. They need to involve corporate trustees in some of these transactions. You are not supposed to disburse funds directly to the end users, they must be channelled through the trustees, so the funds are used for the purpose they were designed for.

What would you say are the qualities the organisation looks for in choosing trustees?

The organisation must be one rooted in integrity. Trustees must have professionalism, experience, good structures, internal processes and transparent approval processes amongst others. For us as PAC Trustees, we have very strong internal processes approval, such that even I as the MD do not have the final say. We brainstorm, before the approval is finally given.

Where do you see PAC Trustees in the next five years?

In the next five years, we want to be the top five in the industry and that is why we are looking at how to deliver exceptional services, such that when you think of exceptional services and innovations, you think of PAC Trustees.