In the Port Harcourt (PH) business world, demand refers to the massive order of goods and services from the multinationals and big corporations including Shell, NLNG, Agip, Total, Chevron, Indorama, Notore, oil service companies such as Slumberger, Saipem, etc; and the way they want it supplied including standards.
Supply refers to the smaller companies that strive to win businesses to supply the needs of the big corporations and the ability to supply what is needed, the form it is needed, and the funds to meet the demands. The interplay of these two forces forms the swift Port Harcourt business climate that attracts business people from around the world.
The noticeable thing is that the corporations seem to believe that only foreign sources can meet these very high standards. Nigerian content scheme passed into law in 2012 by the Goodluck Jonathan administration tried to force a high percentage to Nigerians. The inability to bring down the jobs to the people seemed to create violent demands.
Now, local content seems to be the new drive because state governments in the oil region say the eggs won by Nigerian Content have been snatched by businesses residing in other places, especially Lagos.
While some groups use force to demand business slots, the Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Commerce, and Agriculture (PHCCIMA), led by a chief, Nabil Saleh, thinks strategic engagements and upping the game by the local businesses could solve the problem. This led to what is called the Linkage and Connections Seminar series launched by PHCCIMA. The series is now in the second edition.
How the scheme works – Chinyere Nwoga; 2nd deputy president
PHCCIMA as a matter of priority is pursuing these business linkages and connections which we see as critical for business survival. It is our hope that these networking activities will mark the beginning of stronger business relationships. Such relationships between International Oil Corporations (IOCs) and transnational corporations (TNCs) that make up the demand side on one hand and the organised private sector (OPS) that forms the supply side requires commitment from all stakeholders.
The government is to act through support services and a robust public private participation (PPP) scheme, while the TNCs/IOCs/large corporations would act through making access easier and by carrying out suppliers’ development programmes. The Chamber would support businesses through facilitation, due diligence, and guaranteeing of suppliers. This means that members would get rare endorsements needed by the big corporation before trusting the smaller businesses.
We know and indeed agree that some of the considerations of the demand-side include cost, quality, reliability, flexibility and ability to meet the ever-changing technological needs. The Chamber emphasizes the need for local businesses to continually update their processes, be ready to meet changing demands, and have strategic visions for the future.
In the same breath, we are also aware of the constraints that confront local businesses; mainly deficiency in human and financial resources plus lack of access to big corporations. The Chamber serves as a bridge by creating platforms for interface between stakeholders; these workshop series are an example.
Our efforts in this regard would be made easier if the big corporations join the PHCCIMA as members as they have done in some other cities. We have the capacity, the competence, and the hunger for high level facilitation; that is what we do.
Now, benefits accruable as a PHCCIMA member are many and varied. First, things move faster and easier when one becomes a member. We are the second-largest chamber of commerce in the country, and the first e-chamber of commerce in Nigeria. We are the first chamber to have a one-stop-shop with over 15 MDAs and banks all to ease regulatory burdens on our members. We have the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), the Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Nigerian Investment Promotion Council (NIPC), Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, etc. We not only provide access to these agencies but intervene and recommend whenever the need arises.
We also have direct line of communication with the government, and also with the embassies in Nigeria as well as overseas. Above all, we have people always available to advocate, intervene, and push your business needs. What else do you want!
Objectives of the seminar series – E&I CEO, Chika Chinwah
The workshop series will bring together small and large corporate bodies and multinationals in Rivers State and the Niger Delta at large. The series will seek to provide a platform for local enterprises to establish sustainable business relationships with large multinationals and corporate buyers of goods and services operating in Rivers State. It will also provide an avenue for local small enterprises to learn how to competitively deliver quality goods and services to large corporate buyers in the region, leading to growth and expansion for the small local firms and the optimization of efficiency for the large enterprises.
Speakers are expected to drive the message that Rivers local enterprises operating in the state need to be carried along in the economic activity that is ongoing in the state. This is not only aimed at financial growth or rewards for the companies but to also boost societal growth and development. This is because when local enterprises grow, then they can employ more people, generate more revenue to government and pay better taxes which would ultimately be of benefit to the entire society.
It is also a move to help more businesses operating in the state and the region find strong reasons to stay and do business here so that money made here can state here. In summary, the essence is to stop capital flight and to make the corporations in the region to allow companies in the area to supply things they needed instead of giving them to companies outside. We want to see how the companies in the demand side and those in the supply side can interact and boost transactions so as to stimulate the local economy. Rivers State is hub of the Niger Delta and companies are gathered here; if we succeed in solving the unemployment problem, we would have helped Nigeria; networking is the tool.
Breakout session would look at opportunities in the various sectors and how to help small companies get businesses in big corporations.
Help! The business driver is sleeping – Keynote speaker, Leloonu Nwibubasa, Rivers State immediate past Commissioner of Employment Generation and Economic Empowerment.
Challenge: The big corporations are not here to make the interaction worth it. I knew they would not come (probably as the man who drove the employment effort in the past four years, he has an experience on how the multinationals behave on such matters).
How to get Government to be interested in business matters
Are we truly driving employment? Who really ought to drive the economy; me, you or some person in outer space? Rivers State economy has been in auto-drive. Government must drive the economy of any society by setting the conditions; the pace, the direction through regulation, incentive, and policies. Nobody can take this responsibility away from the government even if it chooses to abandon it. Thus, if the Government is not in this seminar, it will be frustrating. We miss the mark if we do not make the Government to be here. We must provoke them to work. We must work hard as a people.
The economic driver:
Is the driver doing what he ought to do? Do we have engagement with the driver or is this only going to end in generating news? I have been in government and so I know how government feels and how government functions. If the Organised Private Sector (OPS) does not adopt strategies that would reposition it to attract the driver (government) into functional engagement, it would not be provoked into interest and action.
In Lagos, all the major corporations are part of the Chambers and their weight makes the host government to listen. In Port Harcourt, this is optional, why?
Capital Flight: In Nigeria, medical tourism is cause of huge capital flight. It may not because those abroad are much better but more about showing class.
There are three things we are not getting right:
Patriotism; Some companies such as ALCON (Trans-Amadi, low voltage panels manufacturers) are more Rivers than Rivers indigenes. They showed faith with the state when things were tough. Thus, it does not matter where you hail from but how much faith you show in the Rivers economy and wellbeing.
Rivers State has many things going for it, and investing in the state is good decision. There are places that do not have such offerings, and so, doing business in a wrong place is failure already.
Some talk about insecurity but I know that crime can be exported. One oil multinational corporation wanted to relocate to Lagos and I asked their CEO if he did not know that crime is also exported. Evans the billionaire kidnapper was not in Rivers State. He was in the state where most companies want to migrate to. Crime can relocate too. Crime is everywhere.
There is no place in Nigeria at the moment with more opportunities than Niger Delta. Lagos is over-saturated. Competition is stronger there. If you must move, find out why you are moving. It is still easier to make it in Port Harcourt; and so, help Port Harcourt to get it right as some companies have done by sheer demonstration of patriotism to the city and state.
Dynamism & Metaphor of the Bicycle Repairer:
Economy is dynamic. A lot can change. So you must ask yourself; is your business changing with the times? Metaphor of a Bicycle Repairer: In the 1980s, bicycle repairers were the richest people in my community (Ogoni). The best repairer was well to do and trained his children in good schools. He was the mark of success and it was because everyone had a bicycle and had need of a repairer. He progressed in the bicycle value chain by moving into stocking of parts and later sale of bicycles. Today, he is poor and out of business. He did not move with the times and bicycle is no longer in vogue.
Train 7 of the NLNG is in the horizon and everybody is looking forward to it, but what is your company doing about the coming era? I asked a construction firm in PH about it and he said he had not heard about the Tran-7. If a medical doctor like me has heard about it, why should a construction guru be so much in the dark about something that is coming to his sector? Any firm that is not aware of Train 7 is not moving with the times.
Collaboration: If you come as an individual and leave same way, something is wrong. There is need to use every occasion to collaborate and get linkages and leverages. Firms must think of coming together in some projects or ventures to make it big. Things are better done together.
Disaster management, a new business gap: There is investment opportunity in emergency matters. Firms can come together and combat disasters as a business. There seems to be no public sector preparedness for emergencies. That is why the government was grateful for the role the private sector played in the 7-Storey building collapse in Port Harcourt. It was sad where scores of humans were trapped underneath, making calls for help, and not much could be done. The private sector brought equipment to the sight without even being asked to do so. It’s patriotic.
But, there are many other disasters taking more lives without them being obvious. Imagine in 2005 when the Sosoliso aircraft crash took place at the PH International Airport. Fire fighters arrived there without water to watch tens of children and adults burn to death. The firefighters asked for water and the facility had none.
PHCCIMA: The Chamber can take up the challenge of building collaborations. The Port Harcourt Chamber is growing in profile every day and it is now visible. It was not so some years back. They now have platforms, and this is important. People rather react instead of responding to situations. Reacting is often not sustainable while responding is constructive and sustainable.
Diversification: The Niger Delta economy does not end in oil. Oil is rather a major undoing; see Venezuela, Brazil, etc. Beyond oil, we have opportunities such as Tourism and Agriculture to drive the new economy. It is not about having arable land but technology is the way to go. Israel does not have much land but see what they have done with Agriculture. So, our business people should begin to think about what can be done in this sector.
Financing: Have we done anything to engage the banks and to provoke them on business development plans? What are the new areas that can be created? Trucks still bring fruits from northern Nigeria; frozen foods are still imported.
Purchasing power: Rivers State is still a high consumption zone, so suppliers are in business. The government cannot employ one percent of the workforce in the economy and governments are not doing anything about it. There is need to build inclusive supply chain system to bring in people who could not participate. This has been done elsewhere around the globe where industries come together to create supply chains that engage over 100,000 workers as a deliberate contribution to the economy.
It is the duty of the OPS in Rivers State to attract the attention of the ‘Driver’, cause engagement, and convince the ‘Driver’ where we want to go.
Key investment opportunities: Sanitation: Waste generation and transportation is big business. If well approached by the private sector, government has no reason to spend one kobo.
There is no ambulance system in the region and this can be an investment gap. The Okobe fore disaster some years ago revealed the hopelessness of the situation; it also revealed the gaps that can be plugged through investments.
Education: If we leave this sector to the government, soon, there would be education in Nigeria any more. Already, our public primary schools are gone; the secondary schools are gone too. The tertiary institutions are not where they should be. Most of them are simply handing out certificates to undeserving graduates. I was in a church where a graduate came to give thanksgiving for graduating with a 2.1 aggregate. I sat and listened. There was no single sentence that had no horrible grammar. I shook my head and wondered who gave him the 2.1. Foundation is poor. If you miss good English at the primary and secondary levels, the University will not change it. Universities are not there to teach you good English. It is the place you come to discover your future and make a decision with specialization. Most of the universities we run to abroad are privately-owned. Our investors must realize this.
Government is the driver and the driver is sleeping: If the Driver is preaching diversification, he should head the Agric ministry instead of Petroleum. Wake up the Sleeping Driver with what you do.
Ministry of Commerce: Paul Dorgba: director, Special Duties
The PHCCIMA is doing better now. Rivers State Government, led by Gov Nyesom Wike, has taken decisive steps for SMEs especially by tackling security. He has recently supplied gunboats, patrol vans, better equipment to fight cultism, etc. Infrastructure revolution has been launched to boost business. There is big plan for the Agric sector and some other sectors. He is still Mr. Projects. We urge the PHCCIMA to come back to the blueprint for job creation.
CEO of PrimePort Logistics: Otunba Femi Adewunmi
And why my business is still in PH
There are no gaps in Lagos business sector. It is Rivers State that the gaps and opportunities abound. To start a business in Port Harcourt, identify some gaps, look at the figures, and then act. Do you know that 75 percent of goods consumed here come from Lagos?
Put structures in place. Yes, funds are an issue, the Government could be an issue, bad business environment may be challenging, but focus on what you can do.
Plan for next three years of your business. If development is coming, plan to play in it, get the appropriate requirements ahead.
Do things differently. Do not be a regular person. Rivers is the easiest state to succeed in business or to fight competition. They will give you a chance and see what you can do.
Ignatius Chukwu
