It was a great moment of sober reflections, back slapping and throwing of banters inside the banquet hall of Sheraton Hotel Lagos on the first day of this month when ABC Transport Plc celebrated its 20 years of road transport in Nigeria.
It was a day when stakeholders and friends of the company threw their weight behind the transport to share in their successes and challenges with the popping of champagnes and cutting of anniversary cake to mark two decades of moving people and goods from one part of the country to another and to set the stage for another journey into the next two decades.
On hand to remind the invited guests of the rough and smooth part navigated by the company in an event tagged “A Celebration Of Partnership” was Frank Nneji, OON, managing director and chief executive officer of ABC Transport Plc.
He pointed out that at every critical moment in the life of the company, it has always found a genuine source of partnership, which is always why it takes pride in its network so rich and diverse: comprising employees, customers, financiers, suppliers, partners and associates.
As he put it, “It is no longer news that we started with only 6 mini buses; that we operate over 450 vehicles in our fleet today. Twenty years ago, we started with less than seven staff. But today, we have over 1,500 employees, excluding contract staff.”
When ABC Transport, known as Associated Bus Company Limited was established in 1993, many industry watchers were pessimistic of its chances of survival because critics saw it as unserious, because it seemed rather unrealistic and imprudent for any businessman to invest in a sector that is largely unstructured and opposed to change.
Regardless of the tiny size and lean resources, ABC still had faith in its abilities. More importantly, the company’s vision was far bigger than the management doubted, than what any skeptic could ever proclaim. Frank Nneji explained that, the vision was essentially to set new standards for road transport operations in Nigeria, by providing suitable alternative land travel means for the discerning traveller who would otherwise have gone by air.
He told the audience that for ABC to register its name into history books even though the transport company was a greenhorn in the industry, it decided to pay close attention to customer needs: comfort, convenience, class and safety.
“We had to adopt, as a matter of policy, an uncompromising focus on the quality of service and a tireless disposition for innovation. Those were ambitious objectives-but little did we know that ABC Transport would become the most innovative service provider in Nigeria, and the first and only publicly-quoted transport company on the capital market.”
