Alhaji (Dr) Abdul-Azeez Afolabi is the President of Cargo Zeal Technologies Limited, a company reputed for worldwide prompt cargo delivery, international business consultant, among others is set to mark his birthday on Saturday, September 19, 2020. In this interview with CYRIACUS NNAJI, he spoke about his business,Hajj,Nigeria @ 60, his personal life ,ANLCA and other national issues. Excerpts:
Let’s meet you, your name
and what you do?
My name is Alhaji (Dr) Abdul-Azeez Afolabi, President of Cargo Zeal
Technologies Limited.
How long have you been in
this business?
Well, we are going to two decades now; the company will be 20 years by
October.
How have you been able to
surmount all the difficulties that come around the business?
There is no business that does not have its ups and downs, so far, we
don’t have any other thing to do; we have to face it headlong. We have been in
it and we are used to whatever comes our way and definitely, it is not a new
thing to us and God has been so faithful to us, we give glory to God.
In the area of execution of
the business, which area has given you hiccups, that somebody else could
emulate in how you are able to surmount it?
Well, perseverance, endurance, sometimes you get to a point that you
feel like you wanna give up, when you feel so much difficulties particularly
when the government policies set in, sometimes it is not conducive for the kind
of business we do, it is fluctuating, there is no standard way of doing things
in this country, today another policy, tomorrow another policy, sometimes very
frustrating. So nothing basically, but face it headlong. We are talking about
how do you surmount a problem, there is no way you surmount a problem in
Nigeria than just being happy in the business you are doing and endure, it is
as simple as that.
Let’s go into the union
matters, from our information, the union has been withheld and an interim
government is in place for now, and we know you are vying for the position of vice
chairman, why not chairman, why the vice?
For me everybody is very different, my own I want to take things one
step after the other, so everything has its own time, when it is time for
chairman definitely I will contest for the chairmanship position, but for now I
am going for the position of the vice chairman.
Still on the union there is no union without crisis, God on your side
you will definitely win, what are you going to do to bring all the warring
factions together so that the union will continue to work as one?
Well let me make a simple correction here, the warring factions you are
talking about is the national body, we are just the chapter, so for us to think
about bringing the factions together, it may be a tedious work because the job
is at national and being the vice chairman, remember I am not the chairman,
definitely I am going to work along with the chairman for us to build a very
conducive business environment for our members. So our own is to make sure that
the welfare of our members is taken to very good consideration, but for us to
think of bringing the factions that are having loggerhead at the national level
together is gonna be a very tedious work for us. But we can make sure that
things work well whenever there is a chance for that, but we cannot tell you
here that we have the capacity because we are just at the lower level.
Also let me still make a little correction going forward, it does not
really mean that there is so much problem as people portray it in the public,
problem of national is union problem, definitely we are getting resolution
soonest, we trying to bring all the various factions together, so everything is
working well, we are working with the constitution of ANLCA, we have a
constitution and we have seen where the problem is, so the elders of the union
are making all efforts that everything is back to normal. I promise you very
soon the problem of ANLCA will be a thing of the past.
Freight Forwarding in
Nigeria today, how can you identify the right person to do business with?
That is a good question. If you are in clearing, let me give you an
example, you want to deal with a freight forwarder, the first thing you need to
ask is, is the person a customs licensed freight forwarder, that is number one.
Does he have a physical office, that is two, thirdly, how long has he been in the
business, so it is very easy, the problem is that why a lot of clients or
importers are seeing agents as bad is because they are dealing with
unregistered companies. On our own that is why we have a very good body, that
is Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents, if you are not a corporate
body, you cannot belong to that group, it is not based on individual basis, it
is based on your corporate entity, your registered company, that is how we know
that you are a licensed freight forwarder or licensed customs broker.
Going into your personal
life, on Saturday is your birthday, you are going to mark and give glory to
God, for protecting and preserving you, what do you have to say to God and your
clients?
The only thing I have to say to God is one, I have to be very grateful
to God, it is very rare to see yourself up to this level, and God is still so
faithful with him, you understand, so that is to God, I have to thank Him and
be grateful to Him, and to my clients also, they have been very supportive
because without them there couldn’t be me or the company, so to say, I give
them a very big thank you as well, and I still look forward to much of their
patronage. And to the clients I did not
know yet, that are still gonna come my way, I have to pray to God to bring them
very early to me so that the business too can continue.
On the state of the economy,
in a few weeks Nigeria will turn 60, what do you have to say towards it and the
condition we are seeing in Nigeria now, because it is so sympathetic, what do
you have to say?
You have just said it, it is so sympathetic, you understand, it is so
unfortunate that Nigeria at 60 we are still crawling, so unfortunate you know,
because with the amount of wealth God has given to this country, I think by now
we should be above the level we are now, God so endowed this country, but the
problem is about leadership, we don’t have good leaders, and we pray to God to
give us good leadership that will direct us on the right path. In fact I can’t
find the right word, it is unfortunate that at 60 we are still crawling, but I pray
that God will change our story one day.
You are also involved in
coordination of Hajji programmes, tell us how the covid-19 affected that
programme or if you still have programmes for the year?
Covid-19 has really disrupted 2020, so to say, it is not even about Hajj
pilgrimage, all world business has been affected To your question, you are
aware Saudi Authority even stopped pilgrimage for 2020, and business actually
collapsed regarding that, it is a global thing, we don’t really have anything
to do, it is unexpected. This coming year, which is 2021 we hope that business
will stand on its feet again, and indications are that covid-19 is gradually
going, so everything will fall back to normal. And according to reports we are
getting, Saudi Arabia too may be, by January they are going to lift all the
travel ban and open their seaports and airports for business, so we hope 2021
is going to be a great year.
We want you to tell us what
you have done and still doing to help humanity especially the less privileged
ones?
That is a million dollar question, every day you do what God wants you
to do. Actually I do things based on my capacity, I don’t have, say this is the
particular thing you have to do, I don’t do that, I do things according to how
God directs me. Every day, even when you are going on the road, you see people
begging, whatever you get, if it is ordinary N100 you give, it is part of it,
so I can’t say this is the particular way I channel it.
Your advice to the younger
ones and those not registered
My advice is don’t run faster than your legs, be honest in whatever you
want to do, either the freight forward business or any business at all, because
honesty pays. You should have good integrity, people should be able to trust
you, because an importer wanting your service, it is like giving his trust on
you, handle this thing on my behalf, and make sure you do it rightly, don’t
have it in mind that you wanna cheat your client, those are the things, those
are the things that give you bad name or bad record. So if all those things are
put into consideration, honesty gives you good integrity and it paves way for
you.
And make sure that the business you wanna do you actually know it, don’t
just jump into any business because you wanna do the business, learn from
people who are doing it, how do they do it? And if there is need for you to go
to school, to learn it because these days, there is no profession that does not
need to be studied. You don’t just go into it, study it, know the nitty-gritty
of the business before you go into it, and with that you definitely have reason
to laugh at the end of the day.
And for those that have not registered, we don’t count them as good
business men because number one is that their kind of operation is not to the
benefit of those who are doing it rightly, they don’t care if the customer or
importer loses, they are there to make sure they spoil the business, there are
something you cannot get away with when you are dealing with government,
government can only locate you with your registration, with the name of company.
No comments:
Post a Comment