“Nosak Group is a diversified Business Group with interests in key sectors of the Nigerian economy. These include Agriculture, Manufacturing, International Trade particularly, the importation of Industrial Chemicals for distilleries, Pharmaceutical Industries, Paints and Allied Industries. The Company has also Equity Investments in Banks, Insurance Companies and Real Estate.
They are leading National and Regional Player with eyes on the world at large, The Group possess over 20 years of solid experience in birthing and running businesses. The multiplier effect is that they effectively and efficiently run on its turf with minimal glitches to garner maximal returnsâ€ÂÂ.
Source: (Nosak Group Official Website)
Q & A session by Toni Ogunbor, Nosak Group’s Chairman and captured by Peter OBIORA, Online Editor of InvestAdvocate at the presentation ceremony for the award of NIS 1SO 9001: 2008 certificate to Group’s subsidiary, Nosak Distilleries Limited at the Country Club Ikeja, Lagos Nigeria: Excerpts.
How were you able to get to this height?
Well it requires a lot of hard-work; coupled with able and supportive workers, and to set a vision for yourself and at any point in time, look at emerging opportunities and take advantage of them, if you don’t do that, and you are not taking advantage of emerging opportunities, you might be in the wrong line of business, but when you are able to identify where you have a growth potential and you key into it, have the right people, choose the right plan, then you would be able to move forward and grow from one level to another.
What are the qualities that SON considered to offer your Company the ISO Certification?
When we started the ethanol business, we told ourselves that we are not going to compromise; it’s either the best or nothing. And each time when we are either choosing the technology or picking the people to drive the process, or sourcing the raw material, we always ensure we went for the best.
However, the best might not be the cheapest, or give you the best profit, but you have the best quality; that is what will make your customers believe in you. Like I said earlier, if you produce, and your customers don’t buy, then you are out of business. So we always wanted to ensure that we had a good quality by putting in place the right technology and equipment.
What do you want the Government to do to help the Local Manufacturers?
You see, we export to Ghana for instance, some other Nationals from India, Canada export to Nigeria. In their country, they have something similar to Export Expansion Grant (EEG) when they export, by the next month; they get duty rebate, what it means is that if the Cost and Freight (C & F) is like $100 for instance, they can give you a refund of 20% which is $20. If you get it today and you are able to become more competitive with the destination Market; and when we export to Ghana, we don’t easily get our EEG; people from India and Canada get their EEG; so they are more competitive. Now if we are competitive and I can get my duty rebate; immediately I am able to bring the Foreign Exchange back into this country. This will be an earning from the export I have made to Ghana, but if we don’t do that, we keeping depending on Foreign Exchange from Oil alone; whereas there are many other commodities if we can get their EEG, we can through their export bring more Foreign Exchange to this country. Which will put less pressure to the Naira and the Exchange rate to the Dollar may be lower than what we have now.
Expatiate on the concession given to Companies owned by Foreigners on the duty rebate instead of Local Manufacturers
What I am saying is that I am a Nigerian, if I can show the honesty to want to invest here, I should be give such concession; before you give it to a foreigner. This is because whatever money I make in the cause of that concession, I will reinvest it here, but the Foreigner will not do that; but take such money away.
What is the effect of this non-concession to Local Manufacturers on the Nigerian Economy?
Of course it’s negative, if I was getting the concession, I will invest more, employ more people and add more value to this economy; so if I can get that concession, the economy will be better for it.
The future of Nosak Group considering these challenges
For now, we are consolidating and ensuring that we sell the volume that we are producing; thereafter we tend to look towards another phase.
What are the cost implications of your three Plants within this 10 year period?
The cost implication is huge, I don’t want to mention figures, but it is huge and like I said earlier, the Bankers have been very understanding, supportive and patient with us. It’s a fact that we always face our commitments; it might take time, but at the long-run, they will be happy.
FACTS CHECK:
“The third Plant was commissioned February this year and it raised the daily combined production capacity to 540,000 litres, this capacity in addition to the capacity of other current local producers is expected to be enough to meet the Local Market demand and excess for export Marketâ€ÂÂ
EDITOR’s NOTE:
InvestAdvocate gathered that the cost implication for the Plant is estimated to be about N6.0 billion.
What do you expect the Government to do in order to help Local Manufacturers?
When it comes to borrowing, we have long term and short term fund requirements for trading. Those who have the genuine intention to invest in long term projects; just like it is allover the world; that’s development fund, the interest should be single digit; about six (6) to seven (7) percent (6-7%); because it is good to grow the economy and employ more people. Therefore, if the Banks are providing money for such projects, they should offer much lower interest rate; different from Working Capital. Even for working Capital, interest rate like 18% is too much and what kind of business will you do with that to be profitable; the lower the interest rate the better, they will tell you they are getting deposits at higher interest rate; but go and try to put your money in the Bank and see what rate they will offer you.
End
