Your product is Korean made.
Yes, it is.
So you mainly import.
Yes.
Do you consider possibility of locally manufacturing this product?
Before our exhibition, my foreign partners were here. Our plans have gone advanced to produce the product locally in Nigeria. That is actually where we are going.
But what is important first of all is to show the public what we can do. People now know. The second stage is to build a factory in Nigeria. We’ve really advanced in that. Yesterday [Tuesday], we got invitation from the ministry [of housing] and it’s all about building a factory in Nigeria. The minister was at our stand and she appreciated the quality of product we have and she invited us to invest in Nigeria. I’ve already concluded with my foreign partners who have before yesterday [Tuesday] signified interest for us to build a factory in Nigeria.
The ultimate is for us to be in Nigeria, create employment and help in transforming the economy in line with the president’s vision for the country. We don’t want to be only a trading company. We want to not only manufacture the product for Nigeria, we want to manufacture and export to other African countries as well. So we’re trying to make Nigeria a hub for our products in Africa.
What is the challenge of importing this bulky stuff all the way from Korea?
Well, the world is a global village now. We have vessels all over the world going from one place to another. So it’s not so much a big deal. Government is doing all it can to improve clearance in the ports.
But we would rather want to import the raw materials, the ones that are not available locally. That’s why we’re looking at the option of setting up a factory. It’s complex but we’re getting along.
Today, concessionaires charge up to 100 percent, 500 percent 600 percent for the same services NPA provided. Granted services might have improved a little, but the charges are outrageous and they are killing the business and the economy. Everything you do trickles down to the consumer. They [concessionaires] are there as agents of inflation. The port operators have not done well in the area of charges. They’re exorbitant and they are not helping business.
But government says clearance of goods is 24 hours, 48 hours…
I think most of the problems are not from government but the terminal operators. The port was concessioned to private terminal operators who now operate. But these terminal operators have done a lot of damage to our port system.
For example, a situation where you have a consignment for Customs examination, you go book with the terminal operator. He gives you five days for examination. They charge you demurrage for not picking your container out when they have not done the Customs examination. I think most of the delays we have in the ports are caused by terminal operators. Some of them are ill-equipped and shouldn’t be there. That is the aspect government should really look at.
Incidentally, I served in the transport sector steering committee during the Obasanjo regime. We actually recommended the landlord port model but you know, NPA [Nigerian Ports Authority] has abdicated its supervisory role. It’s supposed to supervise the terminal operators to ensure they have the right equipment, to ensure they do the best practice. But the reverse is the case. They’re in a world of their own, doing things their own way which is not good for the economy.
Government should come down strongly on the board of directors and the concessionaires and make sure they have right equipment to operate as terminal operators so that we don’t go back to the era when equipment were issue.
The Customs, on their part, the system they have adopted is helping a lot. But terminal operators cause 80 percent of the delays we have in the port.
The major problem of consumers roof tiles face is leaking roof. If you go out there now and sample houses, one thing you will definitely come to is leaking roof. Do you consider this in the choice of roof tiles you import?
Leaking roof is mostly from installation. Again, if you have poor quality tile-tile that has steel that corrodes, when it rusts, definitely it will give way. That is we come with the best quality steel that can’t rust and we use the best trained manpower to do our installation.
Our warranty in our case covers such things. If you have leakage on your roof as a result of poor installation, we correct it at no cost. We rarely have that because we’re careful with installers we use.
You won an award. What difference has that made on your business?
The award made me believe that Nigerians still have penchant for quality. I won that award without even knowing the organisers in the first instance. It was as a result of the quality of the product. Ab initio, when we set out to produce Luxury Roof Tiles, we set out to correct the abnormally we experienced with roof tiles in Nigeria-the stone separation, the colour separation, the colour variation and so on. We did all these things so we were not surprised at all when our tile was chosen.
But for me, it’s not really to celebrate-it’s rather a challenge for us to improve on the quality. We’re researching and investing on certain developments to come out with the best product in the market.
What about warranty for your product?
We have purchase warranty of 50 years. We use pure…[metal] which never rusts. Houses roofed with similar material, for over 100 years are still there. Fifty years is because of convention.
What about protection against fire?
It’s fire proof. It cannot coil. We equally introduced something. If you check our product, it appears a little lighter. That is meant to protect any curve-no matter how curved your roof is, it goes there and still maintains its shape.
There’s something we did. We appreciate that in Nigeria, the weather can change-in the morning it can be raining and in the afternoon, it is sunny. We have rapid change weather. It affects the roof tile very well. What we do to prevent that is to use special organic chemical to prevent that sharp change in weather affecting the colour of the tile or causing its stone separation.
We can say our product is really tropicalised because apart from the hot weather, we equally have the rainy season. Sometimes, in one day, you experience the rain and sunshine at the same time. In the morning it’s raining, in the afternoon it’s sunny. We have taken note of all this.
