Mr. Olubunmi Oluwadare
Mr. Olubunmi Oluwadare is the Chief Executive Officer, BXO Limited. In this interview with MAUREEN AZUH, he says more Nigerians are overcoming their fears of doing online business
What does promotional items business entail?
Promotion is essential and extremely
significant for every business and event. Marketing trends have been
changing from year to year and many modes of promotion have come up.
Promotion is therefore not effective with words in the modern system. It
needs something more like promotional products containing the brand
name which are highly useful to run the show in a distinguished way.
Every company can achieve the targeted orders by selecting the
well-established promotional products distributor and wholesalers.
Having understudied promotional items,
souvenirs or gift items sector of our economy considering our cultural
value of celebrations, be church events, weddings, political campaign,
corporate branding or whatsoever, we must put in mind the role these
items play.
But we see a lot of loopholes and
challenges faced by either the corporate body or individuals in terms of
accessing good quality products, great branding and prompt delivery.
Having been in the advertising and branding sector of the economy for a
decade, we brain stormed in partnership with our foreign partners and
came up with the idea of floating the world and indeed Africa’s largest
online promotional items platform which focuses on total solution to
both corporate organisations, individuals and merchandisers promotional
items’ needs.
We came into business after over four
years of hardwork which involved identification of factories with track
records, good networking, delivery system and human powers.
Since it is relatively new in the country, where do you see this line of business in the next few years?
We are looking at a platform that create
thousands of employment for youths most especially women. The aim is to
use the online sales platform to woo suppliers of these items to set up
factories here in Nigeria. For instance, over 89 per cent of promotional
and gift items coming to Africa are from China and other Asian
countries, this means we are indirectly creating millions of jobs for
the Chinese people, since majority of those in this business buy from
them.
Our target is to fill the yearning gap in
this great sector, make promotional items accessible with quality
products that are affordable and build a great delivery system putting
in mind job creation.
Considering that tariffs on
importation are constantly changing – discouraging investors – and the
fact that promotional items business is import dependent, how
sustainable is it?
We should understand Nigeria’s business
terrain very well; our banking sector was built not to support takeoff
entrepreneurs and business men, but entrepreneurs need to find a
holistic approach in order to survive in this kind of environment one of
which is to work directly with manufacturers of these items.
What ignited your interest in this line of business?
I have been into branding, printing and
advertisement for many years, I have seen a lot of lapses, hence I have
been researching and consulting on the best way to tackle this bad local
promotional items finishing, late delivery and high bank charges in
sending funds abroad.
Many corporate organisations and
individuals spend lots of money travelling abroad to get good quality
promotional items. They don’t have much problems with bringing them in,
but this kind of business helps to bridge the gap and cut high cost of
getting the items with the focus of practically wooing manufacturers to
set up here in Nigeria. It however requires a lot from the government to
put in place the necessary infrastructure, especially power and
security.
Online marketing is growing rapidly in Nigeria, what are the peculiar challenges that people face doing internet business?
Nigeria’s online business is growing
rapidly with over 55million Nigerians actively trading online and doing
very well. However, every entrepreneur must have a rethink of
repositioning their businesses, yes there are some peculiar challenges
as regards online business but I think, we would overcome them as time
goes on.
The major challenge is that an average
Nigerian is always afraid or skeptical of buying things online because
of fraud but it’s changing, young people even some older ones now shop
online and buy things from online stores that are not in Nigeria and
make payment even when they have not received the goods. Some other
issues are power failure, networks issues, bad transportation system and
fluctuating government policies.
What are the best ways of tackling the problems?
Government should as a matter of urgency
tackle power issues and create an enabling environment where people will
feel safe. Our cyber hosting system must also be restructured to
accommodate more online businesses.
The issue of corruption must be
practically dealt with, this will make everyone to have confidence and
believe in our own economy.
People have the tendency to rush into a business and make it highly competitive, do you see online business going that way?
QuickPromo as a platform did not rush
into the online business, if we rushed, we would have been one of the
first pioneers of online mart in Nigeria, but we chose to be a watchdog
first even when our plans were intact, we re-strategised because our
platform is basically a solution focusedplatform.
The best way to go about online business
is to strategise and create a unique way of doing business rather than
rushing into it because others are there.
Apart from issues associated
with importation, funding and infrastructure deficit, are there other
challenges that promotional or gift Items vendors face doing such
business in Nigeria?
Honestly, most of the promotional item
vendors in Nigeria today pass through hard times searching for quality
goods locally and abroad, getting good branding agent is a headache,
even delivery, that is why we act as an interface between the
manufacturers and the branding agents.
We are not here to compete with anyone
existing or incoming promotional or gift items company, individuals or
even promotional item vendors.
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