Chief Micheal Ade.Ojo: The Entrenched Entrepreneur - 2008-06-23

Chief Michael Ade.Ojo, who recently turned 70, is the founder and immediate past Chairman, Elizade Nigeria Limited, the leading distributor of Toyota brand in Nigeria. He is the Chairman, Toyota Nigeria Limited and he sits atop many other businesses, including Imperial Telecommunications Limited, Morehouse Sofitel Limited, Custodian and Allied Insurance Company Limited, Crown Drinks Limited and Odua Creations Limited. He is also a director in other companies among which are Ecobank Nigeria Plc, First City Monument Bank and Meristem Securities Limited. Bright Nwogwugwu writes about some of his exploits and describes him as an entrenched entrepreneur.

The concept of an entrenched entrepreneur is breathtaking, to say the least. It has to do with an individual who conceives a vision of setting up a business  sometimes in the midst of seemingly discouraging circumstances - and works assiduously towards nourishing the business to a point where it constantly derives value from the operations of competing businesses and stands out as an unassailable leader in its sector. An entrenched entrepreneur has a billowing passion for what he is doing; he continuously invests his time, intellect, resources and energy in his business and does not give up on his lofty ambitions when faced with major impediments; sometimes he goes against the tide for greater effect, doing what is diametrically opposed to what the competition is doing; he gets the best people around him, gives them a unique sense of direction and earns their respect as well as their loyalty; he recognizes when he loses momentum and gets right back on track. Chief Micheal Ade.Ojo, erstwhile Chairman, Elizade Nigeria Limited, who doubles as Chairman, Toyota Nigeria Limited fits perfectly well into the foregoing paradigm. In few words, he emphasizes the place of commitment, character and resilience in the making of an entrepreneur: “Give your career your all. Be ready to swim or sink with it. Be determined to excel and ensure you have integrity.”

According to the business magnate, it was not initially in his plan to set up a business because during his days as a young man, business was looked down upon as “the job for the Alhajis as well as primary and secondary school dropouts who had nothing better to do”. He explained that students' ambition then was to work for the public service or multinationals, like UAC, John Holt, Lever Brothers, Shell, Mobil and British Petroleum, among others, and they barely understood that these companies were set up by human beings. When Chief Ade.Ojo eventually resolved to ply the entrepreneurship route, he knew it was not going to be a flowery bed of ease, but he was determined to take the risk, amidst an avalanche of dissuasions from friends and loved ones. His words: “I left British Petroleum (BP), now (AP), where I was employed, to serve myself. At that time, all my colleagues and my wife thought I was mad. How could any reasonable person leave certainty for uncertainty? They tried without success to persuade me to change my mind. When they failed, they left me as they said, to come back to my senses. That was how everybody looked at private enterprise then.”

Having earlier worked for CFAO Motors between 1965 and 1966 where he garnered some experience in auto sales, he approached the management of R.T. Briscoe, then sole distributor of Toyota vehicles in Nigeria, offering to sell vehicles for them on freelance. He sold 40 cars in four weeks and the gain he made from that volume of sales based on a commission of two and a half percent, he said, was more than his annual salary in BP and that, coupled with several other fantastic sales he subsequently made, bolstered his interest in working for himself. Explaining the recipe for impressive sales, Chief Ade.Ojo emphasized the pivotal place of confidence and self-esteem. “There was nobody I could not approach. Even the permanent secretaries of those days who were highly respected or the ministers did not intimidate me. I was prepared to go and do battle before them. Most of the other sales people then did not have this sort of boldness, obviously because of their educational limitations. They were afraid of top people, so they had to see mostly junior people who could not influence the sales of vehicles or buy cars themselves,” he said, adding that he also leveraged on his wide assortment of friends in different organisations. His words: “Again, as a young graduate, I had my mates in different organisations. I went to each of them. I would say, brother, I am in the car trade. Who and who are qualified for car loans in this place? I would get the names down and target such people. In business, your first set of clientele starts from those you know and then extends to those they know and so on until you build a network of clientele.”

Starting as a freelance enabled Chief Ade.Ojo to master the auto sales business without incurring much over-head cost and broadened his chances of actualizing his entrepreneurial objectives. When he eventually decided to start on his own, R.T. Briscoe wanted a deposit of 600 pounds and his attempts to get a loan from the bank proved abortive because he did not have the requisite collateral, but that did not deter him as he continued to source for fund until one of his benevolent cousins loaned him 600 pounds which he paid back within three months. “I had to rent a house at 71 Awolowo Way, Ikeja, as office and residence. I took all the savings I had to raise 2000 pounds required for the rent. I rented out a flat in the house for 450 pounds a year. To buy my first car for display was another challenge. Apart from Briscoe, I freelanced for a branch of CFAO, which sold heavy-duty trucks and got a commission of over 700 pounds. I used the money to pay for the first vehicle I bought cash from R.T. Briscoe. On that vehicle, they gave me five per cent commission, instead of two and a half percent. Fortunately, I was able to sell off the car quickly and continued recycling the money until it was able to pay for two cars or more,” said Chief Ade.Ojo.

Chief Ade.Ojo's resilience and dedication paid-off greatly when in 1976, the government of General Olusegun Obasanjo cancelled manufacturers' sole distributorships, replacing them with multi-distributorships. This initiative broke the Toyota monopoly enjoyed by R.T. Briscoe and paved the way for local auto dealers to enter into distributorship agreement with Japanese auto makers. That move by the government marked a watershed for Elizade. “I took this advantage and became a Toyota distributor in that year. From then, Elizade began to import directly,” stated Chief Ade.Ojo. There was, however, the need for him to raise more capital and effect bulk importation. He approached Afribank, which agreed to open Letters of Credit up to $100,000, but he needed more. “I got introduced to a friend, Mr. S.0. Ogundipe who was then working in a finance house that later metamorphosed into the Nigeria Merchant Bank. He told me that if I could put up a certain amount, the bank would grant me a facility of equivalent amount as extra. If I could put down $100, 000, the bank would put $100,000 in addition. I snatched the offer. This was what really helped me. By the time I made three orders, I had built up a good turnover so that before the vehicles came, I would have repaid the bank's money. It came to the point where the bank was ready to pay five times the amount I put down and there was no hitch in the cycle. That really made a big difference. It was the real breakthrough point for me,” he disclosed.

From its humble beginnings, Elizade Nigeria Limited has grown astronomically over the years and has become the leading distributor of Toyota vehicles in Nigeria. It will not be erroneous to think that all other distributors of Toyota vehicles in Nigeria (Glo Motors, Mandelas and Germaine, etc.) somehow contribute to the growth of Elizade, given the oval position of Chief Ade.Ojo as the Chairman, Toyota Nigeria Limited. By moving Elizade from the nadir of the auto market and positioning it as a leading brand which benefits from competition, Chief Ade.Ojo has earned for himself the much coveted appellation: an entrenched entrepreneur. 

Not only is Chief Ade.Ojo a huge success on the business front, he is also a decidedly responsible corporate citizen and one of the core areas of his CSR programme is education. Besides his donations to a wide range of educational projects, he established the Ade.Ojo Scholarship Scheme in 1991 and the scheme has continued to be of immense benefit to many indigent students. Through some vibrant community development projects, ranging from the construction of roads with side drains to the establishment of Elizade Polytechnic, provision of employment, and support for Mokin Community Bank, among others, the entrenched entrepreneur is changing the face of his local community, Ilara Mokin. Interestingly, he is not resting on his oars in spite of his gargantuan achievements. The project he is currently embarking on (Elizade University, Ilara-Mokin) and the recent launch of Elizade Ojo Educational Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the development of education and donation to charity organisations testify eloquently to the foregoing.

The honours and awards Chief Ade.Ojo has won on account of his expansive influence in many spheres of life include the following: Nnamdi Azikiwe Distinction Award for Excellence, 1987; Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) Honoris Causa, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, 1999; Fellowship of the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria, 2005; Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON), 2005; Entrepreneur of the Decade Award, Success Digest 2005; Asiwaju of St. Michael's Anglican Church, Ilara-Mokin; President, Band of Light Society, Archbishop Vinning Memorial Church, Ikeja and Fellowship of the Institute of Directors (IoD).