Managing Director and Chief Executive Offi cer of New Planet Projects (NPP) Limited, Mr. Bunmi TunjiOjo, has urged the federal government to review the current privatisation process as a result of its obvious failures. He made the call recently during an interactive session with Blueprint’s team of ZAINAB SULEIMAN OKINO, ADOYI ABA and DAVID AGBA.
What exactly is NPP, and what is it into?
New Planet Projects is a corporate body that is involved in the provision of corporate services to organisations. Services aimed at increasing the productivity level of fi rms such as capacity building, training and, as I always say, the price of ignorance is always higher than the price of knowledge.
So, when you train your workers and they are up to the task, they will be able to deliver, and even beyond expectations. So, we are a body within the industry that is dedicated to do that. Th en we organise so many conferences and seminars because what we do is problem solving. Part of what we have done is the Nigerian content workshop which was held last year in Calabar, under the auspices of the Senate Committee on Petroleum, Upstream, in collaboration with the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Nigerian Content Development Monitoring body, Yenagoa, Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) and other agencies within the oil and gas industry.
We are also involved in programmes like the Nigerian International Communication Technology Development Summit in the Ministry of Communication and so any other sectors. Basically, we organise worldclass events.
Th ere is what we call the Nigerian Dream and people hear about the American Dream and I say that the Nigerian Dream exists and it’s something that is incomprehensible in terms of its value. We bring the Nigerian Dream to play, nothing is wrong with Nigeria that cannot be settled through the Nigerian solution.
Creating solutions
We decided to sit down and realistically and holistically fi nd solutions to the Nigerian problem. As a body, we are involved in creating solutions to problems and making sure that as a country, we get to the level we need to reach. Th ere are other countries that started at the same time with Nigeria; like Malaysia, but they have left us behind. We believe we can still meet and surpass them and we have all it takes to take Nigeria to where we want her to be. We need to sit down and put our ideas together in all sectors; that is where we can fi nd solutions. It appears you are doing much and yet very little is known about your organisation; why is it so. Secondly, it looks like you are more into services industry, how can that impact on the economy? Speaking about the fi rst question, that boils down to the question of the power of the media and I have always said this, you are what the media wants you to be. And if you do not bring whatever you do to the fore, nobody will appreciate you; it’s not just about us, it’s about solutions that have come out of the series of programmes we have done; solutions that are imparting so well in the lives of Nigerians. Interaction with National Assembly and others I tell you, most of the things you see happening in the National Assemblybills to be amended and all that are a product of consultations at seminars. Just like the workshop we had in Calabar; part of the outcome is what is playing out now, like the petroleum industry bill that was actually well discussed that the Senate made their commitment to the fact that an amendment was going to come out on that. Another one was the Customs Act which had not been amended for 50 years and which, one way or the other, had been aff ecting businesses one way or the other. It was discussed and they made commitment on it which is part of what they are working on now. Th e need to amend the Nigerian Content Act was also discussed at the seminar. What we used to see is that no matter how bad a law is, it remains a law unless it is amended. Th e law can cripple any business and it can also make any business. So, we, through some of our interventions at high-level stakeholders’ seminars, make sure that the real stakeholders who are the private sector players come to the seminar and tell the lawmakers and the executive where the shoe is pinching them. Th e law should be aimed at helping indigenous companies to grow not crippling businesses. I believe that with the media around us and given much of our services we have rendered to our country, in no time, our organisation will become a brand. I have to also say this, we are committed to quality assurance and international best practices. When you are committed to quality assurance, in no time, what you do will distinguish you. Th en, the second question; this has to do with the service industry; we run a services-oriented organisation. Th e service industry controls the supply industry because everything you see is a product of planning, a product of research, a product of painstaking work. Th at is what we do. We believe we are the engine room and the economy of any country is controlled by policies and the country can only grow as long as the policies allow it to grow. If you have a bad policy, it could destroy eight to10 years of good work. We are into the business of appropriate policy formulation, research work leading to those policy formulation and we are into the training of the personnel to implement those policies. Th e key thing is that if you have a policy and you don’t have the personnel either in the public or private sector to handle it, you will end up recording nothing. We are more involved in the value-chain quality delivery in services.
Any PPP arrangement in the maritime and oil and gas sectors?
Yes, but not at the moment because there are some in the pipeline. Not just oil and gas sector. Let me say this, as a country we must not look beyond oil, we must look towards complementing the contributions of oil because when you look beyond oil, it means you are seeing oil as the all and all. But you use the resources from oil to develop other sectors of the economy. I’ve always said this, technology deliverables is what creates quality in an institution. Look at the issue of the NYSC and technology; I once had a cousin who wanted to go to Maiduguri to pick up his call-up letter from Akure, in Ondo state, he died on his way. But today we have an NYSC where you needn’t travel far but go online for your call-up letter. Th e PPPs we are working on will materialise very soon in so many industries like education, maritime, labour, and so on and so forth. We believe as a country, the way to go is public private partnership. Government is to provide the enabling environment and the private sector will bring the investment.
Nigeria is in recession, how are you coping?
Nigeria is getting out of the recession. I believe the word recession is a plus for Nigeria; it is a blessing for Nigeria and because of the Nigerian Dream which is always driven by the Nigerian Spirit and the Nigerian Spirit is the spirit of resilience that brings out the best even if you have your back against the wall.
So, through this recession you’ve seen us coming out with so many documents that can eff ectively take us out of it and the honey moon cannot last forever. Hence, this is the time that we need to sit down and put our heads together. I am happy that President Muhammadu Buhari has done that now with the Economic Recovery Programme Document. Let us be practical and put life into the diversifi cation programme. To me, as an individual, I think it’s a blessing in disguise for the country. During the last administration, our budget was N4 trillion, but today (2017), it is over N6 trillion and for the fi rst time we have over N1 trillion that was released for capital expenditure. As we know, no country develops through increasing recurrent expenditure; so, I believe with the current programmes the future is bright for Nigeria.
For me, so many businesses have emerged even in recession. In every crisis there is an opportunity, in every dark cloud there is a silver lining.
How long have you been in this business?
We have been on ground for eight years now. We are still scratching the surface. Th ere are several foreign fi rms in Nigeria today and we believe there is room for us to operate and showcase what we have to off er. I have never been a proponent of indigenisation, but of content development. We need the foreign people to grow and get to the level we want to get. But we must develop our own capacity to grow through technology transfer.
We want to equal the big players in the consulting world; that is our dream. We need support and I can tell you that Arab Contractors is Arab Contractors because of the support from the Egyptian government.
You are who you are through support and I have always asked why are we not taking advantage of NIGCOMSAT? Most of our telecom organisations are still hooked up to UTELSAT. I think we must have the Nigerian Spirit of utilising what is ours. But we must be up and doing because for the mere fact that you don’t want me to patronise Coke you should not just package one poison into a bottle and tell me to drink it because it is Nigerian. It must be of the right quality. Th ey did not get to that level over night and you know Rome was not built in a day. Business development architecture is a phase. You want to grow, but then you do not want to be terminated half way. We need to protect Nigerian companies more, but not by doing away with the foreign ones.
You see, we have to build the capacity and grow over time; this touches me more, how many companies have we exported abroad, except our banks and they are few. We have Systemspec doing well, Marine Platform and so many other Nigerian fi rms like that are run eff ectively by Nigerians competing with some of the biggest fi rms in the world. We can’t keep importing everything.
For us as a company, we have dreams for the future, we are hoping that the business environment will be conducive now because with this agenda of Change; meaning to see Nigerians being treated as Nigerians all over the world and we hope this will continue for a long time to come.
How have you tackled your challenges?
Yea, I did mention some earlier; however, if you look at the oil and gas industry, they have a law protecting them, like the Local Content Law which is the NORDIC Act 2010. If you bid with a foreign fi rm and your price is higher by a percentage, as a Nigerian, if it is within that percentage of diff erence, you will get the job. And through that we have so many Nigerian companies coming up and doing big businesses because the law is protecting them.
I think the Local Content Law should be extended to all spheres of our economy. It is said that government has no business being in business, and, therefore, most of our companies have been sold to fi rms and individuals and the result is abysmal; what’s your take? In the fi rst place, I don’t believe in that because government business is the business of the people, my business is government business. Government is our business; government itself is the business and has a responsibility to the people. Secondly, I commend what previous administrations tried to do in terms of concept. Privatisation itself is okay, but the means of execution is the problem.
It is one thing for you to have a wonderful idea and it is another thing for you to go for the delivery. Only recently, the Minister of Power, As a body, we are involved in creating solutions to problems and making sure that as a country, we get to the level we need to reach.
There are other countries that started at the same time with Nigeria; like Malaysia, but they have left us behind. We believe we can still meet and surpass them and we have all it takes to take Nigeria to where we want her to be. The Editor-in-Chief presenting a copy of the Newspaper to Mr. Tunji-Ojo Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola (SAN), was lamenting about the DisCos, the GenCos, etc.
He has every reason to lament because he is putting in his absolute best. We have seen how government businesses are sold to cronies who don’t have the right technical and fi nancial capacity and capability to be able to deliver. We will continue to move round in a vicious circle. If privatisation is well implemented, it is reasonable, meaningful and good. It makes the private sector to be in-charge of these things. It will no longer be an issue of this is government’s business and nobody’s business. Once it has been privatised, it belongs to shareholders who have the right to talk. I think what we need to do is now is who are those people, how was the process done? Th ere was an agreement that must be followed. As in, this thing was sold to you and if you fail to deliver, this is what will happen to you. I think we need to take advantage of those conditions of sale in this dispensation.
We cannot continue like this. We spent more on these things, but we end up getting less. Th ese fi rms have been sold to these people, and they are making more money, while we suff er and we know that as a country, we need to develop, we are now paying more for less.
I commend former President Olusegun Obasanjo for the initiative, but I think the implementation is the major problem. I believe that part of the reasons the decision was made was to limit government to core governance and removing all acts of distraction. I think there should be procedures in sales agreements to protect the end-user; if there was none then it was a rip-off .
