How New York City Got Its Juicy Nickname “The Big Apple” — And What It Means To The World

 

Leo Stan Ekeh, Chairman of ZINOX Technologies

-         Innovate or die, he says     

By Shola Oshunkeye and Oyiadika Odor

ZINOX, that little mustard seed sown by Leo Stan into our national life and which launched Nigeria effectively into the universal league of "computerised nations of the world", has blossomed into a mighty tree in the world of Information Technology.

 

You would be disappointed if you expect a highfaluting success model from this 53-year-old Mbatoli, Imo State-born computer prodigy. You won't get any. "My number one philosophy of life is 'be yourself," he tells you matter-of-factly. "My number two philosophy is 'be yourself. My number three philosophy is be yourself. Don't join the Joneses. If you join the crowd, you would be buried in the crowd. Run your own show and leave the rest to God."

Leo Stan started the crusade to be the best early in life when he decided he was not going to "earn salary for long" but grab his destiny firmly with his palms.

 

He plunged into the world of business straight from high school, getting involved with his mother's transport business, in Lagos, which he manipulated in such a way that he personally operated her danfo bus on weekends with his friend as conductor.

 

This he did "so I could make some money for my upkeep". Little did he know that the Almighty hand of God had started propelling him to his destiny?

 

After secondary school, he wanted to travel to the United States to study. Still, he ended up in India, where, while studying, he sharpened his business acumen, which he would later perfect when he crossed over to America for his post-graduate studies.

 

The American experience was particularly unique in that he had to temporarily convert the $4,800 School fees sent to him by his parents to business. The gamble paid off and his life never remained the same ever since. That experience opened his eyes further to the "infinite treasures in business" and launched him into the millionaires club.

Excerpts from the interview:

 

Many people see you as a phenomenon as far as IT business is concerned in Nigeria. How did this phenomenon called Leo Stan Eke emerge?

It is difficult to say because you didn't create yourself. But I know that for every man on earth, there is a vision and a mission. I think a lot has to do with your place of birth, the culture of the environment, and maybe the parental pedigree.

 

 

And when I say pedigree, in this case, does not mean wealth, but the belief that even in the Bible, God says the children will pay for the sins of their fathers. As a child, there were a few things I recognised that were popular but I refused to indulge in them. Things like drinking, smoking, and others. Even as early as age three, I noticed that people were doing all of these things. But as exposed to these things as I was at the time, I have never tasted cigarettes in my life. But I feel that it was God's decision.

 

It wasn't as if the people I saw were alcoholics; no, they weren't. It's just that when I was growing up and I saw people that were drinking, I wanted to be an exception. Just like "bush meat." I have never eaten bush meat before because I saw everyone eating bush meat and goat meat. This is my life. Right from the beginning, I hated moving with the Joneses.

 

I just wanted to be myself. Distinctively different from the crowd. If you look at my foundation in business, my principle has always been: never join the crowd. If you join the Joneses, you get buried in the crowd. So, my nugget for business, in fact, in everything I do is: be yourself. I tried to innovate and distinguish myself from the crowd. That is my staying power.

 

People like you are described as geniuses; what were the signs, very early in your life, that your parents noticed and took a special interest in you?

Well, I can't say that I am an academic genius; I might be a business genius. But then, I must have attained the level I am today because I was a highly principled businessman. I am also very ethically conscious in all my business dealings. For instance, there are some businesses that I can never touch, even if you give me a trillion dollars.

I can't just touch them, no matter how much they may bring. When I was growing up, I participated in almost everything that any young man would participate in but I was very cautious about certain things. I come from a family of six and I advised myself a whole lot because I knew the worth of my family. I knew the earnings of my father, so I didn't join the crowd who were very forward and lived beyond their means.

 

Even as a student in a very popular school, Holy Ghost College, Owerri, I always returned my pocket money. And during those periods, the pocket money wasn't enough, the lifestyle, then was huge, but I always made sure that I returned my pocket money. And that endeared me to my parents. I cleaned the house as and when due.

 

I washed the car whenever I was around knew that I needed to add value to whatever my parents were doing, so, they knew that if I requested something, they wouldn't delay in giving me. If peradventure, there was a delay, they would apologize. Even if I didn't tell them on time, they would try to get it for me because they knew I wasn't wasteful. I have never been wasteful in my life and they knew I am very humble.

 

Of course, you were also fantastic with figures. Or weren't you?

Yes, I was very good with figures. Even today, I use more mental updates than storage updates. Every entrepreneur has a gift, but it depends on how every entrepreneur utilises his gift.

 

So, your brain is your computer?

 To a large extent, yes! But I also depend on scientific tools, otherwise, I will go mental. But as a businessman, it was essential that I get an education. But I am not saying that if I didn't go to school I wouldn't have achieved so much or be what I am, maybe I would have been or even better.

 

The process would have been slower and because we are operating a Third-World economy, people wouldn't have believed you. It's like saying you wrote the best novel while still doing your school certificate, no publisher will agree to sign you on. But if a professor wrote a useless book, and it's known to be written by a professor, nobody would see it to be trash.

 

So, was there an exceptional thing your parents saw in you?

As I said, I wasn't a genius. Yes, I went to school, but while in class, I was always thinking of what to create. Academic matters are all about the time you spend and the commitment.

 

The best result I ever had was second in the class. But I was never beyond 20 in my life even if the total number of students in the particular class was about 2,000. So, I had distraction as an entrepreneur and this is what a lot of people are suffering as entrepreneurs because their parents force them to go to school and do things that they do not want to do. Some of them even end with third class. I never made a third class.

 

I made a second class, a few steps before second class lower. I went to Punjab University, India, before I went to the UK to do my post-graduate.

 

Now, the unfortunate thing here is that there is no platform for entrepreneurs. A lot of them should normally start their franchises from school. Through the relationship, the chairman of the company would have been the head of the department who would monitor the lawyers in the school's legal department.

 

For somebody who would be the company's secretary, you would have stimulated and built a world-class situation. And by the time such a person graduates, he would have a business, and what he now does is look for capital, look for people who would push in money. But such persons would have learnt things like corporate governance, business plans, etc.

 

The same goes for people that are into accounting, you bring them to do the accounts. By so doing, everyone is learning the process, and by the time they graduate and are going for their national service, they are incubating themselves. Immediately they are out, they will fly one of the most successful companies. This is what is lacking in the country.

 

Do you consider formal classroom education as a distraction to entrepreneurship?

No, it is not! That's not what I'm saying. Rather, formal education boosts your efforts, brings out your ingenuity the more, through the process.

 

You find out that most entrepreneurs are hyperactive personalities. You need to slow them down. If you don't do that, they can also jump into a hole. This is the challenge in the civilised country today because most entrepreneurs happen to go to The Harvards and Oxfords of this world, and the society believes that they know too much. And they forget to guide them, but they provide the funding.

 

This is why you see some multi-billion dollars companies go down and the people that sweated to build them never enjoyed life because young boys, straight out of business school, will just come with their friends and give themselves unbelievable salaries, buy themselves jets, and then sign off the money due to the availability of credit facilities, goodwill and the rest of them. So, at a point, their legs can't carry the body and the business is over.

 

At what point did you start creating things?

Well, I remember in secondary school, I wanted to build a transport network. And that was why immediately after I finished school, I encouraged my mother to go into commercial service. And just to show her my passion, that was why I learnt how to drive. So, whenever I came to Lagos on holidays, I would carry the danfo. And I had a classmate who would join me just for the fun.

 

So, we would drive around and the money we realised would gladden my mother. In fact, my mother was happier just because she thought I could it myself. I would ask the driver to disengage at about 4 p.m. and we drive the bus till around 6 or 7 o'clock just to raise our own pocket money to move around and go to nightclubs, and so on. So, I taught her that.

 

So, you encouraged your mum to go into transport business?

Yes, because I thought, as a secondary school student, the transport sector was not organised nationwide, because I could see a lot of primitivity. But I could see huge money in that sector, but unfortunately, I did not have the sources, but my mother had a bit of resources because she was a business lady. She studied in England.

 

We took a little from her. For instance, she created the first galvanized dustbin in this country, with my elder brother, and she supplied it nationwide. It was their concept and it was supplied to all the navy barracks, army barracks, police barracks, and air force barracks, all the rest of them.

 

 What year did she achieve this?

She achieved this around 1976 and I was just coming out of secondary school. I was born in February 1956. Basically, when I left for abroad, in 1980, she couldn't continue with the business. Before I left, I had a fracture.

 

 

How did the fracture happen?

I had a small Suzuki Jeep then. It was when Suzuki Jeep just came in newly, and it was one of the cars in the house. It was brand new. So, I took it out and when we were cruising back, we nearly had an accident. The car somersaulted.

 

Were you cruising with a girlfriend at the time?

No, I was with the same friend of mine-Clement. It was only two of us. It happened in Isolo (Lagos) here-and I had a fracture; I had 13 stitches and that delayed my ambition. I couldn't enter the University of Ife then and I couldn't go to St. Edwards, in Austin, Texas. So, when I thought I was all right, I had a guy in India, who invited me there.

 

That was why I went to India. I think it was God's design because if I didn't go to India, it could be I wouldn't be successful; it was the kind of economy I believed in. It was a realistic economy. It was a people-oriented, and knowledge-based economy. And the people contributed to it because there was a scarcity of jobs.

 

And they had a population challenge. But they continued to read because they knew that business must come out. And when the ICT business exploded, they had enough knowledge base to take over the global community. That is why India is such a superpower. For me, India is superior to China.

 

Why?

Because it is a knowledge-based economy. They could do everything. China is an open-based economy to a large extent, but India has a huge knowledge base. China has to do with industries, but India has superior knowledge and today's economy is knowledge-based.

For instance, 10 of you can sit at a table here and each of you could be creating one, one billion each without looking for a big office. And Indians, because of their non-strategic political nature, they are not in confrontation with any major economy in the world. You know Europe is watching China, and America is watching China.

 

But India has more knowledge content and has entered all structured corporate entities in these civilised economies. So, if you withdraw Indians today from the US Economy and Europe, a lot of them would collapse. But these economies will not give access to the Chinese like they give the Indians. The Indians, over the period, have bought off most of the businesses in these economies, so they have become part and parcel of those economies. So, you cannot delete them.

 

Doesn't it sound strange to you that despite the volume of business between China and the US, the US is still perceived largely as antagonistic towards China's emergence as an economic superpower?

Yes, because the man who owns the business owns the economy. The US, being a domineering nation, would not want competition. China must watch it because very soon, they could ban a lot of their products. Now, a lot of goods out of China are sub-standard right now, not supported by the government, though.

 

And this is not only in milk, it's both in cars, television, clothes, you name it. You have different grades. But they are presented to the outside world as first class. Now, for these organised nations, the European Union, and the US, what they are going to do, I suspect, in the very near future, would be to ban products, to a large extent, produced in China.

 

But they will allow the Chinese to buy facilities in their country and produce that product because they have quality control, there is a Consumer Act in this country. So, if the Chinese government is not careful, these superpowers would reduce them to nothing and they are going to pay taxes in these countries.

 

I mean, it is all scientific fight that is not open, but you don't give out your chess otherwise they shoot you down. China is doing globally well, but it's like 419 in Nigeria; while some people were genuine, a lot of people were fake. It nearly destroyed Nigeria and it is still affecting us today.

 

Now, that is exactly what is happening in China, because you present fake products as genuine and people pay the same price; and it's rubbish. Some of them are poisonous. So, for how long will a nation continue like this? At a point, they have to take a decision to save their people's lives because those products are from China.

 

As an entrepreneur, as somebody who has contributed significantly to Nigeria's economy, are you worried that the global financial crisis, kick-started by the meltdown in the US economy, would affect Nigeria adversely?

 

When you talk about a global economy, there is a good side and a bad side. As far as I am concerned, Nigeria has not effectively connected to the global economy.

 

One, it is because of our lawlessness which is caused by the government. Two, we are far from interfacing with the global community because of infrastructural deficiencies. Now, educational institutions are down. What happens is that if we are connected, the advantages are there.

 

The economy would have blown up, so even if there is a wind or storm, it will ever happen, whether you are connected or not, but you can always manage it. When the majority of your population is employed, it doesn't mean that they have stopped working, but they would have created a lot of platforms to do business. Now, will it have an effect on Nigeria? Definitely, it will.

 

Three, before the storm, what was the corporate governance in most of the institutions listed on the stock exchange? The corporate governance standard among institutions listed on the stock exchange, this is what will define it. Were people penalised for telling lies? Were people penalised for sexing up figures?

 

Now, these things were allowed to happen like it was showbiz. So, people are caught up, not because of the global storm, but to a large extent, they are caught up because of the insincerity of leadership of most of the companies and connivance with board members.

 

This is what is happening. But the companies with strong fundamentals will stand. 80 percent of people in the stock market should be long-term investors so that when a stock goes down, definitely it will come up.

 

What is happening in the stock market now is also going to happen in the property market very soon because the country is not industry-based. Now, the reason why every Nigerian went to the stock market is that they do not have a business.

 

Most people shut down their businesses because they weren't profitable anymore compared with people who were trading in the stock exchange. The only business in Nigeria is building because the price of properties is jumping up every day. An empty plot, they tell you, is N2 billion! You wonder if these people do an analysis of return on investment.

 

Now, if you buy land for N 2 billion, it takes you a minimum of two or three years to build. You are going to borrow money. How much will people pay you as rent to enable you to pay back the loan and make a profit?

 

Now, the way a lot of people who borrow from the banks are losing their money and still owe the banks today would be what is going to happen in the property market. By the time they finish, there might not be buyers and then the people who gave them loans will undersell.

 

After underselling, you still owe them money. This is also what we are going to experience in the property market. It is going to crash at one point because most people raised money in the capital market to expand their businesses. And this is the unfortunate thing about it.

 

Rather than use the money to go and trade in the stock exchange market and then go into other businesses not related to theirs; they have not expanded their current business for which they raised money from the shareholders.

 

They abandoned that business and most of them went into another business they didn't understand. And most of them got board approval and some of them didn't get the investors' approval. And shareholders are more interested in dividends, bonuses, and share value. So, if you cannot run the business for which you went and raised money properly, how can you go into an unknown sector?

 

If you are investing in property and you own a computer firm, do you know the challenges in the property market? Has he developed enough content to manage that? So, this is part of the storm. So, the regulating authorities should look at the reasons for raising the money and where the money raised went into.

 

These are some of the valuations. You do not expand beyond your capacity, rather you expand to where you know because the money you are risking is shareholders' money. So, these are some of the challenges in our local market.

 

This meltdown that you have forecast now concerning the property market, do you also see the same crash in the stock market?

 

The Nigerian stock market is being managed by the CBN. But you know, this is a free market and I don't so much believe that government should pump in money because this is taxpayers' money. What of the poor people who are not in the stock market?

 

What I am saying is that the government should pay more attention and revalue the present corporate entities listed on the market, know what they are worth, and bring them up to their current value. They should spend more time and bring in consultants to revalue these companies.

 

They should also put in a control system. As I said, you go to the capital market to raise money, and the reason you gave is to expand your core business. Immediately you get the money, you forget your core business and start doing other businesses. It becomes a jamboree. So, when they put proper control, when the storm happens, it is only for a short time because the fundamentals are strong, A good company is a good company.

The storm comes and goes, but the fundamentals are good so you pay people good dividends, so they are also recovering. It is already happening here in Nigeria. The good companies will come out of it, while the very false companies will go down. This is natural.

 

Are you calling for new legislation to deal with this storm that you see gathering over the property market and the stock market?

 

No, the truth is that if you over-supervise; it also gives a wrong signal. It is counter-productive if you overdo it. Now, what I am saying is common sense. It is like guiding your child who wants to go to school.

 

Your challenge is not that he cannot go to school, but in the process of crossing the road, they could knock him down because he is too young, until he is mature. This is what should be done in the stock market. Look at the present companies, look at the figures.

 

The figures they are declaring, are thy real figures? Are they fictitious or not? Are they deceiving people? Because you can find the facts and take the figures to credible auditors. Any company going into the stock market should have a credible auditing firm that would stamp the audited account. This is where you start.

 

This is where you are correct and the government should pay more attention. The auditors should be credible to stamp papers. There are some firms you cannot manipulate because they look at what you are paying them and look at the stain in their name.

So, these are checks the government does. You must know a successful company. How do you know a successful company? The fundamentals. The pedigree of the ownership. No person just comes from America and instantly becomes a whiz kid when he has not been tested in the market. Even if he was a champion in America, the business here has a lot with the place of birth, the history, and the culture of the place.

 

If I go to America to float business today, they would check out who is Leo Stan. He has performed in Nigeria. But America has a different law, a different control. I might make money, but if I don't pay the right taxes and they shut me down overnight, the shareholders would lose.

 

This is the first time in a country you see somebody buy a dead business, a dead business with infrastructural deficiencies and human capital deficiencies, you carry it out into the market and it is oversubscribed.

 

Even as we speak, there are two or three businesses that have been dead years back, and I wouldn't want to mention names here, but still make public offers and people still buy their shares.

 

Now, are the regulatory authorities not aware? This is the challenge. That is the Nigerian factor. We should be proactive and if we are proactive, we will save ourselves from jumping into the hole.

 

Each time people talk about the stock exchange, people automatically point fingers in one direction: the banking sector. The banks are perceived as the major culprits. What do you say to that? 

 

In all sincerity, that is the shock of this nation to me. This is the only country, maybe, one of the very few countries that the banks are leading. I mean, the banks have so much money because the government is funding them. The government businesses are privatised.

 

They have to be in serious business to give banks money. So, this is why it's like banking is the only business in this country. This is unfortunate. Who are the only people feeding the banks? Only government. Government, withdraw your money, the banks are dead. So, we do not have a nation in the real sense of the word.

 

We do not have a business-driven nation. All the industries are dead; the infrastructure is dead; so the banks ate thriving in trading cash. This is just trading cash and it doesn't sustain any economy.

 

In the long run, why am I in this business? As far as I am concerned, ZINOX is bigger than the biggest bank in the future, because what is the magic the banks are going to do? Lend money? How many of them come back? Which bank is bigger than Microsoft? You can count Oracle; you can count many other American companies.

 

These companies employ millions of knowledgeable people, they are the people feeding the banks. They have billions of their money sitting in the banks. But in this country, do you blame the entrepreneur? Every person now collects bank money and buys bank shares.

 

Another unfortunate thing you find in his country is that the world is promoting plastic cards which is the credit card system -a cashless society. Yes, the same banks are promoting the idea of a cashless society, yet they are opening branches everywhere. So, you start wondering, what is the roadmap to this economy?

 

We have not heard the last. You cannot be promoting a cashless society and be opening branches. On one street, there are five branches of one bank. Who are you dealing with? At best, in a region, you may have two branches of a bank for transactions, opening of consultancies, customer services, and challenges because all the branches are online.

 

 Now, the more branches they open, the more people think they have money. With the infrastructural deficiencies in the country, how can you run the branches? Some of these branches are opened in residential areas.

 

So, how can they pay these kinds of salaries to staff? And how do you even get enough human capital to drive all the branches because every branch manager has the right to issue credit? He has the treasury at his disposal and if he connives with the operations or treasury guys, they wipe the bank from here.

 

Most of the criminalities in the banks, armed robbery, etc. Are mostly insider jobs because the number of staff has become difficult to manage. And the bank balance sheet could look so huge here when they mention it, but it's not such huge money when you change them to dollars.

 

So, you look at how many people, the number of employees, how much the bank is making, and the money is not locked up somewhere. It is given to people, some of them would return, some of them may not return it, and if they don't return it, you can't kill them.

 

Some of the businesses they lend to could even go bust. So, what can they do? There is extreme competition going on. But the government itself is not doing proper checks or building roadmaps. We are approaching a cashless society, and you are opening branches, I have never seen a thing like that.