Victor EzejaExecutive Chairman of Vindi Petroleum Ltd, Mr. Victor Kalu, has said that Africa can be a global economic power without reliance on any external aides and borrowings.
Kalu said the continent has the human and natural resources to lead the world and should stop looking outside the continent for economic development blueprints and guidance.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelKalu who appeared on the C-Suite Café podcast, hosted by veteran journalist and brand strategist, Ikem Okuhu, also said the business he is currently running was revealed to him by God, who he said, gave it to him as an assignment.
“I was sleeping and God woke me up. He told me some secrets to wealth. He told me some things to do and when I began to do them, I started seeing great results.
He revealed that part of the secrets God revealed to him was his “Own a Pump” initiative, a collaborative strategy through which he brings investors together to co-own a service station with each investor owning a designated pump and earning profits from the pump.
“Each time we advertise the ‘Own a Pump’ project, it is always oversubscribed, and I was sure it was a divine call. I had experience in this too. While working at Glo, I was Divisional Manager for Data, and I was also Regional Manager for Lagos and Ogun and I was in charge of the toughest and most competitive region of the Nigerian telecom industry. Glo has the largest number of sites that use petroleum power, so while dealing with all the suppliers, I discovered there were serious problems in the industry. One of the problems was the cost of entry. For you to have a petrol retail outlet, in Ikeja Lagos, for example, you would spend nothing less than ₦2 billion. That is just one station. And to fuel it; to buy products, a single truck of PMS now costs about ₦50 million. To have two trucks to service your station, you need about ₦100 million. This created entry problems for people who wanted to come into the industry, and we said, there had to be an innovative approach for people to come in.”
Kalu noted that the traditional franchising model was for an investor to get the franchise and build the station and own all of it, but he introduced an innovative model through which the pumps at the station are cannibalized, and distributed among the several investors.
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“When God spoke to me, there was no question of doubts and delays, and I had to go after it. And I have not looked back ever since. Today, we are even going to another trajectory we want to power the agriculture industry, we want to power industries for Nigeria’s economic growth,” he vowed.
Speaking on his company’s plans for the agricultural sector, Kalu said: “Agriculture is actually the largest consumers of energy. Let us take a poultry, as an example. A poultry farmer has to keep the chicken warm all night, irrespective of the source of power supply. If you want to store the food, you need energy. The major problem of the agricultural sector is food storage. In terms of the logistics to move it to the market, you need energy. So, we have looked at it and have decided to bring energy to them at a cheaper cost, because the cheaper the cost of energy, the lower the final cost to the consumer. We are interested in making food to be more affordable,” he stated.
Continuing, Kalu said: “Imagine a farmer saving ₦20 per litre of fuel, imagine how many litres he uses each day, and multiply by one year, you can then imagine the savings. And we will guarantee consistency of supply. We are making this promise for the healthcare sector, for the hospitality industry as well, because these are also heavy consumers of energy.”
Kalu said his company launched a product, called the Fuel Yapa app, through which customers can access cheaper cost for fuel. Through this and other initiatives, he revealed that he is already the biggest distributor of petroleum products in Nigeria and strongly aiming to be the biggest in Africa.
“Through Fuel Yapa, customers can reserve fuel in any of our over 1,000 partner stations across the country, and once you get there, you get your fuel and continue to your destination. We are aiming high. We want to be the biggest distributor of petroleum products in the world,” he stated.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with seven years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Master's degree in Mass Communication.
