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Friday 15 May2015<br />
36 BUSINESS DAY<br />
Business South-South<br />
COMPLETE COVERAGE OF SOUTH-SOUTH / SOUTH-EAST<br />
Udom should float start-up academy<br />
to fast-track A/Ibom economy – Akpan<br />
Gabriel Adolphus Akpan is the chief executive officer (CEO) of GreenOcean Petroleum Limited, located in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. In this<br />
interview with IGNATIUS CHUKWU, the gas expert and oil investor wants the incoming administration in his home state to build his strength<br />
in the private sector. Excerpt:<br />
Can you assess the pulse of the<br />
private sector to the emergence<br />
of a man like Udom Emmanuel<br />
as governor-elect of Akwa Ibom<br />
State<br />
The man Udom Emmanuel<br />
cannot be called a<br />
typical politician per<br />
se. He is seen more as<br />
a business manager,<br />
someone who came from the<br />
private sector, from the banking<br />
industry.<br />
So, people think that since Akpabio<br />
has done a lot in infrastructural<br />
development of the state, and<br />
has brought out the people of the<br />
state from the menial job (houseboy)<br />
mentality to that of self confidence,<br />
through education and skill<br />
acquisition, what is now needed<br />
is a drive for massive job creation<br />
through empowerment projects<br />
and economic boosters to create<br />
wealth and jobs. That is where<br />
Udom is seen to excel and be best<br />
suited. And that could be why most<br />
people think his emergence could<br />
be regarded as a stroke of luck.<br />
What makes anybody think<br />
Udom is the man to execute this<br />
task, to drive entrepreneurship<br />
in Akwa Ibom State<br />
He has a loaded private sector<br />
experience. His antecedents at<br />
Zenith Bank where he worked, and<br />
the positions he held, and did very<br />
well. When one listen to his various<br />
postulations and his very position<br />
on the economy you cannot but be<br />
convinced that he has the capacity<br />
to unlock the industrialisation<br />
potential in my State.<br />
He needs to quickly put his private<br />
sector experience into use to<br />
drive investment and industrialise<br />
the state. He seems to have two<br />
strong ingredients namely: experience<br />
and the ability to harness<br />
it. Because it is one thing to come<br />
from the private sector, and another,<br />
to have the ability to harness<br />
the various ingredients needed to<br />
build a virile economy, to have<br />
the capacity to govern a state and<br />
create an economic drive-path and<br />
make impact, to have the private<br />
sector spirit to drive the economy.<br />
If you were to make suggestions<br />
on how to harness the gas<br />
wealth of Akwa Ibom State, what<br />
would you advise<br />
First, the outgoing governor has<br />
been able to transform the mindset<br />
of the citizens from servile mentality<br />
(house-boys and house-girls<br />
mentality) to those of people who<br />
can take their destinies in their<br />
hands. The next thing is to drive<br />
that mentality to make the people<br />
excel in areas of entrepreneurship.<br />
On oil and gas, the proposed<br />
Quantum Petrochemical Plant<br />
to be cited in the state should be<br />
given all the attention, support<br />
and push required. Investments in<br />
deep sea ports, modular refineries,<br />
modular process plants and oil<br />
and gas city/ industrial zone are<br />
important steps. All these are immediate<br />
and strategic investment<br />
areas to embark upon. There is<br />
need for a robust public private<br />
partnership (PPP) law (if this does<br />
not already exist) to attract potential<br />
investors to the state.<br />
The new governor should go a<br />
step further to set up an Academy<br />
of Entrepreneurs made up of people<br />
who do not have political bias,<br />
but who are pure entrepreneurs<br />
with great entrepreneurial zeal,<br />
to offer him purely business and<br />
private sector-related advice. The<br />
Governor must be ready to hear<br />
the bitter truth at all times from<br />
these people.<br />
ExxonMobil is a reliable supplier<br />
of crude oil and natural gas<br />
from fields located offshore of the<br />
state, indicating the availability of<br />
feed stock for oil and gas related investments.<br />
The incoming administration<br />
should seriously consider<br />
taking advantage of the available<br />
oil and gas related opportunities<br />
offered by the availability of feed<br />
stock in the area of refining and<br />
processing.<br />
Akwa Ibom State has the potentiality<br />
of becoming African refining<br />
and petrochemical hub; we have<br />
the feed stock, we have the right<br />
environment, we have the coastal<br />
leverage or channels for shipping<br />
refined or processed petroleum<br />
products to all parts of Africa:<br />
Things can be done. My state with<br />
huge oil and gas potential can fuel<br />
the nation’s economy, and Africa<br />
by extension.<br />
Cost of businesses is escalating<br />
in most states; is there<br />
anything you think Akwa Ibom<br />
under the new administration<br />
can do to reverse this trend, and<br />
thereby attract investors<br />
Yes, when you provide infrastructure<br />
(power, roads, hospitals,<br />
rule of law, etc), you have taken off<br />
almost 60 percent from cost of doing<br />
business for a company. What<br />
that means is that maintenance<br />
cost will crash. If you provide vi-<br />
Adolphus Gabriel Akpan, CEO Greenocean Petroleum PH<br />
able rail transportation, you reduce<br />
cars on the road, reduce need for<br />
fuel, etc.<br />
The saddest problem of businesses<br />
is power. Businesses have<br />
been providing power at huge cost.<br />
Since the state has an independent<br />
power plant, the incoming administration<br />
can negotiate to inject 45<br />
percent of the generated electricity<br />
from the state power plant into the<br />
state grid.<br />
This will boost businesses in the<br />
state. The incoming government<br />
should create industrial clusters<br />
with adequate infrastructure provided,<br />
and centralise tax system<br />
implemented within the cluster.<br />
Do you think new governors<br />
would be ready to trust private<br />
sector people with new proposals<br />
I do not have details on why the<br />
project was stalled. I think there<br />
may have been some primary<br />
or irreconcilable disagreements<br />
between the investors and the<br />
government. I was worried when<br />
I read about the collapse of the<br />
project in the press.<br />
Sincerely speaking, politics is<br />
not a good friend of business. If<br />
a governor can muscle the will to<br />
say, I have two friends; ‘Politics’<br />
and ‘Business’, and I will keep<br />
them apart, things would be better.<br />
He should ensure that whatever<br />
frustration he encounters with his<br />
friend, ‘Politics’, he drops it whenever<br />
he is crossing over to see his<br />
friend, ‘Business’, and vice versa.<br />
This will be good. Else, if you<br />
bring both politics and business together<br />
at any point in time in your<br />
administrative life, there could be<br />
transfer of aggression on the most<br />
vulnerable.<br />
But professionally speaking,<br />
most refinery projects are stalled<br />
by transactional and/or funding<br />
challenges, most especially<br />
where the project relied on equity<br />
financing. Also, refinery business<br />
is basically a business of margin,<br />
therefore inventory and prices as<br />
well as availability of feed stock are<br />
highly essential.<br />
Bitterly importantly, crude oil<br />
refining business in Nigeria will<br />
not blossom until we stop subsidy<br />
regime on refined petroleum products.<br />
We do not know if this was<br />
part of the problem with Amakpe<br />
Refinery project or if there were<br />
other factors. I would advise the<br />
incoming administration to find<br />
a way to separate politics from<br />
business.<br />
Where should the governor<br />
start, is it empowerment or from<br />
small and medium scale (SME)<br />
business boost<br />
First, he has to start with his<br />
team that is not political, the Academy<br />
of Entrepreneurs whose members<br />
should be drawn from various<br />
sectors; oil, gas, manufacturing,<br />
name it. They will have different<br />
committees or sub-academies and<br />
look at what is on ground and set<br />
up short term and long term goals,<br />
of four years (short) and long term<br />
(beyond four years).<br />
You cannot say because you are<br />
building a manufacturing plant<br />
that would take over six years,<br />
that the people should starve. The<br />
people will have to eat before the<br />
sixth year. Now that we have oil/gas<br />
reserves, that is good. Petrochemical<br />
plant is coming, the Academy<br />
would ask what other plants can<br />
be set up to take advantage of the<br />
plant.<br />
The quick things to do are: First,<br />
the new administration must review<br />
tax policy so that businesses<br />
see fairness in the administration<br />
and know the right tax to pay.<br />
Next, the Government must do a<br />
one-stop shop. This means any<br />
businessman that wants to set up<br />
will do all things in one office, all<br />
in one day. If there is any reason<br />
to come the next day, it would be<br />
genuine. This helps a businessman<br />
to ensure efficient time management.<br />
Next, create a solution centre<br />
where all partners and entrepreneurs<br />
can come and obtain<br />
solutions to their business challenges,<br />
especially as to relate to<br />
taxes and administration. Next:<br />
Do a job-based empowerment<br />
programme, not asking the youths<br />
to go and learn bogus skill scope.<br />
They should be trained in line with<br />
the private sector requirement<br />
based on projected or readily available<br />
job opportunities, as provided<br />
by the Academy of Entrepreneurs.<br />
You can do your four-year plan,<br />
all phased with the project plans.<br />
Training goes on along the projects<br />
from construction to operations.<br />
At the end of the day, you don’t<br />
end up training people you do not<br />
need, to go back to their homes or<br />
go to business centres to become<br />
computer operators. I have no<br />
doubt that Udom Emmanuel will<br />
know exactly what to do.<br />
Above all, he must keep his<br />
business friends/advisers away<br />
from his political friends/advisers.<br />
These are the few things I think he<br />
can do to boost the economy of<br />
Akwa Ibom State in the coming<br />
years.
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