Ekocity layout August-1

BUSINESS NEWS
Napoleon Agbelogode:
Napmantronix is taking small
steps towards a global concept
BUSINESS NEWS
Napoleon Agbelogode, the Chairman of Napmantronix is an automobile enthusiast and passionate professional
who believe in taking one step at a time towards achieving success in any endeavour. In this exclusive chat with
Ekocity Magazine editorial crew, Napman as he is fondly called who has put in twenty five years in the Oil and Gas
sector of the Nigerian economy and still counting took us down memory lane on how Napmantronix was conceptualized.
How it all started:
Napmantronix is primarily a Supply Chain
Management company with an arm of its
supply chain activities being FLEET MAN-
AGEMENT and total AUTOMOBILE Maintenance…
Napmantronix also supplies COLD
CUTTING and GRINDING TOOLS to the Oil
and Gas sector in Nigeria and the West African
Sub-region. We are currently responsible
for the Topside Rust Protection using
our Cold Cutting and Grinding Tools for the
FPSO KWAME NKRUMA in Ghana on behalf
of MODEC Ghana.
Napmantronix also carries out cathodic
protection and engineering services as well.
The name Napmantronix was conceived
at University of Lagos (UniLag) where I
obtained a 1st degree in applied Physics,
majoring in ELECTRONICS. While in UniLag
(’85 to ’90), I was very hands on with electronic
gadgets, and before you knew it, I was
known on campus as Napman the Man Electronics
which later metamorphosed to Napmantronix.
As such when I left UniLag and
could afford to register a company, what
better name than that which would be easily
remembered by school mates and luckily
the name was available at CAC and voila,
that’s how the name came to be a Limited
Liability company today. The Automobile
maintenance arm of Napmantronix is born
out of the fact that I grew up in a workshop
environment in the 60’s as my dad Paul Agbelogode
was an OUTBOARD Engine Expert
technician, as such I leant to get my hands
dirty early. From Edo College, through Uni-
Lag till today, I cannot get my hands off
CARS or AUTOMOBILES; I buy then, Drive
them, Sell them, and now fix them. Our Slogan
at Napmantronix is that “if you drive it,
Napmantronix will fix it and that is a promise”
Napmantronix plaza is currently built
on 93,000 square feet of Prime Real Estate
on the Lekki New business corridor, packed
with all the latest gadgets, equipment and
diagnostics tools that would enable us handle
practically any, mechanical, Electrical
and Electronic challenge you would have
with your Automobile.
Challenges:
My resolve to stay motivated and focused is
so huge that the alternative does not exist.
When I came here, I had no neighbours and
you can imagine what this area looks like
ten years ago. I didn’t quit at the time and
I’m not ready to quit now because I’ve read
and learnt from the sages.
The beauty of this concept is that we are
not in a 100M sprint, rather it is a marathon
and I believe that the impact of this facility
will be felt more when the proposed Dangote
refinery and the Free Trade Zone be-
comes functional. Our biggest challenge is
lack of electricity supply from the National
grid, we currently generate our own electricity
at Napmantronix with Generators and
SOLAR Power to the tune of 17,500 Watts
daily from Solar Alone, this has been a major
capital investment in Solar power infrastructure,
just to keep us going and reduce our
overall cost of doing business.
Global concept:
Before I opened this place, I travelled globally
visiting workshops in the UK, USA, and
Germany and saw a couple of medium sized
workshops. So, for three years, I was putting
workshop information together. Our workshop
was designed by Rigid Engineering in
Houston. Interestingly everything you see
here was brought in from the states as we
did the foundation waiting for the building
to arrive and this is what we have. We have
automated all our operations that you can
book online for your vehicle maintenance;
for example, when you visit our facility, the
lifts in our workshop will either be red or
blue. Blue means they are free, while red
means busy. With this, you can actually
determine when to bring your vehicle for
maintenance in real time.
Unique factors that stand your outfit out
of the competition:
Our reception is unique in the sense that our
workshop is the only one in Lagos that you
can see the workshop from the reception.
The idea is that while you are at the reception,
you can actually monitor the progress
of your vehicle maintenance without getting
up from your chair. The beauty of the
whole stuff is that the engineers will not see
you while you are seeing them clearly and
if you notice anything untoward, you can
raise alarm. Directly on top of the reception
is the warehouse where sensitive automobile
spare parts are kept from OEM.
Going forward:
To the uninitiated, the workshop ends here,
but hell no, we actually have another land
behind the workshop overlooking the next
street, where we plan to put a thirty room
hotel facility with a swimming pool and
all of that. The hotel can be accessed from
anywhere in the workshop or the adjoining
street. The whole concept is to have a
one stop facility that will take care of your
hospitality needs, Restaurant, Car Wash,
Sports Bar, Conference and training needs,
Events centre as well as providing automobile
solutions to residents of Ibeju Lekki.
In addition to that, we also operate a boutique
“maramax Place” to take care of your
fashion needs. In the next couple of years,
we are going to start the construction of a
Hotel facility that will be second to none in
this axis and introduction of Car auction is
equally slated in our future plans. It is a futuristic
concept that we intend to take one
at a time to get the desired result.
The issue of insecurity has been at the
front burner, are you satisfied with the way
the issue is being handled? Nobody is happy
with the level of insecurity in the country especially
the issue of kidnapping for ransom
in this axis. The government of Lagos state
has done relatively well in this regard, but
there’s always room for improvement. It is
gratifying to note that the security agencies
are waking up to their responsibilities as
evidenced by the successes recorded in the
recent past. The security personnel should
buckle up a little bit more and be proactive
in their operations. It is important to note
that the issue of insecurity has adversely affected
the business circle as nobody is ready
to invest in an insecure environment.
What can be done to get it right in Nigeria?
The hurdles we face as business people in
Nigeria are quite unnecessary. In all the
countries of the world, what you will labour
for is the idea, once you have the idea, the
government will encourage and support
you. The government should try as much as
possible to develop the culture of supporting
people with great ideas. If we cultivate
this culture, I assure you that in no distant
time we will get it right. The design concept
of our governance style is structured
towards failure and the percentage rate of
our patriotism is very low. The only way to
get it right is for us to be more patriotic and
committed to the Nigerian cause and this
country will be a better place.
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