01122019 - 13 states struggle for 7.5 metric tonnes of rice

PAGE 26, SUNDAY VANGUARD, DECEMBER 1, 2019
Tommy Odama is the founder
and chief executive officer of
the multi-award winning real
estate agency and property services
conglomerate, Luxury Villas Group,
he is a passionate consultant with
robust grounding in property
agency, management,
development, appraisals,
investments, advisory and
publishing, facility and project
management, lease administration,
property acquisition and business
development.
A Fellow of the Institute of
Administration and member of the
Association of Estate Agents in
Nigeria. He is an alumnus of
Knowledge Train Learning Matter,
UK, where he bagged a diploma in
project management fundamentals;
and the Hetta Institute in New York.
What informed your interest in
Luxury Real Estate Services?
First and foremost some things are
intrinsic or inherent in us. You may
not necessary be born with such
privileges but you just discover
yourself to love such things. Such
is my experience with luxury. When
I realised my love for luxury, I opted
for a business that will make me to
live or showcase it, hence I chose to
become a realtor with panache for
premium luxury lifestyle. I realised
ab initio that it is easier to deal with
the upper echelon of the society
“W
e pride ourselves as the air
that keeps the industry
growing, as represented in
the acronym AIR which outlines our
values. We Adapt our services and
tools to meet clients’ needs,
Innovate solutions around project
requirements and Resolve
challenges to deliver expectations
as an engineering, projects and
operations services provider to the
oil and gas, power and maritime
industries”, these were the words
of Mr. Austin Ume Zurike, the
managing director and chief
executive officer of Arion Energy
Services Limited.
His impressive career cuts across
drilling, ship building and offshore
marine operations across Asia and
Europe in over two decades. His last
employment was at BW Offshore
where he rose through the ranks as
operations manager and
subsequently became managing
director for the multinational in
Nigeria. He left in 2016 to fulfil his
entrepreneurial dream with the
establishment of Arion Energy
Services.
“We are quite young in the
industry and we came in at a time
when the Nigerian economy was in
recession, but we were not deterred
in our quest to make a difference in
the industry. We ensure that we only
take jobs that are within our capacity
and we execute to the best of our
ability. What drives us is being
innovative and agile in the way we
provide our service offerings which
includes technical manpower
services, crew and vessel
management, asset integrity
management, operations and
maintenance services as well as
procurement. Presently, we are
looking into vessel ownership for
the upstream sector of the oil and
gas industry”, he informed.
An exceptional CEO with a cando
spirit and knack for excellence,
his expertise is unquestionable as
evident in the amazing growth and
successes recorded since the
establishment of Arion Energy
Services in a space of three years.
Not just that, Arion Energy Services
has been compliant with both
cabotage and local content
initiatives in line with the provisions
of extant laws in the maritime and
oil industries by facilitating the
transfer of knowledge to indigenous
engineers and cadets as well as
engaging these Nigerians in its
operations.
According to him, the nondisbursement
of the Cabotage
SPECIAL SECTION ON OUTSTANDING CEOs
•Tommy Odama
than to work with the lower cadre
of the social strata in terms of
services delivery in real estate
whether buying, selling, leasing
and even pitching.
What are the greatest challenges
you have encountered in your
Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) is
one of the challenges facing the
maritime industry. He said, “The
Cabotage law in itself has been
effective to some extent, as we now
have more local vessel owners and
more indigenous seafarers are
replacing foreigners, but in terms
of vessel acquisition, it has been
difficult. I want to believe the reason
why the Nigerian Maritime
Administration and Safety Agency
(NIMASA) has not disbursed the
fund is due to past experience
whereby the beneficiaries diverted
the funds into something else, but I
think genuine players should be
given access to the fund provided
they are properly vetted and placed
under checks to ensure the money
Professionalism and Integrity
Has Brought Us Far
Tommy Odama —GCEO, Luxury Villas Group
entrepreneurial journey and what
are the lessons you have taken from
these challenges?
On the contrary I really can’t tell
precisely what specific challenge or
challenges I have encountered in
the course of my entrepreneurial
journey but I do know that at first
the rich may find it difficult to trust
you with huge sums of money to buy
a property for them or collect such
monies on their behalf, however,
once you are able to earn their trust
there is no limit to how much and
how far they can go with you. In
terms of lessons; professionalism
and integrity are two virtues that are
key if you must run a successful real
estate business.
Proper maintenance is key in
preserving building, how would
you rate facilities management
practise in Nigeria as an important
aspect of Real Estate?
Facility management of a building
We Are Innovative And
Agile In Service Delivery
can, in my opinion, be likened to
nourishing the human body to
healthy living such as good food
and taking the right Vitamins as
well as exercise to keep the body
functioning properly. In Nigeria, we
lack good maintenance culture
especially in our government
institutions. Outside some
individually owned private homes/
properties and corporations
especially those owned by
multinationals, there so many
decays in our facilities. You do not
need to be lectured on this, look
around, you will see what I mean.
So, a good and functional
professional facility management is
an important element in the
preservations of properties in
Nigeria and should form a part of
our culture and must be taken
seriously otherwise we may not be
able to see some of these
developments in the next fifty years
to hundred years from now and
Mr. Austin Ume Zurike —CEO, Arion Energy Services Limited
•Victor Ehimuan
Mr. Victor Ehimuan is the
Group Chief Operating
Officer of Joeny Holdings
Limited; an indigenous company
that is highly committed to
excellence and focused on building
a brand name associated with
unique quality and service delivery.
He holds a bachelor degree in
economics as well as a master
degree in management from the
Univeristy of Leeds Business School.
He is also a certified QMS ISO 9001
lead auditor by PECB Canada.
How would you describe the year
given to them is strictly spent on
vessel acquisition. It will be good if
NIMASA starts disbursing the
funds because vessel acquisition is
expensive, and our banks are not
helping with the interest rates.”
With a vision “to be recognised as
the distinctive energy services
provider that is significantly
improving our clients’
performance”, Arion Energy
Services has continued to position
itself for opportunities in the
industry by embracing trends as
they come up, with the ultimate goal
of being the partner of choice.
“The future is bright. We hope the
Petroleum Industry Bill will be
passed into law in the nearest future
because it has the potentials to
2019 in terms of challenges and
opportunities?
Frankly speaking, the challenges
are not what we did not anticipate
because part of management is to
forecast and develop strategies to
mitigate risk or optimise
opportunities, and this is what we
at Joeny Holdings are very good at.
Starting with the opportunities, we
took a strategic decision to invest
in expanding our engagement to
other financially viable clients that
were not initially on our portfolio
and to expand our asset capacity due
to perceived growth. This has
worked well, because we have seen
expansion in drilling operations.
Also, the current local content
initiative is gathering more
momentum to support
indigenous companies like
ours, not only to grow but to
compete with the
multinationals. I am pleased to
say that Joeny Holdings is
taking over highly technical service
contracts from the multinationals. I
will also say increasing
globalisation in 2019 has impacted
our business positively because we
are better able to communicate,
procure and deliver critical
mechanical spares just in time and
we are better deposed to the
international community for wellestablished
joint venture
partnerships and investments.
A big challenge that we face is
getting the right local skill sets in
some critical areas and balancing
their needs and expectations with
the requirements of the client and
better the
industry. The
NLNG Train-
7 and the
Bonga South
West projects
among others
will create
opportunities
for the
industry and
we are well
positioned to
key into these
opportunities. Once these projects
kick off, the maritime industry will
follow, because it is 80 percent
dominated by services in the oil and
gas industry. We stand to benefit
from increased activities that are
our company’s set standards. In
responding to this challenge, we are
investing hugely in putting in place
adequate knowledge management
systems. We have also seen a lot of
split-second changes in key
government regulations and
policies which directly affects the
way we do business without proper
awareness creation and stakeholder
engagement to enable good
understanding and a seamless
transition to a new order.
As a top player in Nigeria’s oil
and gas industry, how has Joeny
Holdings contributed to the Local
Content Initiative?
As an indigenous company, we
are a beneficiary of this initiative,
so we must be a valuable
contributor as well. We embed local
content policies as regards
community labour and suppliers
engagement in our community
management plan. Through this, we
are able to employ and train persons
and engage local suppliers and subcontractors
in different communities
where we carry out our operations.
Currently, together with NCDMB
and one of our major oil and gas
client, we are training almost 36
people on a two-year program
which includes; classroom training,
on-the-job training and relevant
industry certifications. We are
currently working in collaboration
with a foreign partner to develop a
critical industry tool and site
maintenance support service centre
in the Niger Delta region.
admire them. They would have
decayed and become
uninhabitable.
What is your projection for the
Luxury Real Estate market in
Nigeria?
I am very positive about growth
in the Luxury real estate market in
the very near future. Growth has
been slow due to a number of factors
from funding, exchange rate to
interest rates. We are getting there
gradually. It is a work in progress.
To what extent would you say the
vision of your company has been
achieved and where do you hope
to see the company in another ten
years?
Without sounding immodest and
with all humility and sense of
purpose, I believe we have made
sufficient progress with so much
room for improvement. There is no
limit to success and achievement
but with hard work and
perseverance, we are forging ahead
and meeting the goals we set out
for ourselves. In ten years from now
we hope to be rated as a global
company, ceteris- paribus.
•Austin Ume
Zurike
coming up and this is why we want
to acquire our own vessel,
nevertheless, all these requires
stability in our economy for all to
materialise”, he said.
JOENY HOLDINGS: Local Firm With Global Perspective
What are the core values that
distinguishes your company from
other players in the oil and gas
sector?
At Joeny Holdings, we have a
highly disciplined and focused
leadership and we believe that
what can ensure our sustainability
and long-term competitive
advantage is our uniqueness. As
such, we focus on four of our core
business values which are; delivery
of quality services, investment in
human capital, premium
equipment and tools, and
continuous technical innovation.
These four values clearly distinct us
from our competitors and display
our adopted strategic management
philosophy of prioritizing our
planning on enforcing the internal
competence of our organisation (i.e.
people, systems, processes) in
building a winning corporate
strategy that gives us that
uniqueness which is inimitable.
What are your goals for Joeny
Holdings?
Like most other companies that
are forward thinking, we at Joeny
Holdings look to a day when our
company name clearly becomes a
household brand beyond the shores
of Nigeria and Africa as a whole.
We look to a day when our above
highlighted key values need not be
spoken, but be seen in the
substance of our service
deliverables and output in the oil
and gas industry in Nigeria.