It was sometime in the first quarter of the year 1999, the time was 7pm, and the town was Ninth Mile in Enugu State, the town where most travelers pass through on their way to the north from the south east. Yours truly was making his way to Gombe State, having being posted to serve his fatherland in the National Youth Service Corp scheme, the compulsory one-year service to the nation by all graduates. It was late and to beat the deadline for reporting in camp, we needed no excuse but to do everything humanly possible to get to camp the next morning. There was no bus. There was panic. So you can imagine the relief on our faces when a bus came by and announced that it was going our way. But there was one problem. We had to stand. Stand from here to Jos? Who cares! Which option was better – standing to Jos or waiting and missing the one-year service? There were others standing already before the bus pulled up. And that was how we stood for a journey of more than ten hours in the night. It was hard and rough, but it had to done. This was typical of the trans city bus – noisy, overcrowded, discomfort, etc until one young man decided to make a change. That man is Dr. Frank Nneji and the company is Associated Bus Company (ABC Transport).
Born in Kaduna City on April 30, 1960, Frank Uzoawuotu Nneji hails from Nguru, Aboh Mbaise Local Government Area, of Imo State. He grew up in a village, from a family of nine. His father was a retired soldier turned farmer, while his mother was a nurse. He attended the University of Nigeria Nsukka, where he graduated with a degree in Biological Sciences in 1982, before proceeding for an executive programme at Wharton Business School, Philadelphia, USA and Chief Executive Programme at Lagos Business School. Signs of what to come emerged when he was just 3 years old. Feeling that the family should get a much bigger table clock, the young Frank did the unthinkable. Since he couldn’t get a favourable answer from his father, he took the family’s table clock, dug a hole at the back of the house, put the clock in there, covered it up, and was going there regularly to pour water on it. His intention was to make the clock grow bigger and multiply in number. A search party instituted could not find the missing clock until somebody, one day, noticed that Frank was always pouring water on something planted at the back of the house. Eager to know what it was, they dug and found the family’s table clock, all rusty.
When he left secondary school in 1976, he enlisted as an auxiliary teacher during the Universal Primary Education (UPE). He taught for about one year before gaining admission into the university.
As a nurse, his mother wanted all her kids to be in the medical line. This led him into studying Biological Science with the idea of switching over to Medicine. But after the first year, it became obvious that he wasn’t cut out to be in that field. He wanted to change to a business course, but abandoned the idea when he discovered that it will cost him one year, so he opted to learn business from the outside.
He made extra money publishing in school. At the end of each semester, he would go to the records and collect the past question papers of the difficult courses for the session. He would then reproduce them and sell them to students. That was how in 1980, during his 200 level, he was able to raise N500, which was big enough to buy a student rebate ticket being offered by Nigerian Airways to travel to Italy where he bought T-shirts, jeans and belts. That was how he started selling T-shirts, jeans, belts, etc as an undergraduate.
After graduating with a degree at the age of 23, he headed straight into the business world. Armed with little experience and his N750 NYSC bicycle allowance, he rented an office (thank God for the man who took 5 months rent from him) and started RAPIDO, a company that supplies educational materials. He started with writing boards and from there to other audiovisuals like projectors. His first major contract was from the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) which was taking off as at then. He was to supply them with writing boards. With less money and no staff, he made the boards himself, employing the services of his friends who were still searching for employment by buying them drinks.
Many did not give him a chance as a young man to survive. He still remembers vividly the comments of two people who saw him the first time he was trying to get his reading table which he had gone to the village to carry for office use. One was an engineer who having learnt about his new office said, “You small boys, why don’t you go and get a job and gain experience? You people are becoming too ambitious.” He also remembers the comment of the second person who said, “I wish you all the best”. The irony is that the second person recently came to beg him for a used tyre for his grounded car.
Having no money, what he did was to go out with his LPO and source for money. His friends will bring in the money, he would execute the business and they shared the profit on equal basis. Creating a win-win situation. That was how he built capital over time. While he was doing this, he frequently traveled to Lagos where he was exposed to the hassles of public transportation. Either the bus was over loaded with what is called attachment or it was the unruly behaviour of the bus driver or conductor.
One experience that was to change the way things are done happened somewhere at Ore. On that faithfully day, the bus finally broke down after frequent stopping to pick passengers on the way. While others were pre occupied with how to get to their destination, he was asking himself a series of questions. “Is there no way things can be done better?” That was all that he needed to set his mind in motion.
And so in 1987, he told himself he was going to run a bus service with a difference. His idea was to provide all that was lacking in other bus companies. To provide the things he would’ve wished were there for people of his class. With his little experience as a part of the student union transport management in his university days, he did his feasibility study and put up a business plan in place. In 1991, he was able to get Diamond Bank to lease 5 Hiace buses for him at N1.5 million. That was the birth of Associated Bus Company Plc (ABC Transport) which is now 13 years old.
The number one priority in ABC is safety. The company has been able to carve a niche for itself by spending heavily on safety, comfort and general customer service relations. The company which has the record of recruiting skilled and highly professional and educationally-qualified personnel, including drivers with adequate training as a back up, is the only transportation company in the country for now that is implementing the tracking of buses. This makes it impossible for speed limits to be violated.
With executive express, super sleeper and 40-seater vehicles in which you can relax and almost sleep, just like a bed, the company came out with different services hitherto unknown or thought to be impossible in the country. One of such services is the ABEX Services, which makes it possible for mails and goods to be delivered over night at an affordable price. Running almost a fleet of 100, with more than 15 trucks and a daily departure of more than 80, movement of individuals, mails and goods became easier. Others include traveling in an air-conditioned bus with toilet facilities. In fact, ABC is competing with the airlines. With these additional services in bus transport, people were willing to pay higher. They also made it easy for people to transfer cash before the integrated banking services were introduced.
With over 1,200 people on their pay roll, and going into other areas like courier and hospitality, the company in 2004 came out with a new service tagged Coach West Africa. It’s a service that cuts across the West African sub-region and has been able to expose the tourism potentials of the sub-region. ABC has brought comfort and decency to long distance travel, not only in Nigeria but also in other West African countries. An industry where in the past a typical bus that could sit 50 people is made to carry times two of that number with half standing.
Dr. Nneji, from a humble start, has won several awards like the Success Digest Entrepreneur of The Year Award, Federal Road Safety Award, Travel Personality of the Year Award, Fate Model Entrepreneur Award, amongst others and deserves to be our change master for this week. Don’t be surprised when you hear that ABC has gone into the railway or airline industry. With the way they are going, yours truly can bet his money on it.
Lessons
One track record most of our change masters have is their ability to start small, where they are, with what is in their hands. They see opportunities in problems. ABC Transport was as a result of Nneji’s frustration in bus transport and rather than complain, he decided to find a solution. Always find a way to satisfy a need. When people need something, they willingly part with their money, even at a higher rate.
Always have a business plan before going into any business. This is vital and also helps to raise funds from outside. Look for cheap labour when starting a business. It could be members of your family, friends, etc. That way, your over head cost would be manageable. Don’t compete; rather create a niche for yourself. There were other transport companies before ABC came on board, but rather than compete with them, they created their own category and became number one. They had a target audience, which was the middle class. Also form the habit of continuous learning. Dr. Nneji does not joke with books. Even at his level, he still reads. Those who read and continue to learn will never run out of ideas. Lastly, trust in God. On your own, you can do nothing.
I don’t know what you or some one you know is going through currently. But I do know that men and women like Dr. Nneji have succeeded in telling us that everything is possible in our great country, Nigeria. Yes, if they can make it in Nigeria, you and I can.
Shalom!