Bimbo Ashiru: How We Brought O’dua Investment Back to Life - THISDAYLIVE

The outgoing Chairman of O’dua Investment Company Limited, Bimbo Ashiru, recounts how the board revived the 50-year-old regional investment company, transforming it from an asset-rich but cash-poor, underperforming enterprise into an AA-rated, financially stronger conglomerate with ambitions to compete globally. Sunday Okobi brings the excerpts:

Congratulations on the progress O’dua Investment Company Limited has made under your leadership. For those unfamiliar with the Group, what exactly is O’dua Investment Company, and what is its core mandate?

The O’dua Investment Company Limited (OICL) was established 50 years ago by Chief Obafemi Awolowo and his team, and when you say Omo Odua, it’s been coined from the Yoruba name. But the purpose of O’dua was to establish a conglomerate that would create investment that would bring back what our forefathers believed in, which was to have our regional investment company that would take care of our people. Take, for example, the free education enjoyed by many in those days was funded by the company. It was built mainly on cocoa. And don’t forget that Nigeria was the second-largest exporter of cocoa in the world. It was the funds realised from cocoa that were used to build the Cocoa House in Ibadan, Oyo State, and the University of Ife, which is now named Obafemi Awolowo University. All those companies in O’dua Group were like a value chain. And I’ll give you a good example. The Western Board (Western Nigerian Investment Corporation), now Wemaboard, is 82 years old. That means it’s older than the owners. They (Awolowo and co.) acquired all those agencies and firms and made them a regional investment behemoth.

And it was not only O’dua Group that was established at that time; we had the Northern Regional Investment; we had the South-East Regional Investment, while we were the Western Regional Investment. The good thing is that the owners (founders) then felt that it was important to create a lasting legacy as well as lay a life-changing foundation for the people. Remember that the Western Region lent the Central Government of Nigeria 12 million pounds in those days. So, you could now see the kind of investment that had been put in place with such capacity, and it has really changed the dynamics; and I’m happy to tell you that O’dua is the only regional investment company established then that still exists today. I think the one in the Northern region, according to my friend, Alhaji Dikko, is about to be revived, as is the one in the South-east region too. Also, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is on the same scale as O’dua, but they are more into building infrastructure and improving roads and bridges, while O’dua is a regional investment company. We are into real estate, hospitality, and manufacturing. O’dua has shares in Guinness, even in the agriculture sector as well.  During the military regime, O’dua had a little problem, because the military government took over the company and started running it and unfortunately, the purpose it was meant for could not be achieved. But I’m delighted to tell you that in the last six years, O’dua Investment Company Limited has found its level and has now come back big time to its original regional plan, goals, and success.

What we did when we came in was to make O’dua a world-class conglomerate. We wanted to be able to compete with global conglomerates. Now, we have moved on solidly, and I’m glad to tell you that every director in the company is fully prepared through the constant acquisition of knowledge. All of them have gone through different business schools to be able to learn and be trained to have the capacity to move O’dua Group forward.

Also, every member of staff of O’dua and its subsidiary has started training to build capacity in order to understand that O’dua is an investment company with high stakes and different dimensions, not an operating company. Also, in the last four years, we’ve now made O’dua a holding company whereby we must be constantly investing and reinvesting. Our real estate company and businesses are now being managed by Wemaboard. You now see that there have been changes in the company. Also, it is good to know that we’ve invested in Iwosan Healthcare and FCMB Pensions, where we have 10 percent shares. We are now investing in different organisations, even in Dangote Industries too. So, currently, O’dua is aggressively focusing on investing in many areas. And what we have realised from the investments is a lot. Just like the SRC that we introduced (SWEAT, REVIVE and CREATE), we gave ourselves five years target, and at the end of the five years, which was last year, we made substantial profit, and now we can do things differently.

 How and what does it feel like to be outside the leadership of the O’dua Investment Company after many years of offering quality leadership?

I feel good. I feel fulfilled. I always say that a leader of every team is also a member of that team. As a leader, you must see yourself as a part of that team. It’s just like the president of Nigeria; he is also a citizen of the country, and as the president, one day he will leave office and remain a citizen of the country and an elder statesman. Now, I’m being called Emeritus Chair. But don’t forget that when we came in six years ago, we had a chairman too, Dr. Segun Aina, a dynamic person, who is very articulate and smart. He led for two years, and I took over from him, and he was still part of the board before his tenure expired. So, we have created that tradition whereby a leader of the team becomes a member of the team. By God’s grace, my tenure will end in 2028, and my focus is to support the incoming dynamic Group Chairman, Dr Tola Kasali, a fantastic man. He was a former commissioner in Lagos State; he is the first chairman of Ibeju-Lekki Local Government Area of the state, a two-term commissioner in Lagos State, just like me too (two-time commissioner in Ogun State). So, he’s part of the team, and he understands the dynamics. And I can tell you that he’s going to succeed too.

 Under your leadership, O’dua recorded transformation from an asset-rich but cash-poor and under-performing enterprise into a strategy-driven regional investment conglomerate. Can you lead us into that journey?

I remember vividly what it was like when we took over the company. I can tell you confidently that the success we have achieved today is a collective one. It’s just that I’m the leader of the team directing it, but the beauty of it is that when we started, Wemaboard got an A in Fitch Rating; and we decided that since we are the father of Wemaboard, let us even assess ourselves; let us know what the people feel about O’dua Group. We must be able to get somebody to assess from outside, not us praising ourselves from the inside that we have done so well. Consequently, we invited Agusto Rating to look at our books and every other aspect of the company. And by the time we did the first assessment, we had an A. In less than one year, they came again, and it became A+. Today, we are now AA-; and we further agreed that we cannot limit it to Nigeria alone, because we wanted to be a world-class conglomerate. So, we brought in an international rating company (Moody) to rate us, and we still had AA-. That means, today, O’dua is asset-rich and cash-rich. I can tell you that O’dua does not owe any bank any money. We are liquid, and our staff members are happy because they are well paid and are enjoying what O’dua offers in terms of quality. The good thing is that you must think about the welfare of the people who are carrying out the work and implementing the company’s policies. And during the process, we established the O’dua Foundation, which is being chaired by the only surviving child of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr. Olatokunbo Dosumu. You need to see what they’ve done in one year since the foundation was established. They’ve impacted the South-West region immensely. At the same time, we were able to get a licence for the marginal field, Embitter Exploration, and by God’s grace, hopefully, before the end of this year or early next year, we should be able to start drilling. So, we were investing in so many areas. The beauty of it is that we were deliberate, we were focused, and we were being dynamic with all the things we were doing. We see O’dua as the general and collective property of the Western Region. And don’t forget, Lagos State is now part of O’dua Group. I remember I was the one who went to give the present state governor their own certificate. And we’ve been paying dividends for the past six years to date, and that’s the beauty of it. Also, when we took over the mantle of leadership of O’dua, we had KPMG as our consultant, and I am happy to tell you that there was an MoU that was signed by the governors. There is no single interference in the day-to-day or general running of O’dua Investment Company Limited. No governor called me to say please employ this or do that; none! But having said that, because they are shareholders, they are the owners of the business, and we still have to get necessary approvals from them. So, those are the things we did and it’s been very dynamic and great, and I would tell you, with my experience, the collective achievements we have recorded over the years are boundless.

How have O’dua Investment activities impacted the lives of Yoruba people and Nigerians in general?

We have created jobs and many other opportunities ever since we set up the South-west Agric Company. We have investments in all six states of the Southwest, where a lot of people are earning a living. In Ekiti State, we have our farm belt, where we are into cocoa and cassava production. In Osun State, we are also involved, including Oyo and Lagos States. We partner these states through SWACO in rice padding. We have another farm in Badagry (Lagos), where we are cultivating crops.  Not only that, we have created jobs for teeming young people of the South-West region, and even other Nigerians. That way alone, we’ve been able to impact their lives…even with the Foundation. As I mentioned earlier, O’dua is giving life meaning to the young people in the Southwest. We’ve also been able to mentor many of them, focusing on technology and other areas; so, we’ve been able to impact them directly and indirectly through job creation for both the skilled and unskilled. Today, we have the South-West Information Technology Company too, which deals in IT and Artificial Intelligence (AI) for our young people, among others. So, we are ensuring that the impact of O’dua is felt according to the plans and legacy which Pa Awolowo and others had for the region in those days (that we must impact our children; that’s why they had free education). 

Many prominent people in Nigeria today benefited from that free education programme, and we are ensuring that we bring back the old glory days.

What does continuity and strategic stability mean to you and O’dua?

Well, it is to make sure that we have a proper succession plan in place. If you have a company and you don’t have good successors or leaders in place, then it’s a failure; you have failed. So, what we have done now is to make sure there’s a qualified person to succeed the next person. For example, a Managing Director of one of the subsidiaries was going to be 50; and the directors wrote to the Group that they wanted to extend the tenure of the MD for another four years, but we refused. ‘Are you saying that there is nobody in the system that can take over from him?’ We said no; the only way we can approve even a one-year extension is to ensure that we get the right people in place. On strategic stability, I’m happy to tell you that in the system, we always bring in KPMG, Deloitte, and other top-notch accounting firms to assess the company consistently. Presently, we have Deloitte managing the accounting for O’dua. We agreed that for us to do anything, we must bring in the right people. They were interviewed, and we picked the best out of them. During interviews, we made it known that if you are a director, when the MD’s tenure is up, you should be able to succeed him or her. And I’m elated to tell you today that the person who took over Wemaboard as the managing director had worked there for 23 years, and he came top during the interview we organised. The present Managing Director of O’dua Investment Company Limited, Yinusa Abdulrahman, was properly interviewed by KPMG, and when we were trying to pitch for the position, he contested and came out on top. That is the system; you should be able to, within the house, ensure that you get somebody to do the job excellently, and also, we are all accountable.

How did you and the board in the space of five years, manage to achieve the strategic framework of SRC 1.0 SWEAT, REVIVE and CREATE?

 We were deliberate, focused, and we imbibed the culture of corporate governance, and the issue of integrity was at play. Also, we were all committed to the progress and objectives of O’dua, and we had our strategy in place. We focused on that, and we carried everybody-both the Group, which is the holding company, and all our subsidiaries-along with us. Normally, we have a retreat at least twice a year, and each of our subsidiaries too have their own retreat; the Group, too, they have monthly (MANCO) meetings whereby they meet and talk about how progress is made and how things are done.

With your trust and confidence in the new leadership of Dr Tajudeen Tola Kasali, where do you envisage O’dua in the near future?

I can tell you that I have absolute confidence in Dr Tola Kasali. He is going to take it to the next level; even higher. I believe he’s going to do even better than I did. I can tell you that with my support and the support of members of the board, we’ll achieve more.

Like I always tell people, presently, apart from O’dua, I’m on the board of other companies, and I’m chairing the board of other companies. I’m on the board of about 15 companies, and I was chairing nine; now it’s eight. So, I think my job is cut out for me. I’m a determined person; I’m not retired; I’m not tired. I pray that I live long like my parents; my father died at the age of 92, my mother at the age of 96. I believe I’m going to live long enough, but at the same time, what I’m trying to do is to ensure that I create that legacy for my children and my family. The only thing I always tell people is that I want to be remembered for my integrity (that this is a man who imbibed the culture of integrity and corporate governance.

In your compendium, I saw that Lagos State was admitted into O’dua Investment Company late. Why?

Don’t forget that Lagos State used to stand alone, but now they have realised that they should be part of the Western Region, not Lagos alone. It was during the time of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode that the state joined. He (Ambode) was convinced by the likes of, may God bless his soul, Governors Ajimobi, Akeredolu, Ibikunle Amosun, and Aregbesola. They came together, including Governor Mimiko, to urge Lagos State to join the fold of O’dua. They held a meeting in Ibadan, and I was there, where they concluded that Lagos State should be part of O’dua Investment Company Limited.

Founded on January 22, 1995, THISDAY is published by THISDAY NEWSPAPERS LTD., 35 Creek Road Apapa, Lagos, Nigeria with offices in 36 states of Nigeria , the Federal Capital Territory and around the world. It is Nigeria’s most authoritative news media available on all platforms for the political, business, professional and diplomatic elite and broader middle classes while serving as the meeting point of new ideas, culture and technology for the aspirationals and millennials. The newspaper is a public trust dedicated to the pursuit of truth and reason covering a range of issues from breaking news to politics, business, the markets, the arts, sports and community to the crossroads of people and society.

You can email us at: hello@thisdaylive.com or visit our contact us page.