ANABEL MOBILE SERVICES WILL TAKE TELECOMS INDUSTRY TO THE NEXT LEVEL
-Nicholas Okoye (President Anabel Groups)

With a vast experience in the telecommunications industry, Nicholas Okoye is set to revolutionalise the industry. An internationally trained expert, who facilitated the transformation of the Nigerian Telecommunication (NITEL) into Transcorp Plc, in an interview with A&B, revealed his sojourn into the world of telecoms, the cutting edge services of Anable Mobile, and critically assess the telecommunications industry in Nigeria.

Let’s get to know you better
I studied Microbiology at the Anambra State University of Technology, but before then I was into business. After that, I studied fine art and global management in the United States of America, while I was working with a reputable investment bank. I also worked as the head of strategy at the Nigeria Stock Exchange. I helped to set up one of Nigeria’s conglomerate; Transcorp Plc. I was the executive director of operations. Close to two years ago, I started Anabel Groups made up of businesses like Anabel Mobile, Anabel Capital, an adviser/consultant to the Central Bank of Nigeria and Anabel Entertainment, working with the Ministry of Information on re-branding Nigeria. Anabel Technology is involved in cutting edge technology to enhance people’s businesses.

What inspired you into telecommunications business
When I was in Transcorp, we actually bought NITEL and I was appointed as the Managing Director. At that point, I had to study the telecommunications industry and the gap there. I felt there was a space for good entrepreneur in the industry in as much as you are able to provide cutting edge services. The world was moving to mobility, people are willing to do things in the mobile environment. The convergence of doing a lot of this from one device is the age we are.
A time will come that one device will open door to your house and it’s the same device you will use to do all your banking transactions and the same device will carry your medical records. In the future, Anabel will position Nigeria in no time in terms of using mobile devices to enhance the way we work, love, and play.

When did you start Anabel Mobile
We’ve been around for over a year now and any good businessman will tell you that a year is really a very short time to access a business. We look at the long time achievement of our services, not the short time.
Though we live in an environment where everybody is short time minded and even the bank lend with short time pay back scheme, we don’t believe in that. We expect Nigeria to be here in 10 to 20 years to come, so why thinking short time? So, in that case, we have positioned our company in that respect, we are looking at long time. When you have longtime strategy in business, your benefits will be more in tune to that. At the end of the day, you will do better than short time scheme.
We are not judging ourselves with the little time we’ve spent in the industry, the first year was just about building the brand, we’ve done that and people now know that Anabel exists. We have as our most target audience, the elites, managers, company executives and we’ve been able to get 60-70% penetration of this class. I know we’ve been successful in building the brand and what we now need to consolidate the business is in the areas, where we’ve focused on which will take another 2 to 3 years.

What are the challenges you faced to make Anabel a telecommunications force to reckon with
The challenges include the challenges of Nigeria. The Nigerian challenges are that of incompetent staff, epileptic power supply, and lack of adequate training. A university graduate in Nigeria is poorly trained and that affects him/her as soon as he/she gets to the labour market. Another challenge is that of multiple taxes. As you are contending with the federal taxes, the state government will be pulling you and the local government will be pulling you in another direction to pay taxes. So, you have the Nigerian factor to contend with, which causes the financial world report, in its competitive assessment to place Nigeria in 128 out of 185 countries in the world, this shows that we are very uncompetitive in business compared to other countries. We are not business friendly based on the conditions we face as entrepreneurs.

What solution can you suggest
Presently, I am the President of the Trade Investment Competitiveness and Commission in Nigeria Economic Summit Group. I have made it my mission in life to make Nigeria so competitive in terms of business. By taking up that responsibility as the chairman, trade and investment will be my concern such that people who come after us can benefit from a more level playing field and young entrepreneur will not suffer the kind of challenges we are contending with. Nigerians are very entrepreneurial in nature and very committed to get things done, it is just the environment that hinders them.

Do you see your brand can compete with the likes of blackberry and other sophisticated mobile devices
That question comes from lack of understanding of what our business is all about. We are just starting, Nokia and Blackberry have been around for 90 years and 30 years respectively, so we are not in a position to start comparing. However, that is not even our business world. Nokia is a mass market product and blackberry is also through with unique applications, we are concerned about creating a niche in the market, which is getting the entrepreneurs, the CEOs, the managers who are always on the move to get things done easily, quickly and effectively.
We are not in the same market with Nokia and Blackberry. There is a vacuum and that’s what we are exploring.

What’s you assessment of the Nigerian Telecommunications industry
I think the industry is still growing. We have a lot of challenges, which include our quality of services, the GSM providers tend not to provide the good services they provide in other countries. In developed countries, the network mast used for 5000 subscribers is used in Nigeria for 15000 subscribers which at the end will create congestion. Skills are another issue. But the industry is trying, I mean growing.

Where do you want to see Anabel mobile in few years to come
We expect that we would have affected the lives of millions of people. We are driving mobility in Nigeria and the applications and devices we pioneer in Nigeria is where you can do everything on your mobile phone, whereby a medical doctor can pick up his/her mobile phone when doing ward check and check medical reports of his/her patience with ease. We have solutions that where you are at the scene of an accident, you can use your Anabel mobile phone to get emergency treatment, even if you are not a doctor, you can get the medical report of the victim and administer first aid treatment at that point. This is the kind of technology we are bringing to the market and we expect that few years from now, we will get there.