We Have All It Takes To Make You Feel A King- Raheem Akinola, Chairman/C.E.O. Akinola R. A. Ventures

 Raheem A. Akinola, Chairman,  Akinola R. A. Ventures speaks about how he got into care hiring business, the various stages of the company"s growth, development strategies and challenges

When did you start car hire business?

Let me say about its  six years ago that I got into car hire business but before this business, I worked in two places. First, I worked with Texaco Nigeria as a motor boy. This I did for between three to four years and after that I got employed with Coca Cola Company where I spent about 10 years out of which of that period, I worked as a truck boy and later graduated to become a salesman on the formalization of my appointment. As a salesman, you have to be in the office by 7am latest so that before setting out for the field job, you have to attend the normal daily conference and when it became impossible for me to keep that time schedule, because then I had to move from Badagry where I have my house to the office everyday and since I would not want the 10 years spent in the company wasted if I was to be sacked for inadequacies, I then resigned my appointment with the company.

So what happened after your resignation?

It was a tough experience after my resignation, tough in the sense that as a family man, to keep faith with obligations to my family became a difficult task since I was not drawing salary from anywhere again. I could hardly feed my family but when the situation became unbearable, I had to put my private vehicle on the road and I started a commercial shuttle service running Aradagun in Badagry Local Government Area to the Badagry Township ferrying commuters. I did this for about three years but having stressed the vehicle under such engagement and for too long, it started developing mechanical faults on nearly daily basis and there was no money to be servicing it or replace it with a fairly new one.

 Raheem A. Akinola, Chairman,  Akinola. Ventures

Can one then conclude that it was that brief stint you had in commercial transport business that spurred you into Care Hire business?

 No that wasn’t the reason, what actually happened is this, when the commercial transport operation stopped as a result of the unhealthy nature of the vehicle I was using, I approached somebody who was into Car Hire business and who later became my boss to seek for help for job. So if he was then into an entirely different business probably that would have been my area today but because he was into car hiring and when he offered to help me, the only opportunity opened to me then was to work with him as one of his drivers. What happened then was that when I met him, he was ready to assist and the day I would start with him, he was on his way to his office at the airport in Ikeja, Lagos. He suddenly announced to me that we would be going to his office together in his car and that I would be the one to drive the vehicle and without any hesitation I took the key from him and we headed for the airport. On getting to his office, alighted and while I was handing the car key to him, he said he had conducted a test for me and found my driving perfect so I should start working with him as one of the drivers in his company.

How did you eventually break away from that company to commence your own business?

My leaving the company after spending about three years was not as a result of any misunderstanding. I must let you know that when I was to leave I got his blessing even though, I had started my own company while under him but without his knowledge. To this, he was not happy when got to know after all and such feeling expressed by him is natural but he over looked it and eventually let it go off his mind. He so much trusted me that I was the one assigned to operate the first Toyota Prado Jeep to be used for Car Hire Service at the Murtala Muhammed Airport and owned by his company had superior offices but that I met in the company but for reasons well known to him he handed the key of the vehicle to me to be in charge.

Chairman, Raheem Akinola in branded company Shirt

It was while I was driving the vehicle, and of course you know that, customers that would normally come for that brand of vehicle would be high class personalities. And by the grace of God, it was during this period that I was in charge of the Jeep that I met a topnotch officer of a company known as Brickwall Nigeria Limited and I later discovered to be the chairman of the company. The company was one of good customers and anytime the chairman is moving I would be the one to Chauffer drive him but on a fateful day that a turnaround would come my way, I was taking him in the vehicle to somewhere when he tried to know of my plans to have my own business. We had a chat which eventually led to a deal for me and from that moment I got it. The company started patronizing my Car Hire business and that was how our financial based began to expand. The patronage from Brickwall became very encouraging and lucrative and my company R.A. Akinola Ventures continues to grow. I started with a Toyota Camry car then later acquired a Lexus Jeep but today I have in addition to that Toyota Prado Jeeps. All this period, I was still working for my boss. Now to answer your question as to why I exited from that organization, it got to a point that I was losing deals because, according to the rules of the job you can’t take phone calls while chauffer driving a client and most times customers who would want to use my vehicle would call my phone severally but because of the standing rules I would not attend to their calls. Most times they were left with no option than to approach another company.

When I found that I was losing a lot, I approached my boss and let him to know I would be leaving to attend to my personal business. He was happy but like I mentioned earlier, he expressed his disappointment that I failed to intimate him with my plans from outset. I will tell you that till this moment, we are still together having good understanding of one another and cooperating very well in the area of the business. I give him a lot of the respects due to him.

Going by your good business sense and your background as a sales representative for a big company like Coca Cola what are the innovations you brought into your car hire business to give you an edge over others in the same circle?

Akinola R. A. Ventures Fleet

First, when I came into this business, I found that to keep your customers, you need to operate with vehicles that are in top form. Not that you go to the market and purchase Tokunbo cars. If you operate with vehicles that could break down while on trip, your customers would abandon you and may not return to you when next they need care hire service because they are the caliber of people that move with time and ae also particular about security. So we make sure we go for the best in the auto market and we have never had record of breakdown vehicle while moving our customers because we make sure a routine to test drive our vehicles at the end of the days business and before setting out on any journey the following day. Second, all our vehicles have WIFI installed in them so that our customers can access the internet while on wheels. Third, our drivers are well trained with good manners and educated, we have university graduates amongst them. Four, we have  cordial relationship with government traffic agencies like LASMA, FRSC, VIO and the police whereby they come to us on last Saturday of every month to lecture our crew on traffic rules and regulations as well as safety on the road. Finally, we have uniforms for the workers including my humble self. We have different uniforms for Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays for the identification of our staff and company. Also in our office, we have WIFI with which you can browse the internet while you are doing your booking or on other engagements.

Let us look at a situation which a passenger forgets to take any of his personal effects with him when alighting from your vehicle. How do you guarantee retrieval?

This is not a common experience with us but then it happened twice. The first time, it a hand phone set and the second was a large amount of money. When we were contacted by the owners, we made them to understand that the items were left in our vehicles and the drivers brought them back to the office. Interestingly, the one that forgot to down with his money was on his way to Dubai but when he got to his destination, he called to confirm if he left the money in our vehicle meaning that he was not even sure of where he missed it. I told him he should not be worried that our drive found the money in the vehicle and brought it back to the office. He did not return from his trip until after two months but when he visited our office the money was intact handed to him.

I could see that your business includes room reservation and ticketing. How are you fairing in these areas?

We are not fully into those areas. Yes, we have cooperation with the hotels and travel agencies whereby we link our clients to them and this we are doing at no cost. We have benefited

Prado Jeep

immensely from such arrangement as the hotels and travel agencies in appreciation of our gesture do same for us by recommending us to their guests. There times too that we pay for rooms on behalf of our clients who had shown interest to have a reservation done through our company. I n such situation, we get refunded by our clients and this we do with all sincerity as we would not add a dime to the cost of the room or make extra charges for such services.

Do you take details of your clients movements and document same for security purpose?

Yes we do, when you want to engage our services, we ask questions as to your destination, the purpose for which you are using the vehicle. This is apart from having trackers in all our vehicles to monitor movement of the vehicle. We do this because we may have a situation where law enforcement agents would stop our vehicles conveying clients for a search or other security reasons. That documentation will help to let the law enforcement agents to know the kind of business or relationship between our company, our driver and the occupant of the vehicle, so we do proper enquiries before we give out vehicles.

What does the business look like now compared to what it was five or more years back?

Well we thank God for His mercy that we are still in business, and we can pay our staff salaries and also keep the company running. This is possible because people and goods are moving from one point to another every minute. As a result, our business has continued to go for us when

compared with some other sectors that had been killed by government policies. But the challenges are that first the cost of vehicles about five years ago has gone up three times now and that has made it very difficult for people in this business to re-fleet. Imagine the vehicle we bought for 5-7 million naira five years ago now sells for between 15-21 million naira and we would not because of that unnecessarily jerk up our charges because if do so, you are scaring people away. To this end, I am appealing to government to have a review of the policies affecting the importation of vehicles especially brand new ones into the country.

We can be connected on the following mobile numbers : 09035369950, 07088911317

LIFE OF THE TAX MAN

He is a tax collector, with great faculty for revenue generation. He has severally proved this through excellent performance of his oversight functions as the head of assigned public institutions.  Everywhere  he works, he tried as much as possible to leave behind indelible and credible marks for everyone coming after to appreciate the foundation he has built and follow suit. Simply put, he builds solid foundation for others to have evaluating structure erected on his efforts. This is the administrative   life of the current Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service., Dr.  Babatunde Fowler.

The amiable looking, Tax administrator no doubt must have secured his present appointment as a result of the feat he recorded in similar  capacity in the employ of the Lagos state government.  

Dr.  Babatunde Fowler.

Dr.  fowler born into the popular Lagos  Fowler family, is a public officer per excellence and social reformer who through his exemplary administrative qualities generated heavy revenue for base for the Lagos state government as the Chairman of the state Board of Internal Revenue  and Chief Executive Officer,  Lagos State Internal Revenue  Service. 

Folks conversant with Dr.  Fowler' background are however very optimistic that, he would put his academic prowess in revenue generation to play to turn around the revenue strength in the Federal system as he has creditable done in Lagos. 

His excellent record and his frequency in air traveling has ignited the special focus on his background by Air Transport Quarterly. He is often see at the airport as one of those with huge financial contribution to the air transport industry through high patronage of the airlines.  

Born  on 12 August 1956, Dr.  Fowler  who recently celebrated his 60th anniversary was born to the family of Professor (Dr) and (Chief) Mrs. W.V. Fowler. He attended Igbobi College in Lagos and studied in the United States of America at the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater, where he obtained his first bachelor's degree with a Bachelor of Science in Economics and a minor in Political Science in 1978. He completed a second bachelor's degree program at California State University, Los Angeles and also a Master of Business Administration degree program at California State University, Dominguez Hills in 1981.

He started out as a Marketing Intern with Avon Products Inc. New York working under the Vice President in charge of Africa. Having completed his formal education he was employed by Johnson and Johnson in New Jersey USA, under the MBA International Development Program lasting one year, thereafter he was transferred to join Johnson and Johnson Nigeria between September 1982 and September 1983.

He made a career change from International Finance and Marketing to Banking in January 1984. In the banking industry he had the opportunity to work and also head broad and varied areas of banking operations and business development in 2 major commercial banks over the next 20 years.

He joined Commercial Bank (Credit Lyonnais Nigeria Limited) in January 1984, where he was exposed to all aspects of International Banking, Risk Management, and Clearing Operations. Positive reforms were introduced by him as the treasurer of the bank and was a foundation member and trustee of the now Money Market Association of Nigeria. His banking experience at Commercial Bank (Credit Lyonnais Nigeria Limited) came to conclusion with his last appointment as the Apapa Branch Manager, the first branch of the bank outside the head office.

He left Commercial Bank in March 1990 to join Chartered Bank in April 1990 as a Senior Manager where he spent the last 14 years in the banking industry. His initial posting was as Head of Branch Network during which he successfully grew the bank’s branches from 2 to 11 branches spread over the country within the first 5 years. He was also in charge of revenue collections for both State and Federal agencies, which he grew, placing the bank amongst the top 3 banks in all collections. He was able to prove himself as a seasoned banker and administrator until he left the organization as a General Manager in March 2004.

Upon leaving the banking industry in 2004, Fowler joined the Lagos State Government and was appointed the pioneer Permanent Secretary/ Executive Chairman of the Lagos State Board of Internal Revenue on the 24th of November 2005, thereby upgrading the office of the Executive Chairman to the highest level in the Civil Service.

The Board of Internal Revenue became autonomous and self-accounting with the passage into law in January 2006 of the Lagos State Revenue Administration Law (The first Revenue Board to become autonomous in Nigeria) and Fowler was appointed as the pioneer Chief Executive Officer of the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service and Executive Chairman of the Lagos State Board of Internal Revenue.

With this re-engineering, the new Lagos State Board of Internal Revenue (As it is now referred to) has achieved the following within 8 years between 2006 and 2013 :A sharp increase in Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) from an average of N 3.6 Billion per month in January 2006 to an average of over N20.5 Billion per month in 2014, improved quality of service delivery to taxpayers, improvement in the use of IT and other modern methods of tax administration, an unprecedented enlightenment campaign on tax administration and education in Africa. These reforms have made Lagos State the only State in the Federal Republic of Nigeria that is financially independent of the monthly financial allocation of revenue from the Federation Account and also the only State that generates internally more revenue than the monthly allocation from the Federation Account.The State is presently able to meet to a considerable degree, the enormous demands for infrastructure and services from the exploding population presently put at over 20 million.

Fowler has remained a vocal voice against Nigeria's over-dependence on oil revenue. The position was reiterated by him at an international conference where he warned the Federal Government of Nigeria that the "drastic drop in revenue had a negative impact on the balance in the federation account and by extension the amount accruing to the three tiers of government (in Nigeria) during the year 2009".] In stimulating interest and raising awareness on tax education at an early stage in life, Fowler introduced a competition for pupils which is funded by his board in which winners are given cash awards and scholarships.