FROM YOUWINCONNECT.COM
A popular proverb says that if life gives you lemon, you make lemonade from it. It’s no use complaining.
Adejoh Jibrin Musa had his own share of life’s lemon quite early. After studying Accounting and following up with a Master’s in Business Administration from Ladoke Akintola University, Ogbomoso, he was hoping to land a big white-collar job. It didn’t happen.
After waiting for a while, he got into “the business of supplies”, a fancy name for hanging around until luck brings along a client who could issue a Local Purchasing Order for an uncertain profit margin.
He could not pay his bills by living that way.
Adejoh recalled, “I was struggling. Later, I got a job with the British Council, but that didn’t last. I left in 2008. I got another job with Sara Properties as an accountant but left again a few years later.”
He didn’t want to become a rolling stone, and the scale fell off his eyes after he left Sara Properties.
He had a friend who was into block making. Out of desperation, he approached his friend to work as an apprentice.
“After some time," he said, "I began to make N10 per block. By the time I made and supplied 2,000 blocks, I had made N20,000 in just two days. I said wow! if I could make this much, then I would go into this business.”
That is the story of how Zimmabell Blocks Industry started. And it has grown since then, one block at a time.
Adejoh’s first test was on how to buy his own block-making machine. He could not afford a new one and even a fairly used one was beyond his reach.
He ran to Fortis Micro Finance Bank, which had promised him heaven and earth, but got nothing.
Smiling wistfully, Adejoh said, “I had small savings but, again, my friend who had taught me to make blocks was the one who came to my rescue and gave me the balance to buy the machine for N85,000.”
He described Abuja as “a huge construction site”, saying even though there are hundreds of block makers in the city, there is still room for those who make high-quality blocks at competitive prices.
Adejoh said: “Our strategy is to make very solid blocks for building homes. Even if only one block of the lot is bad, we don’t supply it. That has earned us the trust of our customers. We don’t say we must make 100,000 blocks whatever happens. No.
“If it’s only 50,000 solid ones we can deliver, that’s it. We also use price to retain and attract new customers. We go slightly below what others around are offering without compromising on quality.”
Zimmabell Blocks gets its raw materials – mostly granite, gravel, cement and sand – from Abuja. Because of the availability of quarries around the city, granite is the main material, unlike in many other parts of the country where "sharp sand" is more commonly used.
But water can be a problem. The water problem is particularly serious during the dry season, Adejoh said, and he had to sink a borehole with N250, 000 to guarantee supply.
“Even after you have done that, you have to worry about power supply. You have to buy a generator to power the pumping machine and then buy petrol every day,” he stated.
Getting his staff to imbibe his philosophy of high quality is also something that keeps this accountant-turned-block-maker awake at night. “They’re mostly on wages. You can come to work in the morning and find that they’re not there. Or, like when I travelled once, you return to find that they have used more sand than is required to make the blocks. It’s a running battle,” Adejoh said.
His strategy has been to try to build a personal relationship with them and to make them feel that they also “own the business”.
So far, Adejoh has invested over N4million in Zimmabell in the last five years. He has had a few interesting encounters with clients, including one that offered to “pay me with land” after Adejoh supplied blocks worth N2million.
He couldn’t believe it when the offer was made because it was not discussed before and he didn’t think he needed land. After going back and forth, he took the land, sold it for N2.8million and moved on.
Today, he has an average of 15 to 20 clients a month and makes a turnover of about N250, 000 monthly.
He is optimistic about the future of the block-making industry and is already planning to mechanise his production.
“Where I failed to get a loan before, with what I have done now, even the Bank of Industry cannot refuse to help,” he said.
He is building his future, one block at a time.
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In A Surprise Barter Deal, Entrepreneur Gives Blocks And Gets Land In Return
In A Surprise Barter Deal, Entrepreneur Gives Blocks And Gets Land In Return
Adejoh Jibrin Musa had his own share of life’s lemon quite early. After studying Accounting and following up with a Master’s in Business Administration from Ladoke Akintola University, Ogbomoso, he was hoping to land a big white-collar job. It didn’t happen.
After waiting for a while, he got into “the business of supplies”, a fancy name for hanging around until luck brings along a client who could issue a Local Purchasing Order for an uncertain profit margin.
He could not pay his bills by living that way.
Adejoh recalled, “I was struggling. Later, I got a job with the British Council, but that didn’t last. I left in 2008. I got another job with Sara Properties as an accountant but left again a few years later.”
He didn’t want to become a rolling stone, and the scale fell off his eyes after he left Sara Properties.
He had a friend who was into block making. Out of desperation, he approached his friend to work as an apprentice.
“After some time," he said, "I began to make N10 per block. By the time I made and supplied 2,000 blocks, I had made N20,000 in just two days. I said wow! if I could make this much, then I would go into this business.”
That is the story of how Zimmabell Blocks Industry started. And it has grown since then, one block at a time.
Adejoh’s first test was on how to buy his own block-making machine. He could not afford a new one and even a fairly used one was beyond his reach.
He ran to Fortis Micro Finance Bank, which had promised him heaven and earth, but got nothing.
Smiling wistfully, Adejoh said, “I had small savings but, again, my friend who had taught me to make blocks was the one who came to my rescue and gave me the balance to buy the machine for N85,000.”
He described Abuja as “a huge construction site”, saying even though there are hundreds of block makers in the city, there is still room for those who make high-quality blocks at competitive prices.
Adejoh said: “Our strategy is to make very solid blocks for building homes. Even if only one block of the lot is bad, we don’t supply it. That has earned us the trust of our customers. We don’t say we must make 100,000 blocks whatever happens. No.
“If it’s only 50,000 solid ones we can deliver, that’s it. We also use price to retain and attract new customers. We go slightly below what others around are offering without compromising on quality.”
Zimmabell Blocks gets its raw materials – mostly granite, gravel, cement and sand – from Abuja. Because of the availability of quarries around the city, granite is the main material, unlike in many other parts of the country where "sharp sand" is more commonly used.
But water can be a problem. The water problem is particularly serious during the dry season, Adejoh said, and he had to sink a borehole with N250, 000 to guarantee supply.
“Even after you have done that, you have to worry about power supply. You have to buy a generator to power the pumping machine and then buy petrol every day,” he stated.
Getting his staff to imbibe his philosophy of high quality is also something that keeps this accountant-turned-block-maker awake at night. “They’re mostly on wages. You can come to work in the morning and find that they’re not there. Or, like when I travelled once, you return to find that they have used more sand than is required to make the blocks. It’s a running battle,” Adejoh said.
His strategy has been to try to build a personal relationship with them and to make them feel that they also “own the business”.
So far, Adejoh has invested over N4million in Zimmabell in the last five years. He has had a few interesting encounters with clients, including one that offered to “pay me with land” after Adejoh supplied blocks worth N2million.
He couldn’t believe it when the offer was made because it was not discussed before and he didn’t think he needed land. After going back and forth, he took the land, sold it for N2.8million and moved on.
Today, he has an average of 15 to 20 clients a month and makes a turnover of about N250, 000 monthly.
He is optimistic about the future of the block-making industry and is already planning to mechanise his production.
“Where I failed to get a loan before, with what I have done now, even the Bank of Industry cannot refuse to help,” he said.
He is building his future, one block at a time.
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