A small scale industrialist, Mr. Kehinde Fajana, has disclosed how his best customer swindled him of the sum of N30million in a business deal that went awry.
Fajana said that he had come to have so much confidence and trust in the customer, having had series of successful business dealings with him for some years, not knowing that the man was only looking for the auspicious time to strike.
He said that the customer tricked him into selling goods worth N30million to him on credit and with a promise to pay him later, adding that he had to even go out to borrow from friends in order to meet up with the supply of goods demanded.
Fajana said that the customer collected the goods and disappeared without any trace till date.
The entrepreneur, who currently owns a paint-making company, said that he felt his world had collapsed when it eventually dawned on him that he had been swindled of such a huge amount by his most trusted customer.
He said he then became indebted to so many people he had borrowed from, and at a time had to even run away from home to escape embarrassment from his creditors.
Explaining the circumstances that led to his being defrauded, Fajana explained, “I once ventured into perfume manufacturing. That was after several attempts to stand out as an entrepreneur. I actually got it right from the beginning, in that, I was able to feed my family and maintain a modest office.
“The joy of priding myself as a young executive officer was soon to be altered when one “Alhaji Habib” from the north came calling. The Alhaji was buying the perfumes and other products from me, giving me hope by paying promptly for the goods. I did not know that it was a bait which I swallowed hook line and sinker. What followed was that he made an order that was a bit above N30million. I was naturally elated, salivating the wind-fall profit that could expand the marketing of the products. I was visualising what the company would have become in the next five years, expansion wise. But it was all a tall dream that would not materialise.
“This time around, the Alhaji, did not pay me upfront. He simply assured that the payment would be effected few days after the supply. I had to source for money at all cost to produce the goods, which I delivered to him. The man said I should expect payment within the next two weeks. I kept on waiting for days, weeks, months, years and till date, the man bolted away with my money.
“It was a major setback for me. I almost developed hypertension. I could not fathom where I could get money to pay those I borrowed from. I was indebted to many people. I lost faith in human beings. You could imagine the devastating effect the development could have on any reasonable person.
“Most of the time, I had to run away from home because I was owing a lot of people. Some would even come to my house with police officers in an apparent move to arrest me. I was just running helter-skelter, from pillar to post.”
But Fajana has recovered from that terrible experience and moved on.
“To God be the glory! I was praying all along, putting my trust in God. Today, the rest is history. This is one of the reasons why I said businesses should have integrity. But our environment does not encourage trust, there are many crooks around masquerading as businessmen and women. There are many executive criminals around, masquerading as genuine businessmen and women. These people have never made our environment conducive for genuine business,” he said.
The soft-spoken businessman argued that for anyone to succeed in business, it was imperative for him to identify close potential skill gaps, adding, “You need to consider your business model, market and innovation agenda with the view to turning economic malaise to economic recovery. You do this by gathering the right and useful information followed by a painstaking timely analysis to help organisations fully understand the business. By doing this, you will be able to know the drivers that are capable of creating and destroying values”.
The young entrepreneur, who plans to create cottage industry in all the 16 local government councils in Ekiti State in the near future, further said, “Data analysis is very key to SME, in that, much of the value from the so-called big data comes from a company’s ability to identify what was previously unavailable. Therefore, SME managers should be able to provide leadership along sustainability journey, which is today lacking in many small scale industries.
“You see, by falling several times and rising each time has taught us a big lesson; one, we are able to think intelligently about outsourcing and concentrating our energy where it delivers the most. Two; here at Eliezer, research is our watchword because it is very central to the top and survival.”
Fajana, who hopes to enrol for his PhD soon, also said, “We are running a piggy economic climate and the keys that have been sustaining us are integrity, understanding of what we are doing, transparency, robust information flows, skills required and risk appetite that empowers everyone in the business”.
