Yemisi Izuora
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bullion Go-Neat Global Limited (Ambassador Olufemi Ajadi Oguntoyinbo has lamented the practice of selfish individuals who discredit genuine Nigerian-made products using the social media.
He said the law enforcement agencies should arrest and prosecute such people to serve as a deterrent to others, and as a way of safeguarding genuine Nigerian companies.
Ambassador Ajadi made the call yesterday during an interaction with a delegation of the Commerce & Industry Correspondents Association of Nigeria (CICAN) which visited his Ibafo factory.
Relying on recent experience, he said that some people have developed the habit of pushing falsehood, especially through the social media, which end up tarnishing the image of hardworking entrepreneurs, saying that such should be checkmated.
He said developing a product of value, entailed a lot of sacrifices in terms of both money, energy and deployment of expertise, but that some people just latch on such products once they become popular just to destroy it for their selfish gains.
Such destroyers of initiative, he advised, should be fished out and prosecuted by security agencies.
Speaking from a particular recent experience, he said his media and legal team, upon investigating one such negative report, discovered that the writer was not even a journalist.
“We traced him and realised that he was just a comedian and an emcee who just descended on one of our products.
“Some of the contents he wrote were recycled, not that they were current or that he spoke with anybody”, Ambassador Ajadi informed.
According to him, immediately the man sensed danger, he quickly went and wiped the content of the blog, not knowing that the posts had already been captured..
“I am thus advising the security agencies to be on the alert over such people, since they are only out to damage genuine individuals trying to create employment and products in the economy”.
Going down memory lane, he said it was not an easy exercise to develop a brand that consumers would like and patronise, as the case with Coco Samba.
He described the drink as a premium brand on Bullion stable as well as a pack leader in the market, adding that developing Coca Samba to what consumers now treasure, was not easy.
“It took a lot.
“We paid a lot of prices in terms of developing the product, which took researches, surveys and sampling over a period of time.
“Even in pricing, we made sure that it is very affordable to our consumers.
“If you check, you will discover that it one of the most effectively priced product, compared to the values that consumers get.
“Even when the registration and production had been completed, another challenge was marketing and distribution the product, and that this took us to different location, come rain come shine”.
According to him, “If they knew how I started this business, they would pity me.
“For someone that had seen money before, before starting a manufacturing business, it was not easy.
“I was now carrying two cartons, four cartons in a bagco bags, moving from location to location, trying to supply customers”, he said.
He said the efforts he put into the product was what was materialising in popular demand that has followed, wondering why anyone would want to rubbish that.
“The regulatory agencies should indeed be alert and checkmate this unpatriotic individuals and safeguard genuine Nigerian business, so that they could continue to create employment and also provide Nigerians products of value”, Ambassador Ajadi, who had won several awards for entrepreneurship and with Coco Samba, said.