Attah Anzaku: Young exporter who turned down job offer by oil firm

Attah Anzaku is the CEO of AgroEknor, an international commodity trading firm. A native of Nasarawa State, Attah started exporting a container load of hibiscus flower in 2013. However, this has dramatically shot up to 100 containers in a year. He studied Petroleum Engineering in Covenant University as well as Gas Engineering and Management at the University of Salford, Manchester. He spoke with ODINAKA ANUDU, Start-Up Digest Editor, on how he achieved a great feat in export sector in such a way that he turned down a job offer from an oil firm in the Middle East.
Tell us a bit about your business.
AgroEknor is an international commodity trading firm. Our core products are hibiscus flower, ginger, and sesame seeds but our main cash crop is hibiscus flower, which we have been exporting for over four years now. During the period, we have improved and got better and entered new markets.
Where are these new markets you have discovered?
When we first started in 2013, we started with a container load of hibiscus flower, which is about 12 tons. Primarily, our client was in Mexico, North America. But with time, with client confidence and referrals growing, we entered Europe and South American countries such as Chile, Peru and Guatemala.
You studied Petroleum and Gas Engineering. Why did you choose export?
I grew up in Jos, with the background of agriculture, rearing chickens in my backyard and growing small crops such as tomatoes. So I have always wanted agriculture and I have always been passionate about it. Why I studied engineering basically was because of the exposure. It was not really what I wanted. After that level of education in 2013, when I was coming back to Nigeria, I met my partners—Timi Oke and Ayomide Oke.
Timi Oke and I were in Covenant University and the University of Salford, Manchester. We started rubbing minds together and said, ‘We are coming back to Nigeria. Why don’t we set up a company.’ Ayomide Oke was in Nigeria and had set up a business. We said, ‘Let’s do this in the meantime before we get jobs.’ But it got so serious that we had to reject many job offers. I had a job offer in the Middle East by a renowned petroleum company but I left it.
Tell us how you started.
I have been toying with the idea of agriculture since I was a child. When I was in the UK with my present partner, we started going through ideas. I loved international business and I wanted to inculcate something that was agricultural-based in it. So I came up with several ideas—from palm kernel nuts to cashew nuts. Somebody just mentioned hibiscus flower and said we should try it. Even in the UK, we sent down some money to another partner, Ayomide Oke. We did some groundwork. When he got the necessary information, we said, ‘Let’s go in’. I grew up in the house of entrepreneurs. My dad has never worked for anybody, except during his youth service days. My mum only worked for the defunct Nigerian Hotels. Yet she was still selling palm trees to the hotel. We were in Jos and there were lots of foreigners there. So she would bake and sell to them. It built my resolve. And for you not to fail in business, you have to be resolute. So I usually do not look at challenges but opportunities.
How lucrative is export, especially of agricultural products?
It’s very lucrative. Let me break it down. Basically, what we have been doing over the years is that we have been sending semi-processed crops out and what they do in those countries is to add value and then shoot up the prices. Now, if you want to just make money, maybe because of the foreign exchange involved, you will make money. You can have a nice life and travel once or twice in a while. However, if you want to leave your name in the sand of time, build a brand and earn more money, then you have to add value before you export. So, if I am sending cashew nuts in a raw form, I get $800 per ton, but if it is processed, I get close to $2000 per ton. So the money-making thing here is value addition. Why most people are not so interested in exporting value added products is that they are just satisfied with the little dollar they get from raw products. But if that is what you want out of life, good for you. If you go abroad to all the shelves and retail stores, you see most of the things we sell to them. I was in Barcelona around June and I saw tiger nuts bar. A tiger nut was selling for 20 euros. A euro is about N400, but if you are selling that in a raw form, you will not get as much as that.
Opportunities here are endless. God, in His infinite mercies, has made some countries not to have certain products and others to have them. So there will always be international trade no matter how technologically advanced countries are.
How do your source the products you export—from farmers or your own farms?
Eighty percent of our products are got from farmers’ initiative schemes. The rest is got from AgroEknor-sponsored farms. In AgroEknor-sponsored farms we lease the land, get the farmers certain incentives to farm on our land and they give us the products. We also do what is called ‘see and buy’. There are three methods of ‘see and buy’. We can go to the market place, identify products that meet our quality and then buy. Secondly, they can bring the products to our warehouse and we select the ones that meet our standards and buy. Third, we have middle-men that go to rural areas we can’t reach. They get the products and then we buy.
Are you planning to set up farms soon?
Well, we ran a pet test project, but we realised that we should leave farming for farmers because as a businessman, I will like to milk every little penny from the farm. However, a farmer just wants to make a little livelihood, so he doesn’t mind. Again, they have experience and technical know-how. We experimented it but it wasn’t favourable.
From your experience, do you think young people like you are well represented in export business?
No.
Is it that they do not have sufficient information about export or that they are not just interested?
First of all, it is lack of information. Again everybody wants it fast. That’s why a lot of young people shy away from it. With export you need to be very diligent and patient. It takes time, so young people do not have information and patience. The main information they have is, ‘send products abroad and get dollars’. So it’s rudimentary but when they hear that it is not fast enough, they chicken out. Another issue is capital. A container load of hibiscus flower will cost me four to six million naira. How you realise profits is through turnover. So, most of the people in export are those that have been there for 10 to 15 years.
How was your early beginning like?
We got funding from family members. We gathered what we saved and were only able to purchase one container. We sent the container and we got back money. But we were not so knowledgeable in the whole value chain. We didn’t know that it was important to be meticulous in documentation and quality control. We struggled with a lot of government bottlenecks, like the Quarantine Service saying ‘You young people should support us’. Once you say you can’t do that, they will put up resistance, which led to many bottlenecks we had. But now, we have understood the Nigerian terrain.
So you now dance to their tune?
No, we now understand how things are done. We understand that it is important to go to the farm and meet the community leader and say, ‘Sir, we want to engage your farmers and they understand your language. So help us speak to them’. He helps you to mobilise and get farmers to do your work.
You started with one container. How many containers do you now export?
We do about 100, which is about 1,200 tons.
Have there been times when you incurred losses and had regrets.
Yes, I have got to that point but I am a man of faith. I am a Christian and my partners are Christians. The board of directors is built on solid Christian foundation. So we always believe that anything that happens is a learning curve. But because we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, we keep forging ahead.
Due to naivety we have lost close to $40,000 but we still continued. We found out what we were doing wrong and corrected it.

What are some of the challenges you face?
We have a problem with capital. Someone will rather sponsor an oil and gas venture than mine when I go for a loan. To get capital, you obviously have to test the waters so that when they see your books they will say ‘Ok’. In IT or oil/gas, you don’t need much experience to get a loan.
We have applied for Export Stimulation Fund for a year now. This was the most attractive offer with the best interest rate but we have not been able to get it.
Two, infrastructure- the roads are bad. There are inadequate storage facilities. We transport our goods from Kano to Lagos and it takes about three days. The truck drivers sleep on the road and wake up.
Has any investor shown interest in your business?
Now, we have started getting interest from international investors. We were privileged to attend an investors’ summit last month, where investors from different parts of the world came. We did our investors’ speech and they were happy. Right now, one of them is so interested that we have got right to pre-approval stage for an off-shore loan.
How much do you need from investors?
For local investors, the least can be N200 million but for foreign investor, it is upwards of $1 million and $5 million. We are attractive to foreign capital because we earn dollars and can easily pay their debts.