Banks must be long-term partners, not just lenders – Abazie

Is your bank a business partner who stands by you at good and ugly times, propping up when your business stumbles, or is it a mere lender who slips in to take profit and goes back to watch you like a Shylock? Ask Moritz Abazie, chief executive officer, Strides Energy and zonal president, Lagos Business School Alumni Association (LBSAA), that just turned 50, who since his twenties has been in the business of making millions of naira.
Abazie, restless and ever daring, according to his ever-present wife, Onyema, has a bigger message, the secret of the Lagos Business School. Many CEOs and entrepreneurs would give anything to get a stint at the famous Lagos Business School (LBS) where such egg-heads and professors such as Pat Utomi, Aluko and others such as Bongo Adi hold sway.
They would be keen to extract the soul of the ‘enterprise university’ and rub shoulders with the best of the best in masters in business administration and studies (MBA, MBS), but they may be shocked to hear the hardest nut that one would have to extract from the LBS; ‘business ethics’, which translates to integrity.
Many would ask if integrity is got at school. The zonal president of the LBSAA, Abazie, who is a highly successful business manager and investor, is ready to bet his next billion dollars on his ‘discovery’.
First, Abazie’s other discovery. He found that banks should be far more than mere lenders and interest-takers. On the night when he turned 50 and was celebrated by the entire LBSAA house at Golden Tulip in Port Harcourt, the business executive who has traveled all over the world, said banks must live and grow with the businesses they lend to from generation to generation. He said it was the secret of business successes in some developed economies; the partnership between businesses and their bankers for generations, making the bank a critical backbone to the business because of other forms of critical capital they can offer other than cash (loans). He dropped a bombshell. He named Wema as a bank getting to that level, and bank that had endeared itself to his firm, Strides Energy & Maritime Limited.
Now how is ‘business ethics’ or integrity the highest gift the LBS gives its scholars and alumni, especially in a country that is known for breaking all known norms just to make money? Abazie said: “LBS is important especially in knowing about business ethics without which most businesses doing well would still fail.” By this, he postulates that making piles of money is not a measure of business success but sustainability. Many businesses depend on some connections in government. The moment such connections leave the stage, the businesses start suffering disintegration due to offences committed in the past and ill-feelings for bad business methods used.
Abazie, who read Insurance before later diversifying his studies around the world, said: “Partners are important to a business executive. Oversees, business run for generations with partners that were there in the first generation and know everything about the business, they become a kind of asset. There are such banks following such businesses all the way. Wema Bank has that kind of character; they see themselves as partners instead of mere lenders; advice, companionship, mellowing down when things are down, etc.”
He released a strategy: “Recognise that it is not easy in the first place; plot your way and work it out; know that failure is the beginning of success; always learn new things, and know that God is the key”. This brought applause from the array of LBS technocrats who felt the president was giving another lecture after Bongo Adi did.
His wife, a doctorate degree holder and dazzling companion, described her husband as a maritime investor; risk taker, and hater of poverty, who worked in many places including Nexim. The evening was to salute a hardworking CEO at 50 and LBSAA sessions.
In an exclusive interview, Abazie, while explaining how the LBS has been instrumental to his business success, said: “The LBS is the best business school in West Africa. You cannot really do things intelligently and smartly in the business world of today without understanding the dynamics of the economics, micro and macro, that are at play, and that are fundamental to the decisions you take. You may even have general entrepreneurial acumen that sometimes comes naturally but the business school helps you with the structure and the fundamentals. It helps you to streamline your thoughts and understanding of your business. That way, you act out of clear understanding of strategy and goal-setting. Those things don’t come out of a fickle of imagination. The LBS is a properly established business institution, and ranks well around the world, with structure and faculty to administer business training for entrepreneurs.”
He went on: “I first went to the LBS before I went overseas to do my Executive MBA, and to compare with what I got in Norway and Singapore, I can tell you that the LBS is of international standard and can compete anywhere in the world. Going to the LBS has equipped me and sharpened my entrepreneurial skills such that I can do things better. I have been able to scale up my business.”
On what major decisions he would be taking as he moves into his next phase in life, the zonal president said: “Moving into the next 50 after my first 50, the next phase of my life, I am going to position people who will take over the mantle of leadership in my various business interests so that in the next 20 years, I should sit back and watch people drive the business and only give advice where there is need. As a young man, I have done what comes with youth and the energy that goes with it. Now, I would need to build people whose energy can be leveraged to drive the businesses to the next level.”
His wife, Onyema, tried to capture what the hubby looked like as a CEO at 50. She said: “He is a risk taker, a big planner, someone that understands how to cope in a dynamic world. He has a lot of resilience, someone that likes to move out of comfort zone. He is an ideal person to cope with business uncertainty. He is not comfortable with certainty.”
Giving insight into what the difference it was the way her husband approached business decisions in the past 20 years, wife said: “He is older now, and has found that you can’t sink lower than being so poor. He takes larger risks now. They say he who is down fears no fall. He loves to look forward, and he has also learnt some warning and trend. When he sees danger now, he is more aware of it. He is reducing in risks and not as adventurous as he used to be. He has children now”.
Now the big question or the sharp curve! Would she now draw his back from big risks? Never! The daring wife said she was rather joining her better half in taking bold risks. “I am actually so encouraged by what he is doing. I rather want to emulate him and take big strides. His company is called Strides. All I have for him is to tell him that, now, I do trust your decisions. I am ready to support you in whatever direction you go”. End of the matter.
A close family friend and publicity officer of the LBSAA, Nkem Joseph-Palmer; CEO of Viral Businesses Consulting Limited, helped to explain the entire concept of the LBS and how the Port Harcourt branch was helping to promote better business practice in the South-south and south east. “Attending the LBS is one of the best things that happened in my life. I thought I had it figured out. I went to LBS as a CEO of an oil servicing firm but after the course, I found myself trying to redefine how I do business, how I see opportunity and define the opportunity into value-add for me and the society. LBS is a vehicle of transportation, information and also credible means of changing societal values in the business eco-system.”
In capturing the essence of the glamour-filled evening, the image-maker said, “Today is an amalgam of two important events; the wonderful lecture by Dr. Bongo Adi on how to interpret the economy in 2017 outlook especially when he focused on the region. It was clear to us that there are many opportunities we are not taking advantage of. From the alumni perceptive, it’s an eye-opener. It is also the 50th birthday celebration of our zonal president; and that added a lot of colour to the occasion into a day to be remembered.”