BusinessDay... the voice of business:  Crusading for farm fresh milk

Crusading for farm fresh milk
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  Ikechukwu Eze on 01 May, 2008 02:00:00
 
When he founded Sabeanat Nigeria Limited in 1991 to market milk powder and dairy
products, it was like a rookie positioning for space on a ground held by global
giants. But he kept at it.
Today, Sabeanat is not only a niche supplier of milk to high networth private
and public organisations, the company's Avana Milk has become an established
brand competing for market share with products from such acclaimed industry
leaders as Friesland and Promasidor.
Ditto for Oburoh's foray into certified computer education in Nigeria; a domain
dominated by such international firms as NIIT, New Horizons and Aptech. Edgeware
Technologies which recently rolled out of the Sabeanat stable is offering an
array of  professional courses in information communication technology (ICT)
leading to international certification. The aim, according to Oburoh is to raise
the level of IT education in the country and boost the global marketability of
Nigeria's manpower.
It would appear that both vocations embarked upon by the Lagos-based company
are poles apart but Oburo sees no conflict there.
"We started with catering to the nutritional needs of our people," he holds,
stressing that a comprehensive computer education programme for consummate
mental growth is, more or less, a natural progression, especially in an era
ruled by ICT.
The industrialist says that Edgeware is poised to revolutionise IT education in
the country by crashing the cost of professional programmes. Edgeware would also
be working with educational institutions with the intent of improving the level
of computer penetration in schools by assisting secondary schools in the country
with the procurement of low cost computers.
"We find that our environment is just beginning to understand the language of
IT. We believe that we have a role to play to deepen the awareness. Today you
find that the IT education sector is dominated by foreigners charging high fees
from the trainees. We have come to change that, to make a difference. We have
long since come to terms with the role of IT in meeting the Millennium
Development Goals and attaining Vision 2020 development aspirations for the
country. Our emphasis will be on workforce development."
But no matter what they do with IT education, Oburoh and Sabeanat will always
be assessed by the weight they exert in the effort to balance the nutritional
needs of Nigerians through the availability of dairy products.
On this score, the extant performance of Sabeanat and other companies whose
business is the processing of dairy products in the county would attract kudos
as well as knocks depending on where the assessors stand. They have no doubt
done well in the area of packaging imported milk and establishing a nationwide
distribution network. And for Sabeanat, the indigenous company would on its part
even receive added acclaim for the pioneering effort in breaking into a realm
that was dominated and controlled by foreigners.
"We started with the ingredient level whereby we supplied to companies that are
into processing of cocoa based beverage, yoghurt and ice cream.
“In the year 2003 we established a dairy line where we went into the
production of consumer packs under our brand name Avana Milk.
“We are working to expand our market share as it is. Our ambition in the next
five years is to try and capture a substantial percentage of the market. So far,
we can lay claim to the fact that we are the number one indigenous company in
the milk business, considering the years and our experience in the industry and
our spread nationwide."
Oburoh who spent many years running High Point Communications Ltd, a marketing
Communications outfit before entering milk business, says he felt strongly about
the fact that there was virtually no substantial input from local indigenous
companies in the business of dairy handling. He picked up the gauntlet, floated
his company and began to battle the big players for market share. Subsequently,
Sabeanat  reached out for a bilateral working agreement with Uhrenholt A/s, one
of Denmark's largest trading milk company as a means of assuring competitive
standards.
Oburoh believes that Avana has become a household nutritional delight, just as
Sabeanat has cultivated an impressive corporate clientele base including such
corporate leaders as Nestle Nigeria Plc, Mr Biggs, Standard Biscuits, Niger
Biscuits Company, Energy Foods Nigeria Limited and Nasco Foods.
But if you consider the failure to establish full scale milk production in the
country rather than the traditional blending of imported concentrates as a
handicap, Sabeanat is as guilty as the other companies. Apart from minor efforts
at processing locally produced milk, there is not much going on in the area of
fully domesticating the product.
However Oburoh argues that the environment does not support local production,
insisting that the harsh operational condition was also responsible for the high
cost of the product in the country.
"The truth is that the specie of the cows that we have here have little milk
yield which cannot support commercial production. Once we don't have the right
cows it becomes a challenge. Our cattle rearing culture is nomadic in nature. It
is not an organised system that a critical segment of the economy like milk
production can depend on. Even what is produced in the northern part of the
country is too small to support large scale milk production for a country like
Nigeria.
Perhaps the greatest problem militating against local production, says Oburoh
is the country's fragile infrastructural base, especially the lack of adequate
power supply. "As a product prone to bacteria attack, it will be difficult to
produce milk hygienically if the environment is not suitable. Some companies
tried it in the past, but they had to abandon the idea of local production
because of local challenges. Milk production requires huge capital investment.
The only way we can make progress in terms of local production is for government
to improve infrastructure."
Looking at the market today, he laments "there is a huge shortfall in demand
because the people lack the capacity to meet their milk needs.
"That means that people in Nigeria do not take the required quantity necessary
for proper body development. It also means that our children will be struggling
with the ability to realise their peak potentials and performance as leaders of
tomorrow."
The entrepreneur therefore wants the government to declare an emergency in
creating the enabling environment for local production of affordable milk
including tax relief and other incentives because of the critical role it plays
in the growth of a nation.
"It is true that overseas, especially in Europe and America, milk is relatively
cheap. This is because the operations of farmers in those countries are heavily
subsidised to enable them produce enough milk for the populace. People in those
places maintain a good culture of milk consumption because subsidy makes the
product affordable. For them their milk has to be farm fresh, nobody talks about
powdered milk abroad. Their governments have a policy of subsidising animal
husbandry and agriculture. This is an experience we can learn from and our
government should consider treating it as a priority because a healthy nation
they say is a wealthy nation. Even Uganda produces milk with the right kind of
cows that are reared locally. In Nigeria our experience is different. Here
everybody does blending and selling.
Oburoh says he is positioning himself to blaze a trail in fully domesticating
milk but "it will be difficult to spearhead local production without the full
backing of the government."