Clement Chukwuka is the general manager of C&I Motors. In this interview with PEARL NGWAMA and ADA EGBEJIMBA, he discloses that the success story of Suzuki product in Nigeria is based on the ruggedness of the product. He stressed that Suzuki is a way of life and he is passionate about the product. He said Suzuki has sold nearly 2000 cars within a short period of time. Excerpts:
Suzuki has made a strong case for itself in the market even before your assumption of office. What new area will your tenure focus on?
MY own area of focus is consolidating on the gains of the past, adding tremendous value so that Suzuki will be a household name in this country called Nigeria. We can achieve that through team work, we can achieve that through empowerment of the people, and how do we empower people? We should be able to add value to people that patronize us by giving them qualitative services because through qualitative services you can be sure you have good patronage, and ready purchases. We have kind of been able to deemphasize what most auto companies in this country Nigeria by ensuring that it must be them that will provide the cars themselves. We have deemphasized that by ensuring that we imbibe the culture of partnership through dealer development principle. What do I mean by that? We are here in Lagos we have offices in Port Harcourt and Abuja. In all the 36 states, we are covering them by appointing accredited dealers that sell our cars and also service our brand; we train them, train their manpower to imbibe the core culture of Suzuki which is a way of life and by so doing we are creating value, employment, helping to empower people to be productive and so my focus is to ensure we move forward.
 
Suzuki is just two years in Nigeria and has recorded much success in  the market having sold up to 1000 vehicles that are even older in Nigeria. What are the factors interplaying in favour of Suzuki.
I think it is all about quality, it is also passion for the business, it is also the founding fathers’ principle, because I tell you look at the principle of Suzuki as a way of life they believe in and are passionate about. Suzuki is not a new name in Nigeria market, it came in apparently before most of these other Japanese cars but they came in through abbord engines, motorcycles and generators. They are passionate about their quality; they do not want their quality to be out of treasure.
So when they were unable to find a suitable dealer that can drive this process in Nigeria they never entered again until they came into partnership with C and I Motors and now that they are here the common principle is that when you see any Suzuki brand in Nigeria vis a vis other auto brands, go and touch them, you’ll be able to prove both in terms of ruggedness and otherwise, it is also very fuel efficient when you look at the kind of considerations people take before purchasing a car. In terms of fuel efficiency you need like five litres of fuel to put into our for instance to do a mileage of up to 130 kilometres, if you compare alongside other products that are of Japanese you find Suzuki is always on top; so it is quality that is why you find within a period of year and half we have been able to sell close to 2000 cars; that is a credit.

Looking at all the success story around Suzuki product, why did C and I not bring in this brand into the Country earlier than now?
Well C and I Leasing abinitio was a finance company that has carved a niche in the area of leasing and outsourcing. They also have helped rentals as another franchise within the same organization and all these are geared towards their own areas of specialization whether it is financing or operating lease. Overtime with the way the economy is growing, of course if you are running a lease rental, lease structure whether it is operating or whatever you are using some automobile and I think that the issue of getting into the field as a subsidiary of C and I Leasing was borne out of the desire to drive their main focus of leasing and outsourcing using the brands that are rugged. So if they had started day one as a motor company they would have gone for Suzuki, but in the process of testing other brands and seeing the problem associated with the various brands they had to corner to Suzuki. That is really the major reason.
 
Do you think the economic meltdown has affected the brand?
The financial meltdown has affected everybody whether it is in United States, whether it is in developing or developed country; it is an evil wind that pays no one any good all over the world, and apart from the present economic meltdown the recent restructuring within the financial economy of the country by the current governor of Central Bank has also affected the business drive. Brand new cars are getting too expensive hence the concept of leasing. I am now beginning to think that the power of purchasing has been eroded when banks are in distressed and all of them are in the red. The banks are not giving the required facility for business to be generated and so it is affecting and I won’t say it is affecting only the auto business. It is affecting everybody in the auto business, everybody in the general commerce and everybody in the manufacturing. That is the way I see it.
 
Comparatively, Suzuki has fewer vehicle brands. Do you have any plans to expand by adding new products?
Like I said every auto maker that is passionate about their product cannot jump from day one to a kind of producing 300 different brands. Suzuki through their research and development has some other new products. We have the SM7, we have the vitara, we have APV, so many other product, we have equator, we have so many other products but all these are products that are in the Japanese market but because of their passion for their product they do not just introduce a product to countries like Nigeria without first testing the fuel efficiency. Before they even allowed our APV4, vitara and others into the market a lot of research was done because they will give you three years warranty or 100 kilometres whichever comes first, so they need to ensure that the fuel efficiency of these cars are on top level. So we are working perfectly in partnership with them when new products are produced and tests are done satisfactorily they begin to introduce them to us; we are following them gradually. They are being passionate, it is not pushing a car that cannot withstand a particular environment; car that when it comes to a particular country it will not do well.
 
What have been your challenges and how do you intend to tackle them?
Just like any other business that is trying to thrive in this country, I think the challenges have to do with the economy because if our economy is put in good order the way it should be we cannot be refining our petroleum abroad we should be refining it here. When we refine it here we create a lot of value which will also reduce the pricing of fuelling. Also the petrochemicals will be here; that is the other raw materials that will be on ground will improve the economy and foreign exchange will be earned because people will be coming to import our raw materials. If our iron and steel are developed then I can talk to Suzuki Japan to come and install an assembly plant here so that we can Nigerin arise it. If the economy is very okay there will be perfect employment, there will be perfect working dynamics of this economy, the economy will boost and then people will buy more vehicles but as it is now people are restricted and considering if they should buy more vehicles and you hear questions like must I buy it and if I need to buy 20 cars why can’t I buy one or two, if I’m to buy 50 to give to every manager can’t I tell them let me buy two today let us see how the economy goes. Gone are the days when you graduate from the university after studying medicine you are given a brand new car as a gift. So I want to see the days when these things will come not when I will begin to say I have a dream I want to capture two per cent of Nigerian population which is wonderful, Nigeria has over 140 million, if I get up to one tenth you know what that means; a lot of numbers.
So I will say my greatest challenge is praying and getting the economy to come to life so that we will be able to have these cars assembled here. I want a situation when you begin to have power, because that is critical; you cannot run any assembling plant, any manufacturing company in Nigeria when there is no cheaper source of power. Generator can never give you a cheaper source of power.
You need a hundred and something naira to get a litre of diesel and you are now on the generator from morning to night you know how much that will be. But when you have electricity supply 24 hours of the day you are now moving towards reduction of prices. Now we cannot achieve power no matter how you look at it and if you do through other means how about the petrochemicals that will give you the required raw materials, what about the iron and steel; these are the basic components for industrial use whether it is assembling of plants or manufacturing because elementary economics has taught us that you locate your factory where you have availability of cheap labour and raw materials. We have the raw materials here but they have not been harnessed.
We move our crude oil abroad to harness it and then we go all out to buy them   and bring here. That is why a dollar is going for over one hundred and something naira; it should not be so, that is why we need to reverse that trend, that is a major challenge to any automaker, any industrialist, anybody that is thinking of being very creative. That is why you see today most of the textile industries are now folding up; most of the manufacturing sectors are not even producing up to 50 per cent of their capacity.
That is why you see some people are idle while some are working and that is why in our own little way we are kind of partnering with people all over the place to say come and sell cars, we give you the latitude of discount make your own margin, come and learn how to service car, work with us which most other dealers are not doing rather they want to do it on their own, so we are giving back as part of our own social responsibility, helping to assuage the feelings of the less privileged, making sure we help to create jobs for them.
So we are partnering with everybody and that is what we do everywhere whether in Enugu, Uyo and every other place where our approach is making sway through the provision of multipartnering. We have people within those areas servicing those cars and we are satisfied with the fact that we are helping them to create job, that is what we are trying to do and that is what we are here to do.
 
Which areas of social responsibility are you focusing on or you intend to be involved in the near future?
We have many things to do. For instance the whole eastern region is trying to organise a centenary, 100 years of eastern region and we are partnering with them, co-sponsoring the event and we have donated a car of over three million naira (N3 m) for their beauty pageant, we are also giving them a vitara to say the committee will use this car for three months free of charge as part of our own contribution to the programme.
Of course we are also doing that because it is somebody within the location that will win that car and that is supporting the event and we also use it as a platform to talk to the people from those areas namely Enugu, Anambra, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Imo and the entire eastern states that we have an opportunity for you to grow with us. We are also helping the less privileged in the society, kind of supporting them in so many areas.
So in any environment we have our office, we are partnering, we employ people within those areas, we always move with them, we always socialize, we always ensure that we key into their norms and that is the way you won’t have problem, that is the way the society will be a better place for us.
 
Which other states apart from Lagos do you have branches?
We have branches in Port Harcourt, Abuja, Warri, Enugu and other states we have franchise; like in Enugu, Ibadan, Maiduguri, Kaduna, Kogi, Calabar, Uyo and Niger we have the concept of franchise developing where we empower people.
 
What about Owerri?
Port Harcourt covers Owerri although we have had about five applications from there but I need to go and do a research there before we can have them registered; and our plan is that in the shortest possible time we cover the entire 36 states of the federation by using franchise; people that are on ground to sell our product, we give them a kind of soft margin to run the business and they register with us. That is the way we are running the business; we are not saying we carry our company to all the states, we franchise to other people for them to do the business.
 
So far what has been the performance in these areas?
Wonderful, it has been wonderful because it is unbelievable that some of these franchise dealers have called me to close a deal of 500 units.  There are some contracts they get and they call me to partner with them to do it and they collect their own commission and that is the kind of decentralizing we are doing, the essence is making sure the indigenes are involved. For instance we were in Bayelsa and their people are servicing the cars and their people are also selling so there is the tendency that their indigenes will support their own, it is theirs; if we want to go and do it on our own we may run into trouble because we do not know them, but they know that the son of the soil will always come to them anytime so they will key into the business.
 
Do you have any kind of partnership with Lagos State government like some other automobile companies? 
Of course they have their own and we have our own subsidiary company that operates the Red Cab. Red Cab is ours 100 per cent and as I speak they have deployed over 200 units of this product and it is very effective. In Oyo State we are partnering with the State government, in Enugu state we are doing beautifully well where we have deployed 300 units. In Akwa Ibom and Calabar we are making progress as well. The truth of the matter is that our cars are very fuel efficient, very effective, and very rugged but we do not make much noise, we are delivering, penetrating the market, getting there neatly.
 
Are you saying your cars are stronger and much more fuel efficient than Toyota products?
Let me educate you. Both Toyota and Suzuki are from Japan, it is the same technology. But I tell you Toyota through their motor cab came into Nigeria before Suzuki. You know competition brings a lot of development, healthy competition; because they were already here Suzuki had to go back to their research and development and came up with a winning vehicle.
In terms of ruggedness Suzuki is uppermost in Nigeria. I can assure that if you go to America where their quality control is effective a lot of cars that are entering into Nigeria cannot enter US. You can see that other cars we dump here we cannot dump there because of the quality and because Suzuki is here not too long we are here with our machinery. But for other vehicles that are already here you can go to grave market and bring them here. For instance, look at the body of a Toyota that is the first example. When a Toyota car has an accident look at the body. What is in a vehicle? Not that they are not effective but I want to be secured when there is an accident.
Some Vitara like I said if they have accident you see the skeleton like that but it is not like that in Toyota, and that means that if somebody hits you from the front it is hard and from the back you are protected, but if the car is not strongly built if somebody hits you are pressed. One of our customers had accident with his family in our vitara and nothing happened to him and the whole family but the car is a write-off, the man and three of his friends came here to place order for vitara. So this is evidence.
 
We have been hearing of Mr. Clement Chukwuka of C and I Motors, may we now really know who he is?
Mr. Clement Chukwuka is general manager of C and I Motors, the right franchise holder of Suzuki and I am a trained professional banker with a passion for automobile having worked for the greater part of life in the area of auto sales and services.