Electic and emphatetic are words that could easily be deployed to describe serial entrepreneur, Yetunde Makinde. Call her the paragon of Nigeria’s modernn woman, you may not be wrong as she aims to breathe a fresh air into the entrepreneurship industry with her dynamic business acumen. With interests in business, fashion and lifestyle, Makinde says going into logistics business has always been a dream. She speaks with SEGUN ADEBAYO in this interactive session.
Like Nigeria’s Centre of excellence, the Oyo State capital now brims daily with terrific traffic gridlock which in recent times has continued to impede seamless carriage and delivery of goods within the city of firsts. But as the incessant gridlock is becoming quite worrisome for commuters especially at noon, it is equally depressing for business owners in the city as it stifles the growth of their businesses.
But despite how upsetting the traffic situation has been, what can be seen as an end to the worries of small and big business owners over the unprofitable delays on the road has been birthed by Yetunde Makinde. She calls the company ‘Four Streams Logistics’. For someone else, the logistics business world might seem impenetrable, but not for Makinde as she has undergone in recent times.
“My brother owns Aramanda clothing line. And for some time now, I have been watching how they move their goods from point A to point B within and out of Nigeria, he sends me some of these errands to do some of the jobs and I quite understand the road networks here, in Ibadan. I believe it’s best I leverage on all what I have learnt from my brother over the years which is quite,” she said.
But on what informed her choice of Ibadan to launch her own platform, she said: “We noticed that commuting within Ibadan is becoming more difficult day in day out, the traffic happening in Ibadan is now similar to that of Lagos and it’s difficult for entrepreneurs like me to move their goods here and there and we decided to come in and bring cheap logistic that is quite affordable and easy to move from point a point b quickly and easily.”
“Ibadan is a blank check for a lot of things and logistics being one of them. Though there are many logistic businesses in this city, we actually don’t mind joining the competition because we believe we have the technical know-how need to thrive.”
Meanwhile, many a time, people tend to confuse the term ‘logistics’ with just moving things, but Makinde said it is much more than that.
“It’s not about just moving things alone; when you say logistics; it actually covers receiving from you. Let me use the broad language of taking care of your item. While I carry it to another person, making sure it doesn’t get missing while in transit, I am completely safeguarding your item towards its destination. For instance, maybe you want to take a letter to a place the same way you will keep your letter, not get it dirty not get it messy, how you will take care of your personal item is how we will take care of it till it gets to the receiver. So the care that we are going to give it, the movement and all of that is what we call logistics,” she explained.
But with the way the City of Firsts is structured, one wonders whether the logistic business can thrive therein. But Muyiwa obviously understood how to unlock the logistic potentials of the city.
“Ibadan is opening up, it was in the past known to be a town for old and laid-back men, but entrepreneurs are springing up here and there all over the place. And like I said earlier, people are starting to see that you don’t have to leave where you are before you can get your things done because the time you spend commuting from a point to the other, you can spend that time on other things, while we take care of the movement for you and you can attend to more pressing needs. That’s why we trade with the word “make we run am”. For instance, you want to send your phone to an engineer and you know your engineer but you don’t have time to leave your office, make we run am? We will take it there for you and also bring it back in good time.”
But despite Makinde’s glaring readiness for the first dream logistics’ task, she said her aim is nothing but to solve the lingering blow being meted out to entrepreneurs by the emerging wave of traffic gridlock in Ibadan.
“I am embarking on the business because it is a gap that has to be filled; I am also doing it because I want to solve a problem that I see Ibadan having now which could be heightened in the future. I am taking that opportunity to solve it ahead of time so that people don’t feel the problem,” she pointed out.
Meanwhile, for entrants into a new business world, some challenges readily come knocking. But Makinde obviously is well aware of them and how to surmount them.
“Well, logistics itself involves a chain of people, most of which are riders. Sadly, many of them are not learned, so it’s usually a challenge trying to explain product details to them, trying to train them not to be disrespectful to customers. A lot of them are so egoistic because they feel who you are to order them around are. They can be respectful on the inside of the company but when it comes to customer relationships, they misbehave. And this can be really challenging.
“Sometimes, the road mappings also tend to be an issue. For instance, someone tells you to come to number five at something junction, but you can’t even find the house with the number. In situations like this, the bike man gets confused which definitely leads to anger; those are the kind of things we face.”
But as solution-driven mechanisms, Makinde said: “We have put Google maps on all the phones of our riders. We have also planned to liaise directly with the clients so as to understand where they want their goods delivered. So while the bike rider is going, we are also tracking the bike rider and using our own map to guide him in case he misses his way.”
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