‘One of the greatest capital you can ever have as business person is your social capital’

Cedar D’ Vine Nigeria Limited, producers of Zoi Dairy Fresh yogurt and other dairy products will be celebrating its 20th anniversary on Friday, August 29, 2025. Mike Ewewie, managing director, Cedar D’ Vine, in this exclusive interview with JOHN SALAU, said the company has been committed to delivering nutritious dairy goodness across the African sub-region since 2005 when the business started. Excerpts:

20 years in business in Nigeria, there has been talk about the environment being tough and all of that. Tell us about the trajectory, how has it been for you since 2005?

The 20 years journey in this business has been interesting and has also been challenging. Interesting in the sense that you have seen the venture start in the kitchen of the house and grow to the point it is today. This idea came up when I was working with the church, my wife and I. And little by little, going through challenges of sometimes not having to sleep; the challenging situation whereby you don’t have a department, everybody doing their thing. At that time, I would drive and pass vehicles that were ours on the road, sometimes I won’t know where they were going, because we didn’t have a proper structure. And then from the time when we used to take our products everywhere, and some people would say they don’t need it. But now retail stores write to us and say we are opening a new outlet, please make your products available. So, it’s quite interesting. But on the other side of it, it’s also challenging. In the sense that we started very little, we didn’t have the capital, we didn’t have enough expertise, we didn’t also have machines. But gradually, we have been able to overcome all of those challenges. There are still quite some challenges in terms of human capital because these days it’s becoming difficult to find the right persons – so you still have a lot of challenges; but we have fantastic people.

You spoke about challenges and then two key factors came out. Capital and expertise; now, for many entrepreneurs who want to go into business, access to capital is a challenge. How are you able to navigate this challenge?

Okay, I think one of the greatest capitals you can ever have as a business person is your social capital. That people are able to trust you. So, for us at Cedar, it’s one thing that has been very, very helpful. I remember those days when we needed to formalize the business. So, we needed to get NAFDAC approval and one of the requirements was that we must have a site for it; then to build a little structure; it must be fenced so we could control access. I had sold the only car we had, so we were checking, and then I remembered we needed more loans. Then one of my colleagues in the office – I always see him bring out share certificates. I’m like, come, this your share certificate we can use to take loans. But I have one small loan that I’m still paying, but I need more money. Can we use it to take loans? So, when I pay the bank, I’ll pay the interest, I’ll pay you for using it. And we agreed. And we did it, so I was paying everything. So, we leveraged on that good relationship that people can trust us; and that social capital helped us. Integrity, it really helped outside the social capital.

You also spoke about having to identify talent. So, how critical is that to the success of this business?

Honestly, I tell people, a vision that can actually be worth it, that can be substantial and meaningful, cannot be run or created on the shoulder of one man. At the beginning we didn’t have the right talent, that’s the truth. But with time, we’ve been able to identify good talent. But see, one thing we’ve also done that has helped us is this – I see a lot of businesses think they can have talent, and they treat people working with them as if they are their house helps. They have no idea what they are doing; they don’t know where they are coming from. I have interviewed several accountants, and they would say the reason they want to leave where they are is because they can’t even see a bank statement. So, I’m like, how can you be part of the business, they don’t let you even have an idea of what’s happening. So, one thing we have done is to make our people part of the business. They know everything, they know where we are coming from, and they know where we are going. I sit down to paint a picture to them that this is where we are going to be. For instance, this month alone, we have bought three cars for staff. We gave one last week, one will be given this week, and one is arriving in the country in the next one week. So, we also make sure that they feel part of it. As we are growing, they also feel part of it. So, the sense of belonging is quite huge, and I think that absolutely helps us to get the right people and keep them.

So, how exposed is the company to Foreign Exchange (FX)?

Okay. It’s when we are importing anything, that we actually need FX. There was a time when we were importing milk, before the government placed a ban on it during the past administration, and it was limited to a few companies bringing it in. So, since then, we have not been importing. We buy from major importers. But we use it when we have to bring in some fairly used trucks, especially from Germany that we use for distributions and all of that. So, in that sense, we use it for that. But in terms of other raw materials, we buy them locally from the importers.

So, in other words, you are saying the company is not directly exposed to…

It’s not much. It’s not much.

What percentage of the raw material do you source locally?

Honestly speaking, from the packaging material to the ingredients that are used, we buy locally. Because some of those, for instance, most of the packaging materials, the plastic material, paper tissue, comes from industries in Nigeria. So, we buy from them. So, in terms of milk, the big companies are there; Olam and all of them. So, we get from them. So, that’s how we buy materials.

You currently have two factories in Ota and Mowe. How have you managed logistic challenges?

Logistics generally is very expensive. It’s also challenging in the sense that one, you have a road issue. Two, you have multiple taxation in that field. It’s the field that suffers the most. If your truck breaks down on the road, you will find more than 15 boys there, and you have to settle them before you can even fix the truck. If you are not settling them, they are the ones calling Trace or any other agency to come and tow it. So, there is so much to fix there. But, you see, as a business person, one of the biggest challenges we’ve had in distribution before was maintenance of those trucks. So, you call somebody who doesn’t know the job and he says, I’m coming in- four hours later you’re not seeing him. I had to say, no, this can’t happen. I went to Kaduna, brought all my technicians; from Kaduna, Jos – we have a workshop for them. We rented apartments around here. I import my trucks myself so that I can get the right ones. So, in distribution, we have done well because we have drivers, we have maintainers, we have everything.

You spoke about identifying the right talent. But, beyond bringing mechanics from Kaduna, Jos to Lagos; how do you think we can remodel our education system to fix or bridge some of these gaps that we have within the ecosystem?

Honestly, let me tell you, our education system as of today is just far behind. You know why I’m saying that? It’s like there’s a disconnect between what you are learning and reality. I mean, I interface with a lot of young people. There was a time I had a guy who had first class in mechanical engineering. And we needed to recruit somebody in the store. And we asked him, why do you want to be a store officer? You did mechanical engineering. He said, oh, I don’t have capital. I said, how did mechanics, motor mechanics that didn’t finish primary school start their own and they do well? And you that came with first class don’t know how to. So, our education system is very backward; we are not even looking at reality. So, the education system needs to take people out there so that what they are studying, they are seeing the practical of it. We need to merge what we are learning with the reality on ground.

It’s been 20 years of mixed feelings; what will you say is your goal for the next five years?

Honestly, our vision is to become a household name in Nigeria, in the African sub-region, in quality dairy and other dairy products. That’s our vision. And we are seriously pursuing it. The first phase, which we have been in the last 20 years, is to be in the entire country. So, at the moment, you will find our products in more than 20 states in Nigeria. At the moment, we are beginning to have people buy our products from the north to Algeria, some to Cameroon, some to Niger, and all of that. From next year, we should have one of the countries in Africa where we are producing our products.

What are you doing to deepen your distribution channels?

When you visit some stores and you don’t find our products, there are two things responsible. One, you see that the salesperson has not done the supply, which is, why we are building up a very robust sales department to track all of that. We are trying to automate that too. Or, there are some administrative issues in terms of payments. Because we have arrangements, some are supposed to pay us after a month. You find some 1.5 or 2 months that have not paid, and when that happens, we stop supplies.

Going forward, what are the plans on ground to achieve this vision of being a household name?

There are three things we are doing now which are in line with that. One is training. Nobody can give what he doesn’t have. Right now, we are doing six-month training for our system and unit heads. So, that’s going on. The second one is to expand our coverage. I just mentioned to you that we are recruiting some regional salesmen because we are restructuring our sales units so that they can effectively man their region. The third one is to also expand our factory size. You can see some work going on now. We are expanding the space so they will be able to bring in more machines and they will be able to produce faster and larger volumes. So, we are also leveraging collaborations. Collaborations with good distributors or partners, who feel, oh, I can take over this area, just produce and send to me or redistribute and all of that. I’m sure in the next two to three years; there won’t be a state in Nigeria where you won’t find our products.

Finally, for an entrepreneur who wants to come into this space, what would be your advice?

Good. Honestly speaking, everywhere I’m invited to speak now, I always ask for more people to come into the entrepreneurial space. It’s the only way to solve our problem. We are over 220 million people by the statistics they are giving us. There is no way the government or a few of the companies that exist right now can provide enough jobs for everybody. So, the more we have more people in the entrepreneurial space, the better for everybody. But, in terms of what advice do I have for them? One, you must know what you are doing. You see, there are no shortcuts in business. You either know what you are doing or you are going to fall into the 95 percent that will collapse in the first five years. You must know what you are doing. That is, you know your product in and out, your service in and out. Number two, you know the dynamics have changed. Before, you produce an item and say, this is what I have, buy it. It’s no longer like that. Now, it is, what do you need so I can produce for you? That’s what the market is now. So, you need to know your customers and give them whatever they want. Number three, if you really want to be an entrepreneur, don’t just work as a one-man show thing. It doesn’t just work because you can’t go beyond your immediate environment if you are doing it alone. So, you must know to trust people, train them, replicate yourself in them and give them a sense of belonging so they can also work on your behalf. If you put all this together, and build up people around you. Honestly, if you go into the business and you are resilient and you wait, it’s not overnight. We have been here for 20 years. After a while, you will see the results.