Jaiyeola Iperepolu is the CEO of X-Right Technology Limited, a distributor of various brands of phones in Nigeria. This outfit which started few years ago has finally stamped his feet in the phone business in Nigeria as it opened it N Multimillion outlet in the centre of Agege in Lagos. This cool and vibrant business admin. Graduate in this interview with Abimbola Obatayo open up on his journey as a roadside phone business man to opening a Mega Outlet in Lagos with five branches, what government should do to support their business, his challenges and the secret of his success. Excerpt:..
Why are we here today?
We are doing our official commissioning of our head office. It’s a journey which I think we need to celebrate. It’s what I thought it’s not possible but with God intervention and direction, God made it possible miraculously.
How much did you put into this business, which is at the centre of Agege?
Its worth we can’t give you the accurate figure but it’s Multimillion naira project.
Why Agege and not Ikeja the centre of phones?
In a recent year, we discovered that the market is moving out from Ikeja because if you look at Ikeja very well, it’s already saturated. People living in Sango hardly live go to Ikeja to buy phones any longer because what you want to find in Ikeja, you will find it in Sango. That’s the market we want to build in Agege. Now people living in Agege environment do not have any reason to go to Ikeja again for phones, now that we have our mega head office in Agege.
What’s the company’s name?
X-Right Technology Limited. We are distributor of all phones in Nigeria range from Techno, Nokia, Samsung, Nenove, Malata among others. They are ready to partner with us.
You have all brands of phones; can you tell us your backup strength?
Now that we have our corporate head office here in Agege, Lagos, we have a contract with all the brands that we are partnering with. Any customer that discovers his phone is factory faulty within one week that he purchased if from us, we are going to change it. It’s one year warranty while the guarantee is five days.
But there are some malicious damage which is not from the factory, may be due to carelessness from the customer, we don’t replace that. They could only take it to our phone engineers to fix it for them and pay for the services.
Apart from this mega office, do you have branches?
We have our branches at Abule Egba, Akute Berger, and Ijoko.
What if other users of phones didn’t get to buy phones from your office and want to fix their phones, is there any opportunity for them?
We have our competent engineers here. If you probably bought phones from anywhere and you need to fix some faults, you could bring it to us, they will fix it for you at a low price.
In what way do you want the new government to come into the aid of your business?
They should improve on generating electricity power for us, because most times, we run on generator, which cost us a lot of money 40% of our overhead cost is power. So, this gives us a lot of challenges.
How did you really venture into this business?
It’s a long journey we started as a road-side phone call; we then move to be selling recharge cards. From recharge cards to Sim cards from Sim cards to GSM phones and where we are today.
How much was your starting capital for this business?
I started with N200 I could remember in those days when one of my cousins bought a phone without Sim card, he can’t use and I have a Sim. I told him to let us be using his phone to make money. I can’t give him and likewise he can’t give me his phone. Neither for private use. Eventually we agreed to use it for business because phone calls was still in vogue then in the year 2003 I then bought umbrella and we started the business. But whenever he came to me to make phone calls, he doesn’t pay for his calls because of our agreement of using my Sim to make money.
What’s the secret to your success building from a road-side phone call spot to running five branch offices in Lagos?
The secret is hard working and prayers we have faced so many challenges, but God has made us to be strong I’ve always advised the young entrepreneur who want to come into this business not to be distracted. They should be strong and believe in their dreams.
