By Ebele Orakpo

Mr Yazid Suleiman is a 23-year-old Software Engineering graduate from the American University of Nigeria, Yola, Adamawa State. He is the Founder/Chief Executive Officer of Synarah Group, an outfit that is into information technology, construction, oil & gas and manufacturing. In this chat with Vanguard, Yazid speaks on his business, motivation and challenges, saying his goal is to create the greatest company in the world. Excerpts:

Educational background
Yazid attended Federal Polytechnic Staff Primary School, Mubi after which he went on to International Private School, Mubi; Government Senior Science Secondary School, Uba and Concordia College, Yola for his secondary school education. Thereafter, he gained admission into the American University of Nigeria (AUN) also in Yola for his undergraduate studies. He obtained a BSc. degree in Software engineering with university honours. The Mubi, Adamawa State-born Yazid, is currently pursuing a master’s and doctorate in Computer Engineering at the University of Anatolia in Turkey.

Journey into entrepreneurship
As a development university, the AUN requires its undergraduate students to start a business and sustain it as one of the criteria for obtaining a degree, so according to Yazid, he founded Synarah Investment (Nigeria) Ltd. in November 2012 while he was a first year student at AUN.
“The company focused on IT, construction, oil & gas and manufacturing. The manufacturing subsidiary never really took off because of economic challenges ranging from equipment acquisition to skilled labour and finding efficient management to operate them. But the other subsidiaries did very well although we have had to deal with mountains of challenges. At times I used to think these problems were waiting in line for me to deal with one and then the next one will raise its hand and say ‘I’m next.’”

Yazid Suleiman

Losing everything
“I once lost every Kobo I had when my petrol tanker crashed and got burnt in Calabar. I had to ask my Dad to send me some money to even pay for my flight there to sort out the victims of the accident. I had to start all over again. You can’t even begin to imagine that kind of pain.”

Motivation
“My goal, when I started this company was, and still is, to create the greatest company in the world. To that end, we’ve expanded our reach and made some corporate restructuring recently to show our global posture. We have moved our corporate headquarters to London – we may change that because of the outcome of the Brexit vote – and restructure into a private investment firm.”

Our focus
“Currently, our focus is investing in Turkey, continental Europe and Central and Western Asia. In Turkey, we’ve been able to make acquisitions that have so far proved very profitable. Our aim is not just investing for profit, but investing for profit and making the world a better place. For us, the two are not mutually exclusive.
“As an investment firm, we don’t really have a ‘target’ group per se, our subsidiaries – that is companies we own – have target groups for their products. We, as a firm, don’t produce or manufacture anything or provide any service. The companies we own do. So far, we have subsidiaries in the following industries: Technology, Retail, Real Estate, Hospitality and Entertainment, Chemicals and Pharmaceutical,” he stated.

Challenges
“If you had asked what my challenge was three years ago, I would have said capital. But I came across a book, Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham, which exposed me to value investing. In Value Investing, you basically buy undervalued companies and profit from the unrealised value whether from assets or potential. So, using what I learned from that, I literally doubled my capital/value every three months for about a year.
“Now that we have grown bigger, our Internal Rate of Return (IRR) has been stabilised at about 40 per cent every quarter. You have no idea how refreshing it is to say that capital is no more the challenge – what to do with the capital is more of a challenge than having the capital at least.”

Great opportunities
“My biggest challenge right now is navigating the geopolitics of the world to unlock opportunities.
As a global and multinational company, the world is our chess board and as such, we inevitably have to deal with the geopolitics of it all. Politics of individual countries where you operate and world geopolitics of the world at large, ‘have’ to be in your business plan at all times.

For example, the current stand-off between Russia and Turkey over the downed Russian jet has driven down the profits in our hotels and nightclubs in the Mediterranean cities of Turkey – Antalya and so on. But the current turmoil in the world has presented a whole mountain of challenge but an even bigger mountain of opportunities, so much so you literally have your pick of the litter.

The current security and geopolitical problems have driven down the value of companies across the world and led to many companies seeking takeover suitors.

“Going back to my example above, this means you can grab premium hotels and coastal real estate at a song in this same area where your other investments are losing money. This is an excellent opportunity for private equity and investment companies like us. But for anyone just starting out, my best advice would be to read books and just start something, anything,” he said.

Experience
Yazid believes experience is everything in business. “You can never live long enough to make all the mistakes yourself and learn from them. Reading books is how you learn from the experience of others. I read my first book on business and investment when I was 13, Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. To get to where I am now, I worked as a construction labourer, I did okada, I was a tailor apprentice, a motorcycle mechanic, a shop boy, and an electrician apprentice.

“I can tell you unequivocally, that without these experiences, I may not be what I am today. I had to put aside my pride and go do what needs to be done.”
The young entrepreneur hopes to come back to Nigeria in future and transform it into the greatest country in the world.

Company name
According to Yazid, he named the outfit SYNARAH derived from the first letters of the names of family members.

“I named it Synarah to signify the importance of my family to me, and my unconditional and eternal love for them. I could never, ever, be where I am today without all of them. I have failed countless times, but my family never let me stay down. What I have learnt from my father outweighs by far, everything I have ever learnt from anybody and everybody put together.”

He always said “You can get whatever you want in this world, as long as you help enough people get what they want.”

Our two umbrella holding corporations are Synarah Investment (Nigeria) Ltd. and Synarah International (UK) Ltd.
Synarah Nigeria holds our interests in Nigeria while Synarah UK holds our global interests – outside Nigeria of course.