By Clara Nwachukwu
EPILEPTIC and inadequate supply of power has been identified as one of the major infrastructure challenges, coupled with poor road network and insecurity of life and property, which combine to make indigenous firms uncompetitive.

The Chairman, Research and Marketing Service (RMS), Mr. Kazeem Tejumola, who said this in Lagos, argued that with these infrastructure challenges Nigerian firms can hardly compete internationally with foreign firms, which take these services for granted.

Mr. Tejumola, who spoke with Vanguard during the 30th anniversary celebration of the indigenous research firm, which has since grown to become the largest in Africa and one of the largest in the world, following its recent merger with TNS Africa, said indigenous firms have had to work much harder even at higher operating costs.

He said, “I spend million just on diesel to power our generators, yet we still have to pay for electricity bills. In addition, we have to contend with other poor infrastructure such as bad road network, and poor security situation in the country, so when small firms like RMS to for bids with international companies, we don’t get it except we have to go the extra mile at very huge costs.”

He stated that RMS growth over the years was strictly self motivated, with little or no support from government, adding that dearth of infrastructure services should spur government’s at all levels to appreciate research works and through the data collected be able to audit themselves for better services to the people.
TNS, RMS merger

Speaking more on the TNS (Taylor Nelson Sofres), the world’s largest Custom Market Research specialists’ merger with Nigeria’s RMS, Ademola Tejumola, the Chief Executive Officer of the indigenous market and social research business firm, said both the client and employees will benefit more from the value addition.

Describing the merger, which was sealed in March as “a world of opportunities,” he told Vanguard, that “Our clients and employees will gain the most from the partnership through more sophisticated TNS RMS deliverable, which in turn will impact positively on our business because employees will be exposed to better training tools have.”

He noted that by the merger, RMS is now automatically quoted on both the London (LSE) and New York (NYSE) stock exchanges.

He said part of the beauty of the merger is not only in the retention of the RMS brand in the new company, but the fact that the new headquarters will be located in Lagos, Nigeria.

As a result, he said that with the international status, RMS will need to relocate from its current location in Ojodu, to a more convenient location that will add value to all levels of clientele.

The RMS boss noted that the indigenous firm has grown from a humble very small research company with just four employees to now over 4,000 workers with branches in nine countries in three continents of Africa, Europe and Asia.

Research and marketing data Reiterating the importance of market research as a major tool for business development and successes, Aggrey Maposa, the Country Head, Nigeria, said with the data collected from the researches, agencies
and cooperate organisations in both the private and public sectors are now able to appreciate consumer behaviours to their products and/or people reactions to specific social issues.

Notwithstanding the low patronage and low purchase of some of these data, Mr. Maposa said RMS has continued, unrelenting, to produce sector specific data as a way of encouraging increased patronage and usage.

He said, “We have developed a number of initiatives to encourage the use of research materials. Right now, we are currently doing some studies on behalf of government at our own expense on various issues with regard to consumer confidence for its institutions in Nigeria.”
He explained that data are collated on issues relating to finance, energy supply, infrastructure services delivery and a host of others, adding that the results are distributed to various institutions as
well as the private sector and the media.

“Now, many organisations quote data from RMS and we also do comparative studies on the social side,” adding that “Apart from government, we also do studies for smaller scale businesses on the state of the banks, telecoms, and we also analyse trends in Nigeria so that people and corporate entities can use them for decision making.”

Part of the activities for the 30th anniversary celebrations was a corporate walk in support of the Roll Back Malaria Campaign, which the RMS Strategic and Business Planning Manager, Mr. Seyi Adeoye, said is a demonstration of social responsibility and creating further awareness on the deadly disease.