By Ebele Orakpo
After the compulsory one year national youth service in the Works Dept. of one of the local government councils in old Bauchi State, Mr. Chris Ezeoguine began his search for a job after his hope of being retained by the local council was dashed. He went back to Lagos but could not get a job as there was temporary embargo on employment by government at that time.

“Like any other young man, I wanted to fit in so I began to write job applications here and there but I did not succeed in securing a job neither did I have enough work experience to establish my own outfit. It is not easy to launch out on your own just after graduation. You need to first get practical experience in your field for people to trust you enough to give you jobs.

The only experience I garnered was during the youth service. At that time, the local government was vested with a lot of responsibilities like looking after the Emir’s buildings and primary schools so I was going from one school to another to carry out repairs. In fact, it was during that period that the Emir’s palace was built and I singlehandedly supervised the construction,” he said.

Unable to secure employment or start his own outfit in the building industry, he got into buying and selling. “I am somebody who abhors idleness so I started selling belts in Idumota, Lagos but my elder brother who trained me in school was not pleased that after spending money and time to acquire education, he would now set me up in buying and selling.

As a result, he did not support my going into business. So like any business started with the meagre savings from NYSC stipends, the business did not last up to a year,” he said. Thus, the struggle to survive continued as the Santo Cristo boss began hustling again. “By that time, I was in contact with some importers and they advised me to go abroad and try my luck perhaps, that could work for me. So in 1989, I went to Italy.

I could not get a job because of language barrier so what we were doing was to go out in group and get hired for the day to pick tomatoes in farms. We were paid per crate but the money was not enough to sustain us. We lived in train stations.

When it dawned on us that farm work could not sustain us as it was seasonal, we resorted to hawking goods from door to door. Actually, it was organised in such a way that one man was getting the items and we would market them for him.

Each item has its own price tag so when we sell, he takes 60% while we take 40%.We made more money than we made in the farms. Nigerians called the business Buongiorno which is good morning in Italian because as you knock on the door and the door is opened, you first greet them before introducing your wares,” he stated.

Mr. Ezeoguine was able to save some money and in December 1993, he came back to Nigeria. According to him: “I had to come back to Nigeria as I wasn’t comfortable. Personally, I felt my education was not being utilised. When I came back, even those who had no job before I left were already established. I regretted my movement. May be if I had persisted I would have gotten a job, but every man has his own destiny,” he philosophised.

His never-say-die spirit kept him moving and so in 1994, with the little money he saved while in Italy, he tried to go into business again but it did not click and then as if a veil was taken out from his eyes, he saw exactly where his destiny lay – rendering services. Said he: “I discovered my talent was in rendering services to people and that was why I went into clearing in 1996. Because of my previous exposure and friends I had made, it did not take me time to break into the system.

Since I knew a lot of importers and my record had shown them some sincerity in my dealings, they knew that if not for any other thing, I always told them the truth when it came to business so they did not find it hard to trust me. Chief Charles Ezenduka of Zentek actually tried me. He gave me a job and since I didn’t know how to cost the job, he told me the price at which others had been doing it and I took up the job, executed it and delivered on time. He was happy and I made my money.

That actually encouraged me that I could make it.” Continuing he said: “The job requires a lot of trust and once you break through somebody and with luck on your side, you can be recommended to others.”

Speaking on challenges in the business, Ezeoguine pointed out: “You cannot just start and have your own licence because the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has to license you so what we do is this: If you get a job, you go to any licensed Customs agent and stamp and sign it as if the job belongs to them and you are working for them. At this point, you are not a full-fledged Customs-Licensed clearing agent until NCS actually licenses you and that costs a lot of money because there are other requirements.

You must have a functional office and all the necessary books needed for interpretation of tariff. NCS will inspect your premises and if they are satisfied, you will be issued a licence. I started without having an office and the NCS only attends to licensed clearing agents, but you can make money before you get an office. I secured my own license, Santo Cristo Ltd. in 2007. Today, the outfit has 30 people in its employ.”

He stated he would gladly recomment clearing business to people especially young graduates because it is the only profession one can start without a working capital. “I started with nothing in terms of finance because an importer knows he will reserve some money for clearing. The only capital I needed was the knowledge I acquired through apprenticeship.

Then I have my mentor who I refer to whenever complications arise in the course of doing the job. Another challenge is government policy changes. You have to keep abreast of events in the sector. In 2008, NCS organised a two-week Compliance course, I attended. You keep updating your knowledge because a product may be contraband today and tomorrow, it is no more a contraband so you have to keep abreast of developments and this requires a lot of education and constantly updating your knowledge.

You should be conversant with every aspect of international trade because clearing is not just bringing out containers and supplying to the importer, you are his business consultant, he relies on you for government policy. If he tells you ‘I want to import A’, you can tell him don’t import it, it is under prohibition. We do this consultancy free of charge hoping that when eventually the goods come, you will be the person to render the services. An importer must liaise with his agent to know government’s perspective on what he wants to import, the duty it attracts etc. Before an importer imports, he will know the cost, what the shipper will charge, the logistics costs, clearing cost, the price of the product in the market etc., it is serious research and the agent should be the central focus here. An agent should teach a new entrant into the importation business how to fill the Form M,” he said.

Like I said, Clearing is very good but whoever wants to work as a clearing agent must be honest and trustworthy. The only thing that can make you not to succeed is when you make yourself untrustworthy because if an importer ever discovers you told him a lie, especially one bordering on money, he will just blacklist you. So honesty is the guiding principle,” he counselled.