What makes a building thick is not only in the outward beauty and architectural design. Often times, the interior decoration distinguishes a house as a palace, mansion or even a heaven on earth.

In this chat with Saturday Vanguard Business, the Chairman/CEO of Canon Continental Limited, Mr Chidi Onuoha, throws more light on the interior decoration business in Nigeria describing it as a sector with enormous potentials waiting to be fully tapped. Excerpts:

Being the chairman/CEO,Canon Continental, how did it all start?

Just like most Nigerians, the journey to the labour market started after my secondary school education. I worked with Royal Exchange Assurance Co. Ltd in Kano, and later moved to Federal Polytechnic Bida, Niger State. I finally came down to Lagos for greener pastures, but it was not easy as I spent several years looking for job.

In the course of searching for job, I came across some friends that were into interior decoration business which I noticed was giving them some handsome pay. I picked interest in the business and joined one of such companies in Surulere where I honestly learnt a lot about interior décor beyond the ordinary understanding.

Armed with this knowledge and counselling of one of my well known and successful cousins based here in Lagos that one is better off working for himself than putting a good number of years in another man’s business only to be eventually sacked. That got me thinking about the future as that philosophy of his made sense to me.

I moved to more firms gathering more experience and connections while the philosophy of working for oneself was still ringing loud into my ears. We did a lot of jobs during the banking consolidation era when they expanded and opened more branches all over the country. The jobs took me to several banks and cities across Nigeria. Beside the banking sector, we did a lot of public and private jobs in various states of the country.

Finally, I moved to an Isreali interior decoration company based in Apapa, Lagos. Quite frankly speaking, it was in this company that I saw ‘What the business of interior decoration was all about’, both in terms of size/scope, investment and profitability.

However, while working with an Isreali company, I came to discover that their doors, ceilings and kitchen system, just name it, all are unique in every aspect. I then decided to go full swing on my own and the incorporation of the company in March 2002. I specialize in ceiling and acoustical insulations. Since then, we have been involved in fantastic projects like the Kakanfo Hotels in Ibadan, the installation of glass wool in Punch plaza, ShopRite in old Polo Park Enugu, Ibeto Hotels in Apo, Abuja; National Population Commission (NPC); the list is endless.

Why did you settle for interior décor?

Why not! I laugh when people ask me if not interior decoration what else would you have done? This is because I feel they don’t really understand what the business is all about. Lets take the modern ceiling for instance. This has shifted from the ordinary ceiling slates we used to know to a more modern and sophisticated technology.  A dropped metal clip ceiling is often a secondary ceiling, hung below the main (structural) ceiling.

A typical dropped ceiling (often a secondary ceiling, hung below the main structural ceiling) consists of a grid-work of metal channels in the shape of an upside-down “T”, suspended on galvanised suspension from the overhead structure. These channels snap together in a regularly spaced pattern – typically a 2×2 or 2×4 foot grid in the US, or 600×600 mm grid in Europe (this is the modular size of the grid, the tiles are actually 595mm x 595mm or 595mm x 1195mm). Currently, there is the metal strip ceiling which is now in the Nigerian market.

I don’t think there could have been any other thing that could have caught my fancy than it going by the level of joy, peace of mind and fulfillment the business has given(and is still) giving me. The business has taken me virtually round the country, meeting people that matter in the society which ordinarily, I couldn’t have met in my life.

Besides, something good is coming out of it in general terms and I give the good Lord the glory for he has helped me through this road in my lifetime.

Placing a value on interior décor business in the country

The truth is that, interior decoration potentials are yet to be tapped fully in the country. My son, your son etc, will like to build and this goes on. As stated earlier, for ordinary Nigerians, when you talk about ceiling they think asbestos or the ordinary ceiling board. But for the modern ones, the thinking goes to things like perforated metal clips that could cost as much as N7300 per square metre (m2), the likes of grid installations and the list goes on. These are highly fire rated materials with unique in outlook to the extent that roof leakages don’t affect them.

So the value is so much to be estimated. The ceilings of ten years ago are no longer in vogue. Plaster of Paris (POP) that reigned about ten years ago is no longer in vogue. It is now being replaced by other ceiling technologies like the plaster board. The window blinds have gone from fabrics to metal window blinds like venetian and wooden blinds of various shapes and sizes for offices and homes. The value and potentials are very huge.

Challenges

Energy. The public power supply system is very poor and weak. We require a lot of electrical energy to install the ceiling materials at site and had to rely on own generation and this is costly. Again, transportation from the place of purchase to the installation point is an issue. The bad roads pose a lot of challenges for movement and security of the material. By this I mean getting the ceiling material to the point of installation without damages. Dumping (influx) of substandard ceiling materials in the country is also a real challenge. Because of the price of the original ones, people ignorantly compare them with the substandard products.