By Providence Adeyinka

In this interview, Chief Executive Officer, Eficaz Movers Limited, Mr. Imara Oghenero, said that the bottlenecks from government regulations, have not been friendly with start-up even as he pointed out that the movers industry remains untapped.

Excerpts:

What’s the idea behind Eficaz Movers?

In July 2019, when I was to move to a new house, I decided to search for moving companies and I found a particular company that carried out the move for me but when they finished moving my properties, I found that most of my properties were damaged. That evening I started thinking of setting up a moving company of my own, then I went into immediately and that was how Eficaz Movers Limited came to birth. People deserve extremely good standards in moving services.

Moving can be a stressful task, so Eficaz Movers can make the experience fun and seamless, we do apartment, office, industry facility or warehouse moves. 

How competitive is this industry, considering the number of platforms that have emerged in recent years?

That has not really affected our business, it’s quite competitive but the modus and standards in which we carry out our jobs are outstanding and it set’s us aside from others.

How do you feel as an African entrepreneur, especially in Nigeria?

I must say it is not easy being an African entrepreneur because there are a lot of barriers, government regulations that act as constraints to your business but there’s also a lot of potential in the Africa market that is yet to be exploited.

What are the challenges of this industry and your successes since you started?

Like every business, there are always challenges when setting up/running a business. We have had some challenges in the past that set us back a little when I started the business, however to mention a few, driver shortage, government regulations, complexity of delivery are some of the challenges faced in the business. I think our major success happened in the year 2020. We were able to carry out a total of 45 household moves, seven office relocations and 23 store deliveries for the year ended December 2020, which generated some loyal customers till date.

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How are you growing this business in Nigeria? 

We are currently among the top 5 moving companies on the Lagos island environs (Lekki, Ajah, Ikoyi, Victoria Island), with a staff strength of about 15 people, However we are looking forward to growing the business to become one of the top five moving companies in Nigeria. Some of the steps I took included; recurrently training our staff to become specialized professionals in their fields, increased our social media presence as that has proven to be a major catalyst in influencing consumer decision making and I must say the evolving/increase in technology has also contributed to the growth of the business.

We also improved our customer care/relationship with our clients as well as improved the working environment for the staff.

What is the future of Eficaz Movers?

I am looking forward to a bigger work space and storage facility, and opening a few other offices in areas where we are mostly in demand. Expand with more staff strength as well as trucks and other equipment to increase efficiency. The future of Eficaz Movers is to become a household name when it comes to relocation services in Nigeria. We want to become your go to place when you think about relocation.

What were the toughest situations you have faced in this business?

The toughest situation I have found myself in will be one time when we were just training some new employees in the parking/loading department in the year 2019, a customer’s valuable was damaged, it was a tough period for me as the business was still new and barely generating profit, so I had to ensure the customer’s valuable was replaced in due time.

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