By Ebele Orakpo

Engr. Benedict Okoh ....I think I was born a mechanic

The auto or car me-chanic has for decades been seen as a dirty, ignorant drop-out who has no mental capacity to compete with others in today’s hi-tech world. But such thinking has been proved wrong as many auto mechanics are graduates and certified professionals in their chosen field. Engr. Benedict John Okoh is the Technical Director of Automaze Nationwide Limited, a modern auto mechanic workshop. In a chat with Vanguard recently in Lagos, he describes Automaze as a template for the future of automotive servicing and maintenance. Excerpts:

“This business is what I have done all my life. I think I was born a mechanic,” said Mr. Benedict Okoh. “While growing up, I knew there was nothing else other than to follow my passion. So in school, I did purely technical courses. Apart from primary school, I went to Government Technical College, Malali, Kaduna and then Kaduna Polytechnic where I studied mechanical engineering specializing in auto mechanics.”

Engr. Ben, as he is fondly called, worked in a number of companies from where he garnered some valuable experience before setting up Automaze in April, 2008.

Said he: “While at Autoplus, I said to myself: ‘I’m done with working for people all my life. It’s better to start working for myself now that I still have the strength to run my own business and that Autoplus was going to be the last company I will work for. As luck will have it, a good friend of mine, who was the Fleet manager at DHL when I was working with McEnroe, saw how diligent we were and told me that he will like us to set up a company. That was before I started working at Autoplus. One thing led to another and we had a conference that changed the face of automobile mechanics in Nigeria. It was held on his premises. It took several weeks for them to arrive at the workshop model for Nigeria. I don’t think any company has replicated or tried to lay the platform of the model we were trying to set up. It’s our trade secret because we are looking forward to bringing something like that and I believe when we do, it will be like magic because even globally right now, I don’t think there are many countries doing what we have in mind here.”

Continuing, the Benue State-born mechanic said: “We started Automaze in 2008 and like any other business, we have our ups and downs, especially when it has to do with finance. As we all know, we don’t have any credit facility in this country so whatever you have to do, you are basically on your own. That is still a big challenge. But then, we are passionate about what we do; we derive joy doing it. I cannot imagine myself being any other thing apart from a mechanic.

“Driven by the same passion, we have a programme on radio called Automedics. We are not the original proprietors of the programme. It actually started with Kunle Sonaike and Ayo Makinde on Radio Continental. I joined them in May 2008 and ever since, the programme has evolved from one level to another,” he said adding: “We have a training programme that is ongoing with the Lagos State Technical and Vocational Education Board holding at Lagos Technical College Agidingbi, Ikeja. So apart from fixing cars, we enlighten the public and giving back value to ordinary Nigerians.”

Speaking on their challenges, Engr. Okoh said the main challenge is fund. “In Nigeria, getting credit facility is a problem. If you have any reasonable legal business you want to set up in Nigeria, you should look at the interest rate. It is very high, making it impossible for the ordinary Nigerian who wants to set up a business and make profit. Electricity is another challenge. If you talk about establishing a business in Nigeria that involves the use of electricity, then you must think twice. Like some of the equipment we use are supposed to be three-phase but while sourcing these equipment, we made sure that we got only the single-phase equipment because we know that at no time will the three phases be present. So if you are thinking of establishing a business in Nigeria, just assume there is no power so you have to install power first and it doesn’t come cheap. The cost of fuelling alone is high. If you put all that together as overhead, you will realise the cost of service will be very high. For us, since we don’t really need power while fixing or servicing, we conserve power. Averagely per month, we spend nothing less than N150,000 on fuel alone,” he stated. The outfit with the mission of providing the best possible utility services for both vehicles and their owners, has about 25 people in its employ. “Some are trainees, some are students on industrial training (IT). We have a second workshop at the LTV Complex and the two workshops make up Automedics.”

Asked if they deal in all kinds of vehicles he said: “People ask me that question and I say to them: ‘If I go to a hospital and the doctor asks me for my race before he treats me, I will begin to look at that doctor twice. The vehicle anatomy is just like a human anatomy. You have specialists in different areas and that doesn’t mean somebody who treats an Asian cannot treat an American. The anatomy is the same. So if I know the engine components of a car very well, what stops me from working on a Mercedes and a Toyota? An expert in transmission systemknows transmission system inside out, so if he can work on Toyota transmission system, he can also work on a Mercedes Benz.

“When a car comes in here, we check it. If it is an electrical problem, a specialist handles it, if it is a mechanical problem that has to do with the engine component, a specialist handles it also. Everybody will check it and at the end of the day, the car comes out in one good piece. We offer full auto diagnostics, servicing, programming, etc.”