By Ebele Orakpo
Elder Nnamdi Martin Onyenmuru is the Managing Partner of Martin Onyenmuru & Co. Chartered Accountants and also the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Martino Systems Limited, an outfit that deals on electronics.

Martin Onyenmuru

The Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) who  holds a master’s in Business Administration from the University of Calabar, has been in audit practice for over 20 years.

He started his professional career with Lancaster Okoro & Co (Chartered Accountants) where he rose to the rank of Senior Audit Manager before setting up his own practice with the registration of Martin Onyenmuru & Co (Chartered Accountants) in October 1995. In this chat with Vanguard in Enugu recently, Elder Onyenmuru explains why he  went into the electronics   business and the challenges of doing business in Nigeria. Excerpts.

According to Elder Martin Onyenmuru, who became a chartered accountant in 1992, “We incorporated Martino Systems Limited in 2007.

We started with companies like Far East, Haier Thermocool and LG products but incidentally, we now deal with only LG products because of its general acceptance by the public. We currently have a franchise-dealer relationship with Fouani Nigeria Limited, a Port Harcourt-based company which are the major distributors of LG products in Nigeria. We had to stop dealing in other products in order to concentrate on LG products.
Right now, we have a big shop in Umuahia, the Abia State capital. The shop is centrally located and because of the location and the acceptance of the products by the public, we are being patronised by a lot of people in Umuahia and environs.”

The Martino Systems Limited’s boss stated that he established Martino Systems Limited with his wife because he wanted a business that would outlive them. “She is the administration director though a lawyer by profession.

I wanted a business that would exist after the owners and that was what motivated us to go into this business. Martin Onyenmuru & Co. Chartered Accountants is a professional firm and normally in Nigeria, it is difficult to have partners to work with and if you are practising alone and anything happens to you as a major partner of the business, definitely, that business will have problems (or even crumble) because nobody will take over your certificate and function in your capacity, so that informed the establishment of Martino Systems Limited,” he said.

The company which has six permanent staff and two youth corp members in its employ plans to open some branches in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, and Ebonyi State.

Speaking on the challenges faced by the company, Onyenmuru pointed out lack of working capital, power and reliable staff as some of the constraints. “The major challenge is lack of working capital because the business is capital-intensive and that was why we had to stop our business with Far East who promote Samsung products and with Haier Thermocool because there was no finance to cope with them.

Also, LG had taken over the market so there was no need pumping money into the others. So capital was a problem but we tried to work to see how we could continue the franchise business. First Bank, our bankers, was helping us initially,” he stated. Continuing, he said with finances from the professional practice (Martin Onyenmuru & Co.

Chartered Accountants) which is the parent company, they have been able to carry on the business adding that they are also getting credit facilities from Fouani Nigeria Limited.

“We can boast of getting a trailer or two trailer loads at anytime we want to make purchases from Fouani. We were paying cash initially but now, since we have been doing business with them in the past one year, they have found us very credible and so, they can give us goods as long as we are able to pay off our outstanding balance with them. They can give us one or two trailer loads of products. So this time around, we don’t really need bank facilities which are more expensive than the credit facilities given to us by Fouani.

“Power is another challenge but we have been handling it because we know it is something we must do. We need light to brighten up the place so that people coming into the place will find something good, better than what they get in Port Harcourt and Aba. In Martino Systems Limited, we spend an average of N10,000 a week on diesel.

We have to do it because Umuahia is a growing town coupled with the bad administration. I am from Abia State so we want to introduce something good to our people and that is why people are really patronising us because before we opened for business, people were going to Aba and Port Harcourt to make their purchases but right now, Umuahia has become a stopping point for people even those in the diaspora. Umuahia is a third world town just like you have third world countries. We also have the problem getting staff who could be trusted. You know we deal with cash so there was need to beef up the internal control to make sure there is no pilferage.

The astute chartered accountant said that Martin Onyenmuru & Co. Chartered Accountants can boast of a yearly turnover of N60m, adding that  “the firm has made tremendous impact on the electronics business.”