Obi Ezeude is president/chief executive officer, Beloxxi Industries Limited located in Agbara Estate, Ogun State . Beloxxi, a biscuit and sweet manufacturing company, was commissioned last week by President Goodluck Jonathan. Obi Ezeude, who studied Banking and Finance, started business in 1994 as a trader and walked into manufacturing in 2003, less than nine years after trading. He spoke to SIAKA MOMOH, BusinessDay’s Industry Editor about his business.
Importation of cream cracker Ezeude, whom this writer met a day before his ultra-modern biscuit and sweet factory was commissioned by President Goodluck Jonathan Thursday last week, was one of the largest importers of cream cracker in Nigeria, importing about 600 containers every year from Malaysia by the year 2000. Armed with this robust import business portfolio, he entered into discussion with his Malaysian suppliers to join him to set up shop in Nigeria but they backed out. Said he: “They told me one million reasons why they would not produce in Nigeria . And I decided to prove to them that manufacturing was not nuclear science.” The two parties kept on talking about it until March 3, 2003 when former President Olusegun Obasanjo banned importation of biscuit into Nigeria . And when Ezeude called them, they were shocked. They discussed smuggling with him, but he told them he wouldn’t do such thing.
more on
http://www.businessdayonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12354:how-i-moved-from-trading-to-manufacturing--beloxxi-industries-ceo&catid=81:entrepreneur&Itemid=323