Our company operates with sincerity, says KSLEY boss

‘This business is about trading, financial discipline and building trust’

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NIGERIA: MR. Kingsley Amechi Ubenyi, is the Managing Director of KSLEY Group, Enugu in Enugu State.  Ubenyi, who disclosed that his company will soon establish a university “to give future to the children”, accused some businessmen who ventured into money lending as intruders who gave birth to wonder banks that have duped innocent people millions of naira.  He speaks more on other significant issues with Maureen Edozie in Enugu:

We have lots of men now who are deceiving people in business, what makes KSLEY different from these fraud establishments?

That’s the challenge we are facing now.  A lot of people are looking at what KSLEY is doing, some jumped into the business without proper foundation and legal backings and so the result is inevitable.

Some want to tarnish the image of your business to bring you down. What we are doing here in Enugu, for instance, is different from what every other person or company is doing, because when we came up with what we are doing we looked at the laws guiding such business and we tried to have enough legal backing to give our business a solid foundation.

That’s why I can stand and tell you that KSLEY Mega Vision is legitimate with full legal backings.  We are into proper lending even though we are pushing towards Micro Finance Bank.  Before now it was solely into lending, but now we have diversified.  So far, so good nobody has ever complained that we are not doing well and those trying to poison people’s mind against the business are on their own because we maintain what we said we are doing and we are backed up by the Law.

What is the legal back up you are talking about?

Exactly it’s all about licensing.  You don’t do business without looking at the law guiding such a business.  So we are backed up by the law which permits us to lend out money and to collect interest.  And as the company continued to grow we decided to go into banking and that led to the establishment of KSLEY Mega Micro Finance Bank.

It all points to the fact that the company is doing well and we are progressing.  Soon you will start hearing of KSLEY Mega University, which is going to be launched very soon.  So when you see a company that has direction and the sincerity is there, there is no how the business will not grow. But when people jump into a business they know nothing about, they are bound to fail.

Are you up to date with your payments?

Sure.  As I speak to you today we live up to our commitments with our business friends.  Recently, we upgraded to banking and the procedure with regards to opening account, meeting up with CBN rules and regulations, created minor short term bottlenecks.  But very soon we will have our final license.

We do not owe anybody and we cannot owe because we are disciplined in what we are doing and we are following the rules strictly. This business is about trading, financial discipline and building trust; we had our annual stakeholder’s conference with our business friends in February, and we told them what to expect during the year.

So we engage people who are involved in what we are doing.  We maintain our business promises as discussed.  I don’t see any problem or anybody complaining except people who are trying to pull others down because they are envious.

What would you say your company has contributed to the development of the economy?

It may interest you to know that in less than five years of our existence our company has over 1,000 personnel in her employ, but it’s unfortunate that nobody has ever commended us for our efforts towards creating employment.

Also, we have been working hard to improve the economy by encouraging young entrepreneurs and granting them funds to do business and we are committed to it. But when somebody wakes up one morning and starts trying to join the queue, it doesn’t work in this our line of business. You must follow the law and operate within the specifications of the law.
And I may have to shock you, we are no longer involved in lending alone, we now have KSLEY Mega Micro Finance Bank, we have KSLEY Mega Agro and Bye-Products, we have KSLEY Mega University which we are going to launch soon. So when you have a direction and you are working hard to actualize it some people will try to pull you down.  That’s what we are suffering, but we are not deterred. That’s why I call on the government to come to our aid, to assist us to create jobs.

Now one of such businesses has collapsed in Enugu, how has it affected you?

Actually I am not new to those ones because they have been there.  You can easily remember the story of Umannah O. Umannah, and other wonder banks that folded in the past.  Indirectly, it may be slowing down our own business but at the same time I am not distracted because I know where I am going and even in the face of the current recession we are even employing more people and that shows you that the company is progressing.

So there is no cause for alarm; what I tell the customers is not to relent, but to keep faith because our foundation is solid and rooted in law.  After all, many were called, but few were chosen.  So they must know who they are dealing with, they must realize that due to hunger things are happening so people must be careful.

For us, we have shown that we are strong.  While those without foundation are collapsing we are building a university.   So our customers shouldn’t have any cause to panic at all; I am authoritatively telling them that the company is very healthy and we can take care and weather the entire storm even in the face of collapsed wonder bank.

So, I am not surprised seeing the intruders fail because they don’t have the technical knowhow to go about what they are doing.  Moreover, our successful diversification into other businesses has given added strength to the stability of the business.

So what is the magic or secret to your outstanding success while others are folding?

It is not by magic because in the first place we are not a wonder bank; we are genuinely in business and like I told you we are legitimate and our watchword is sincerity.  Now we started with lending and we are progressing and diversifying; we are still employing and as others are going under we are building more business empires; we are also building a new university.

These things are verifiable.  So we are not on the same plane with the wonder banks and our integrity, sincerity and trust we have built over the years is sustaining us.  And then we work hard; most people don’t work hard and they don’t plan ahead for tomorrow and have a clear picture of where you are going because there is no bank that will survive if everybody comes up once to withdraw all their money.

Let me tell you, the two things that make financial institutions to crumble are when you give out loans and you are not able to recover it.  Secondly is when the entire customers come at once to withdraw their money, there is no bank that will survive it.  And that’s why we are going into Micro Finance Bank and that’s why we are calling the attention of the government to assist us through deposits so that we can improve more.

We don’t expect your company, KSLEY, to run into problems, but what back-up do you have in case of such an emergency?

There is no banking without capitalization, that is primary.  The edge of our sustainability is our ability to assess and determine the ability of our customers to pay back the loan.  It is foolhardy to give loan to persons that have no capacity of paying back.  Such loan is money thrown away.

In our line of business the primary determinant is ability of the customer to return the loan, period.  When you lend and people fail to pay, that is when you talk about having issues but when you are diversified, and you lend to so many in different environments, I don’t expect to have issues.

It’s surprising you are building a university when others are collapsing.   Tell us more about this university?

Yes we understand that human resources are the greatest capital that drives any business or economy.  We chose to go into academic investment to give future to our children.  You don’t have to give your money to somebody without a future; that’s the problem. People don’t look at who is the person behind a business; people don’t even know those they are dealing with. There are the ones they are now doing on the internet, you pay money and you are giving 50 percent; how long will it last and what future does it have?  Our people must ask questions before investing.

How are you managing with the recession?

Yes, the recession in the country is truly affecting every business, but as you know some other businesses are thriving despite the recession.  The magic is managerial ability and ability to adapt.  We are handling it very well.  As a sincere company, we had to come down in our percentage because of the recession and we explained this to our customers; now we are paying five percent compared to what we were paying before.

We are watching it and when the economy improves we can return to our normal percentage.  So, we are looking at how we generate the money to pay people because you don’t give what you don’t have.   That’s why we came down on our percentage and we are moving ahead without distractions from intruders who have no business here in the first place.