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Dr. Adenike Adedeji is founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Colony Events and Designs, a company that is into event planning and management, decoration and others. In this interview with IKECHI NZEAKO, she speaks on how the government should create enabling environment for business owners to leverage and make profit. Excerpts:
What services do provide?
We are an events planning company and we also do decorations and training as well.
What gap did you want to fill when you stated this company?
I just wanted to impact people’s events. I wanted to be part of people’s joy. I started as a caterer and I know there is no event without food. After a while I diversified into decorations and event planning. Now we take over all the entire events, from A-Z.
The catering to decoration to dresses. We take charge of the events. We focus on making sure that the event goes seamlessly and successfully.
When did you start?
I started in 2011.
And how has it been over the years?
Of course, initially it was tough, every business in Nigeria always has challenges at the beginning but, after a while you get into the system and ensure that you create value and money will start chasing you.
Initially you will be the one chasing money but later money will start chasing you when you create value for money.
What are the challenges?
A major challenge is the frequent changes in the government policies here and there; there is no stability in the policies.
By the time you adapting to one policy, it is sooner than later changed and you have to start all over again.
This does not allow you to do long term planning. Another challenge is the money we use in importing our items, this because most of the decorations we use are imported from China.
The foreign exchange situation in the business is impacting the business because of the low value of the Nigerian currency.
We don’t really have the materials manufactured here. We are begging the government to give us the opportunity to manufacture the materials in the country.
If we produce some of the items here, we will conserve foreign exchange and will be good for the Nigerian economy and the industry.
What is your assessment of the event industry in Nigeria?
The industry is a very large space even though they categorise us under hospitality industry. Very soon we will have an arm of the government so that we can stand on our own, like event planners industry.
Event planners contribute over N7 billion into the Nigeria economy annually. It is a very large economy.
What qualities do somebody need to have to succeed as an event planner?
You just need to be original, you need to have integrity because nobody will trust you with their event if you don’t have integrity. And you must see that you have quality to give because every event stands out at every point in time. There are no two events that are the same. You must be creative to make sure you create something new for everybody at your event.
There are many event planners out there, how do you separate the fake from the good ones?
There is an association we call the Association of Professional Event Organisers of Nigeria.
Its objective is to sanitise the industry and ensure that anyone that wants to be an event planner has to go through the association to get their certification before they can be seen as event planner.
We are ridding industry of quacks and in the near future you not have incidence of unqualified planners discrediting members of the association. I am one of the executive of the association.
What role can the government play to make the business environment friendlier to business people?
I will talk about importation; it has become very stressful in the last two years to import anything into the country.
The processes are frustrating and tiring. The tariffs are not stable; the government keeps on changing the tariffs and it has become difficult to make long-term plans and projections.
The government should create enabling environment for business owners to leverage and make profit. It has been tough basically in the last two years.
If a young person comes to you and says he or she wants to do what you are doing, what advice will you give to that young person?
The question I always is, are you ready? Are you sure you want to do the business because event planning is very stressful; it is one of the most stressful jobs in the world.
If you don’t have the mental capacity, you cannot succeed in the business.
Imagine you have five different events you want to manage; you have to be ready and creative. I will say that originality brings in more customers.
Where do want to see the company in the next five years?
It is going global; because we are not where we want to be, we want to expand globally.
We will be 24 years old this year and we have done events in Dubai, London and in many parts of Nigeria.
We do events for Lagos State government and Oyo State government and I know we are getting bigger and better.
Despite the challenges, what is motivating you to carry on?
The most important thing is that I want to create wealth for myself, my children and for other people and society.
As I said earlier, I love to create happiness for people at their events. This gives me a lot of motivation, knowing that someone is happy because of me. That somebody’s event was successful because of me motivates me. And I love my job so much.
How do you create a balance between your office and home?
In life generally, you have to create a balance that is what we call time management.
This is what I learnt at the Lagos Business School. You have to learn how to manage your time properly as a woman so that no one area of your life will suffer.
English (US) ·