Dr Paul Adoyi (FARMERGIANT): Entrepreneur with a Difference
By: Deji Yesufu
A walk into FARMERGIANT office complex situated on No. 14, Olubadan Avenue, Oluyole Estate, Ibadan, reveals an office complex where work is ongoing. If you were not told, you will not know that the occupants of this building are people involved in the ongoing and rigorous work of sales of animals and farm equipment. The single storey building, situated in the business heart of Oluyole, Ibadan, houses the office concerns of the FARMERGIANT Nigeria Limited; particularly the marketing aspect. This particular day, as I walk into the office, I am told, politely too, that I should wait at the reception while they contact the Managing Director and CEO of the company, Dr. Paul Adoyi. This lady goes upstairs, while I take sometimes to examine new developments at the company’s office complex. There is always some new addition to the infrastructure in the office. I have learnt with experience not to visit Dr. Paul in the morning hours: “… morning is for work, Deji…”, he told me once on the phone and he said it as friendly and firmly as I would get the message without being offended. I was not offended; I simply learnt to in-cooperate that lesson into my own work ethic: mornings are for work. The receptionist returns and tells me to go upstairs; the MD was ready to receive me.
“Deji, how now…” and the pleasantries continue. I often visit Dr. Paul when I need help (to my shame) and he is never in want of supplying them. Dr. Paul Adoyi and I have been friends since our University days in ABU, Zaria. We met in the year 1998. We have our history but that gist is for another day. Today, I want to talk about Dr. Paul Adoyi and what he has made his company, the FARMERGIANT Nigeria, to be in the Ibadan business climate.
Dr. Paul Adoyi is a trained Veterinarian with rich experience in Marketing. He obtained Degrees from Ahmadu Bello University and India. He has over 20 years’ experience in the agricultural and animal sector both in Nigeria and abroad. As a specialist in marketing of animal products and equipment, he has built a reputation as a brand and a business consultant in the agribusiness. He has, during his career, executed over 100 farm projects and counting. He is highly sought after to design, develop and execute business plans for prospective agribusinesses in Nigeria. In 2013, Dr. Paul Adoyi launched FARMERGIANT Nigeria Limited as a company that will help supply chicken cages and other poultry equipment to Nigerian farmers. A little over a decade ago, a certain boom hit the agricultural sector of Nigeria. Many Nigerians began to explore the immense opportunities in animal husbandry, particularly poultry farming. Rather than engaging in the age-old method of rearing the chickens on the floor, many preferred the more modern method of rearing the animals in cages. This method made for greater ease of harvesting the chickens droplets (or waste), removing the eggs layed, and ensuring the preservation of the animals in cases where there are outbreaks of diseases. The use of cages in poultry farming also came with its attendant increase in cost; but the benefit far outweighs the cost. FARMERGIANT was one of the companies in Nigeria that began to supply poultry farmers with these cages. At the moment, all kinds of cages are available for supply: including locally fabricated ones (which are usually cheaper) and imported cages. FARMERGIANT has since diversified into all kinds of animal husbandry and equipment sales. The Company is the foremost in the provision of Farming input such as Day old chicks and Point of lay birds, cages, incubators, farming implements and equipment, agricultural consultancy and so on. They have also launched into production of Palm Kernel oil and Palm Kernel cake as they see the need to meet a particular demand in that aspect of our national life.
The strength of FARMERGIANT is actually in the person that offers the organization visionary leadership. “Deji, my greatest joy is in seeing my workers provided for. If this company succeeds at employing a great number of people from the Nigerian labor market, we would have removed these people from the temptation of launching into crime. My hope is that, as a company, we can earn enough to pay our workers well,” Dr. Paul would usually tell me whenever I visit him. Paul Adoyi hopes to expand the manufacturing sector of the company. He believes that this section is able to employ as much as a thousand people. The company has succeeded in acquiring a piece of land in the Omi-Adio areas of Apata, Ibadan. He is however hoping that certain factors will smile at them so that they would be able to effect this expansion. “The Oyo State government can actually help entrepreneurs like us. If they will stand in for us with banks and provide collaterals, and we are able to get low interest loans from banks, we would be able to achieve this vision of ours. And it would be to the advantage of government because every government wants its citizens to be gainfully employed and therefore they should give entrepreneurs this support to expand their businesses.”
These words of Dr. Adoyi ring true in the light of recent developments in the Oluyole business areas of Ibadan. Only recently Richard Gbadebo, a 300 level student of the University of Ibadan, fell to his death while working in a company in this business district of Ibadan. The tragic death of Richard brought to the fore the immense inhumane working conditions of people in some companies in the Oluyole areas. Many of these companies are owned by foreigners and they tend to use Nigerians to only make profit without a concern in the world as to their personal welfare. Government can recognize the work that Nigerians like Dr. Paul Adoyi are doing to benefit the common man and help encourage the growth of their businesses. In the process it is fellow Nigerians that will be the better for it.
Paul tells me that his work force is growing rapidly. He is often approached by students from the Universities that are presently on strike. He places them on “holiday work” regimes and in the same guise these youngsters are using the opportunity to gain a lot of experience. Along with them, there are students on industrial training and there are youth corpers working in the company. Dr. Adoyi believes that his success of FARMERGIANT is the success of all of his workforce and for this reason at the end of each work year, during Christmas, he lavishes his workers with gifts. This is besides the fact that he ensures that workers that have been with the company for a greater number of years are given gifts of cars, land and other properties.
“Deji, I cannot sleep on two beds. I cannot wear two trousers. Look at this shirt I am wearing, it costs N1,200. The jeans is N1,000. Whatever profit I might make from this company is to make it bigger so that we can afford to employ more workers and pay them very well. It is my desire to see my workers earn the most among companies in this area,” Dr. Paul would often say to me. Dr. Adoyi humanitarian manner of conducting business is borne out of his own deep suffering. Paul Adoyi sponsored himself throughout almost a decade long stay at the faculty of Veterinary Medicine, ABU, Zaria. Despite the intensity of his studies and the need to carry out practicals and write assignments, Dr. Paul had commenced his business concerns from school. He began to make and sell cocoa beverage drinks right there in school. His room, which was situated off the University Campus, was the place where he would fry his product, package them and go around the market in Samaru, Zaria, to sell. The little profit he made from this business was what he used to send himself to school. It was on the streets of Zaria that he acquired most of his business acumen and his humanitarian heart to work.
FARMGERGIANT is a business concern with a difference. While they surely want to make profit from the sales of their products, they have a human heart about it all. This is the mindset of all the persons running this company: starting from the CEO, Dr. Adoyi himself, to the least person in the organization. Perhaps the Oyo State government would recognize businesses like these, as Dr. Adoyi has said, and give them the working environment that will make them thrive some more.
In 2017, I had completed the manuscript of my book Victor Banjo and published it a soft copy of it. Dr. Peju Simoyan very graciously help print five copies of the book for display at a writing workshop. For the first time, I saw the beauty of having a hard copy of this book. I showed Dr. Paul Adoyi a copy of the work; he was elated and promised to support me towards publishing the book. He kept his word. I am indebted to this great friend of mine and I have no reservation in recommending his business to you. If you want to set up a farm settlement and you need ideas on how to go about it: I recommend FARMERGIANT Nigeria Limited. Whatever else you may need, as far as poultry needs are concerned, I recommend FARMERGIANT to you and you can be certain you will not be disappointed doing business with them. Their contact details are:
Email: [email protected]
Telephones: 09094538736, 09094538737, 08063135382
Website: http://www.farmermartng.com/http://www.farmermartng.com/
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