The President of El-Samad Group of Companies Alhaji Sammani Adamu, has been one of the few business entrepreneurs at the helm of changing Kano business to modern form of business in conformity with digitally accepted phenomena. In this interview with Mustapha Adamu the business entrepreneur talks about how his business concept has become a role model to investments and challenges facing business in Kano, among others.
Can you tell us a brief of your biography?
My name is Sammani Adamu. Born in the early 80s to a family of business entrepreneurs; I did all my conventional studies in Kano State before taking up the family business after a serious research on modern business strategies and later came up with the concept of El-Samad group of Companies in 1997 and got it registered in 1998.
Tell us about this modern way of doing business
My company that deals in textile and other general enterprises has come up with modern methodologies of easing ways of business activities that are being conducted. We came up with minimum liability to both the company’s customers and the company itself. We are fully committed to reviving Kano’s manufacturing industries
The new adopted methodologies have been bringing the best selection of product and merchandise to our customers as well as create a trust and confidence between us and the customers by introducing a malls-like setting with digitalized facilities that will ease the way of conducting business as against that of the traditional processes.
How would you describe initial ways of conducting businesses with the new concept adopted?
What we have now is a business that makes us responsive and responsible to our customer’s needs. It is a system that guarantees good product delivery as well as an effective value for money methodology that ensures absolute trust between the buyer and the seller.
Unlike the initial processes whereby one had to travel thousands of kilometers and also take risks of moving with money with less trust between both parties, this new adopted method has erased all those hindrances.
This is a total deviation from the traditional way of doing business especially in our chosen sector. The new innovation we have introduced has established a trust between the Company and our numerous customers on having qualitative products being delivered to them nationwide in accordance to digitally accepted models.
What would you say are your challenges in the modern business adopted?
No doubt challenges are virtually in every business aspect, but here what we initially experienced was that of demand, but we were able to overcome it by having about 8 branches with 2 more branches coming soon making our branches to 10 across the state dealing in various strata of our range of products.
However, we are also planning to expand our company to other states across the federation for easy access to our business associates in Nigeria and beyond.
Do you think it is possible to sustain the new innovation?
Of course it is possible because this is an investment that deals with multi-dimensional activities, we have engaged various people of different disciplines and as such we have grown to become an entrepreneurial set up. Therefore, sustaining such a venture wouldn’t be an issue, as I have said El-samad had influenced a lot of merchandise sectors to an extent that many investments are presently copying from our concept which we at El-Samad consider to be a plus to the sustainability of the business.
Are you aware of the state government’s move to revive the manufacturing sector?
Yes! I am and I see this development as one of the best things that had happened to the manufacturing industry for ages. Indeed a successful revival of the industry will mean saving the nation a huge sum of resources going out of the nation as well as to strengthen the nation’s GDP.
Our new adopted business strategies welcome such positive development in the nation’s and state’s economic blueprint. We are in full support of the move and we will always be ready to give our best to the successful revival of the sector. We are optimistic that, Kano manufacturing industry has contributed a lot to the nation’s economic growth and its revival would definitely be a great deal that will ensure the state economic resuscitation as well as that of the nation.
We have since indicated our interest to be part of this historical move by the state government in ensuring that Kano state has regained its commercial hub title. This is what we have been praying for.
