Idowu Osuolale Obasa, Chief Executive Officer, Winners Golden Bet (WGB), promoters of Golden Bet Lotto made his mark in management, media and business in over three decades of working in some rather challenging environments. In his interview, Obasa who co-founded The News Magazine speaks on how he transited from the media to lotto business in Nigeria and more.
Can you let us into how you started business?
I used to work for companies before I joined other friends to set up Independent Communications Network Limited, Publishers of The News. That will be the time to say I had somehow gone into business. I went in there as a shareholder and also as an Executive Director. Definitely my temperament, my expectations, my intentions and my conduct would have been different from when I was working in other places. I think that was a very good time to say I had gone into business. I went into business at that time because like my colleagues, I was fired by passion, a need that we needed a medium that can evolve itself in challenging the authorities at that time. It was the same altruism that led to other publications like TELL. There were circumstances that justified a very viable press, independent press to challenge the misadventure of the military in politics. That was our primary motive, but that would have been meaningless if you also did not intend to sustain it financially. It would have been extremely meaningless. So, we fashioned it as a business organisation, rather than not for profit organisation. Of course, we could also have been a vibrant organisation run as not for profit, but our aim was to run it as a business organization that will make profit. We felt that could be done while addressing political issues of the day. We anticipated that we were going to run into challenges getting the business registered at that time, which was why the company was not originally registered by us. Two of our wives used their maiden names to register the company, so I had started thinking like a businessman since that time, and I never stopped thinking like a businessman. I kept my eyes on some possibilities and because I always knew that one day I would leave and I always have an exit strategy, it was not difficult for me to step right into business, but this time around it was not government, or writing stories about government. It was to make money. You can only be a successful entrepreneur, if you are also passionate about what you do.
Tell us about your current venture and what inspired you into it?
While at The News, I came in contact with Alhaji Sani Kabir who was also a director of The News. He, with his father actually brought lotto business into Nigeria. As a Chartered Accountant, he also wanted me to do some consulting for him, which I did. While consulting for him, I learnt a lot about the business of lotto. It was not therefore difficult for me years later to go into this business.
What challenges did you encounter?
The first challenge is that if you didn’t have high blood pressure before you are bound to have it, because as the stakers are staking with a lot of apprehension, you, the promoter are receiving their staking with a lot of apprehension. Lotto is different from lottery. With lottery, the promoter is assured of sales and savings. With lotto, it is not so, they could win far, far beyond your imagination, therefore, you are always on edge. One thing about lotto is not just prompt payment, but instant payment. Prompt means you could pay between twelve hours or that kind of thing. Instant payment means you have to pay immediately, hence the policy of our company paying within one hour of winning. The challenge is that you must always be sufficiently liquid to pay winnings and this is unlimited. It’s a challenge, which turns you into a first class management person. It requires a keen sense of cash management. That is what has made our company one of the leaders in this industry. Of course, there are other human management issues in terms of staff, agents, sub-agents and stakers. We always pray that stakers win, we also pray that they don’t win us out of business.
Lotto is capital intensive, how were you able to raise funds?
It was only at the beginning when we were using paper that we had challenges. I think the most important investment is having ready cash to pay for winnings. The beginning; that was the test period, but as we managed the situation, we began to increase our strategic reserve, and we were becoming more comfortable, then the Lagos State government came and said we needed to obtain a license and that the license required us to computerise. Ha! That was really something to worry about because the license was a huge amount, which I would not like to mention now. It was a tough period for us, but we struggled to make it. The third challenge was that we needed to buy data gathering equipment, POS machines, which unfortunately needed to be brought from abroad in 2009. It was only towards the end of 2016 that we heaved a sigh of relief. There were occasions, when some of our agents had to give us money in advance to buy the machines. At the same time, you couldn’t put all money into buying of POS machines because winnings can come tomorrow morning. You just needed to do a lot of arrangement and all that, but thank God we scaled through all of that. It was really capital intensive. It however made doing business easier because you don’t need to carry large chunks of paper and checking. What used to take over 300 people to do in our Lagos office was done by computer in six minutes, so the work that used to have hundreds of people no longer have more than ten persons because everything is computerised. That helped in increasing the number of games we could have in a day. Good as it is, it robbed a lot of people of their jobs, but we now expanded into branches.
How was it transiting from media to lotto business?
A Chartered Accountant can run any business successfully. Our training is such that if I run a furniture factory, I am expected to run it well, and our business is not limited to lotto. I am a professional manager. It should not be a problem if I apply my management skills wherever I find myself. I worked at The News first and foremost as a professional manager, though I found myself in editorial work, it was not my primary responsibility. My original training is accounting, though I have a degree in Economics. I transit from one business to another, though they have peculiarities, it doesn’t matter.
Lotto business today is very competitive, how do you survive?
Very competitive, very, very competitive but don’t forget that most of the people we met in the business have left. Most of those we are competing with met us in the business, so we have an advantage. Secondly, all of us have not really tapped into the potential of the lotto business. In this world of IT, we need to be innovative, we must be innovative and we are very conscious of that. We do a lot of strategic planning, we advertise, we market. These are some of the things assisting us. The lotto industry is like any other industry. Competition is normal.
What is your advice to upcoming entrepreneurs?
I am an upcoming entrepreneur myself, so I don’t think I am in a position to advise. But with my little experience, I can tell you that you just have to be innovative in this country where planning is made useless by macro-economic intrusion. You have to go the extra mile. If you are in a business where you have to send money abroad, that is even double jeopardy. Where we have to purchase things abroad, we find out that foreign exchange has compromised us very deeply. Our greatest challenge right now is the foreign exchange situation because it makes us lose a lot of money. – Culled from The Sun.
