Paul Adedoyin Odunaiya, is the Managing Director of Wemy Industries Limited. In this interview with SUNDAY AIKULOLA, he shares insight on how President Bola Tinubu can revamp the economy and other issues.

How do you think the Tinubu administration can revamp the economy?
There is a need for a step-by-step plan or a road map on how they will revamp the economy from where it is today to where it will become in four years’ time. All the plans, like ten or twenty pages, must be articulated to the Nigerian people, then it will give us a lot of confidence.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and future of manufacturing, any nexus?
AI is an advanced form of computerized system. But I don’t think AI will take over the workforce. I can give an example. Elon Musk tries to run a factory with robots. He discovered he couldn’t run the factory efficiently, he had to get human beings. There are soft skills that human beings do better than robots. So, no matter what, you still need human beings to do certain jobs.

Can you tell us how Wemy Industries started?
Wemy Industries is a manufacturing company. It’s been in existence since 1979. My later father and mother started the business. My late mother was a gynecologist who worked in Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH). My late mother came up with the idea because of the nature of her job at the time. She believed that baby diaper usage would be fully adopted in the future. With that idea in place, my dad went to do research on manufacturing baby diapers. Then he went on to get a loan to start up the business in Isolo, Lagos state. Fast forward till today; we now manufacture other products apart from baby diapers like Dr Brown’s Baby wipes, Dr Brown sanitary pads, Dr browns adult diapers and nightingale Underlay pad. The business is run by my younger brother and myself.

Export plays a vital role in expanding businesses; can you tell us about Wemy Industries’ export strategy and countries that are your export markets?
We live in a country where there is scarcity of dollars and for many manufacturing industries, we need dollars for business. Export should be what will help us get dollars. We started exporting three years ago and our strategy is to enter as many markets as possible, not only the African but American and European markets. We see a lot of opportunities in the African markets. We are in Mali, Ghana and Cameroon. We also have plans to go to Benin Republic and Gabon.

Can you share challenges and opportunities when exporting to international markets?
A major challenge is weak import controls; you find a lot of Chinese exporters who dump cheap low-grade goods into these markets. We want to export our diapers, but there are cheap low-grade diapers there. Another challenge is that you don’t have a lot of African entrepreneurs unlike Nigeria. Majority of the entrepreneurs are Lebanese or Indians in these markets, and they connect to their foreign countries. As a result, our strategy must be different.

Let’s talk about Initial Public Offering (IPO), have you ever thought Wemy Industries will be listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange?
It’s something we think about, but it is not something we are considering at the moment.

Can you share the impact of the regulatory policies?
We are a member of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN). In the last decade, we have been talking about Diaper policy. The policy will make our raw materials cheaper. It will discourage importation and facilitate local production and provide more jobs. But we’ve not been able to get the policy. We want to be hopeful that under the Tinubu administration, the policy will be achieved.

Is Wemy Industries addressing sustainability in product offerings?
We have more women and girls here. We are also investing in solar and inverters to help production and reduce the cost of desire. We also try to recycle our waste. Some of the waste is even sold as raw materials to other companies.

How have you leveraged innovation and technology?
Technology is about doing things better and faster at a lower cost. So, we have no choice than to adopt technology as much as possible. If you don’t, you will be inefficient.
What is your advice to aspiring entrepreneurs looking to enter the manufacturing sector?
My advice is not to give up and do a lot of research. I don’t think we have a research culture here. The most successful businesses invest in research, like product or market research. If you are looking for an opportunity, you will find one because Nigeria has lots of needs. There are a lot of things we import that we can manufacture locally. We even import toothpicks. Why can’t we manufacture it locally?

How do you see access to capital in Nigeria?
Access to capital is very difficult in Nigeria. I think that it is the biggest problem for entrepreneurs. I think it also doesn’t help if entrepreneurs don’t manage their capital well. I know a lot of FinTech’s that have collapsed because they got capital and couldn’t manage it well.

During COVID-19, can you share how you manage the challenges?
For us, the COVID-19 was an opportunity. We did pretty well. We ventured into manufacturing facemasks.

In the area of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), how has Wemy Industries fared?
We support the girl child, we have supported female entrepreneurs in the past, like giving grants. We do support the police and we employ youths.