Nwosu calls for more quoted companies in Southeast

Chairman of the Board of Directors of Cutix Cables, Ambassador Odi Nwosu, has called on entrepreneurs, especially those operating in the Southeast, to list their companies on the Nigerian Exchange Limited.

He said that this is very necessary because of the need for sustainability, adding that next to product quality, people should come before systems.

Nwosu spoke to The Guardian against the backdrop of the recent demise of the founding chairman of Cutix Cables, Chief Ajulu Uzodike, who will be buried in Nnewi next weekend. He said that despite Uzodike’s demise, the future of the company is guaranteed, being a public limited liability outfit.

Nwosu said though there have been changes in the leadership structure of the company, it is still standing strong.

“At a point in time, I left to serve as Nigeria’s Ambassador to the Republic of Burundi in 2012, but the leadership changes have not stopped the company from consistently doing well,” he said.

“Profits have been going up, dividends have been constantly paid, and bonus issues have been given once every three years. We published what we want to do and have kept it in what we call the Cutix Charter.

“In the Cutix Charter, the direction of Cutix is painted. Everybody who reads it can understand it and know where Cutix wants to go. The Board and the management are made to commit to the Cutix Charter, and members of the board follow through on that Cutix Charter.”

Nwosu maintained that as long as members of the Board follow through on the Cutix Charter, “you can rest assured that Cutix will lead tomorrow, whether the founder and I, the co-founder, are there or not.”

The former Ambassador disclosed that Nigerian products now compete with foreign ones, stressing that experts have continued to rate locally manufactured cables above imported ones due to strict compliance with international best practices.

He said, “Our greatest strength lies in our people. We made sure we started Cutix with completely local talents. We brought Nigerians, we trained them, we installed the machines, we ran them, we made mistakes, and we corrected the mistakes.

“The mistakes built knowledge, and we moved on. As we started building some machines, we also started improving our knowledge, so Cutix grew. And we kept sending people back for training.

“We would also employ people from the trade schools. We would build things locally. When they made mistakes, we corrected them, and then we made sure we grew with them until we eventually got what we wanted. So, our greatest competitive advantage in Cutix is the development of our human capital.”

He pointed out that the board of directors is made up of people from varied backgrounds, “including people who have worked at the top management level in Cutix for many years. When they retire, we bring them on as non-executive directors to help guide Cutix along the path that we want it to go.”

It would be recalled that as one of the few publicly quoted companies in the Southeast, the founder, Uzodike, who retired as Managing Director in 2008, remained the board chairman until 2011, before he died on June 7, 2024.