Ichie Obi Charles Onyekwuluje (Ngene Umunya ), Chairman/CEO MezDora Estil’O Hotel, says the hotel incurred over N20 million loss due to lack of electricity supply

www.odogwublog.com brings you the interview of Ichie Obi Charles Onyekwuluje (Ngene Umunya) who is the Chief executive Officer of MezDora Estil’O hotel located at Umunya, his home town. 

He is a native of Ajakpani village, Umunya in Oyi Local Government Area of Anambra state. He joined civil service at Chevron Nigeria Limited based in Lagos when he finished school at City Commercial College London, and was in one of their branches, Escravos offshore location.

He voluntarily retired to contribute to the society that has given him so much as he said in this interview with a team from www.odogwublog.com  led by Chairman Board of Directors Odogwu Media Communications Limited , Odogwu Emeka Odogwu,.

Ichie Obi Onyekwuluje bared his mind on the challenges confronting investors in Anambra state.

Excerpt:

Your hospitality business, MezDora Estil’o is no doubt, ultra modern but people wonder why you decided to site it in Ununya, your home town where access road is a problem?

I realized quickly that our people gave me something that I need to give back to them. So, my aim was to give back to the community that has given me so much. My intension for this establishment in my community was to create jobs for our people, empower the farmers by creating market for them here. We buy vegetables, fowls and fishes etc here.

Whatever we need to buy, instead of going to another place, we buy it from them to encourage them to cultivate more and by so doing, we boost the economy of the state and reduce rural-urban migration. We did not locate the hospitality business here because of money but to make our people feel that sense of belonging and help government in the much talked Aku Luo Uno philosophy.

In what ways do you think the investment will help the people of this area?

First is to create employment to the people of this town and the neighboring communities like Nteje, Awkuzu, Ifitedunu, Umudioka, Ogbunike and Nkwelle Ezunaka and increase the economic power of the farmers. We have people who go to Onitsha to buy some items to sell and we buy from them. We hope to expand the poultry, piggery and snail businesses and farmers generally. My people will no longer go to Enugu or Onitsha to sell their vegetables because here, we don’t sell any food that is in the freezer. As you order, it will be prepared for you from the garden to the pot and you will be served.

What is your employees’ strength?

We have already employed about 40 persons and this is just the beginning. We have other projects like the Amusement park yet to take off, Cinema, multipurpose Auditorium yet to take off, a proposed night club and so on. The implication is that we will have a whole package. By the time you come into the amusement park, with your family, you enjoy yourself, take your time and go home, same thing as in the night club, one may decide not to go back because of unsafe condition, you go in and lodge. So, we started with 40, by the time we are done, this place will absorb over 120 young men and women.

Apart from the hospitality business, what other areas do you think will boost the economic fortune of the people of Anambra state?

What we are doing is already boosting the economic fortunes of the people of the state because it will increase the production of those farmers that supply agricultural product to us. The people that are rearing fowl, people that are into fishery, snail farmers and others will increase their financial base as it will have a multiplier effect within the state. If we do this and every community does that, in a whole, it will amount to something that will increase the economic base of the people.

What are the challenges that hamper business in this area?

It has not been easy especially when we tried to bring in some heavy machinery to this place. We hadn’t the road and we called of the government for intervention. We have maintained this NYSC road for a very long time, once it rains, there is no road. We have talked to the community and the local government. We may stop maintaining this road and NYSC members will find it difficult to access their camp. When we were building this place, no truck comes in here because there is no road linking to this place and we have to wait until after the rainy season and that caused the delay in making this place ready in four years otherwise, it would have been ready in two years. As it is, the express is not viable, the internal roads are not viable and passable. If we want to stand taste of competition, with other renowned international hospitality industries, and we don’t have the road, this hotel will die young. If the road is tarred, we will have adequate patronages. No customer will like his car stained just to patronize a hotel. Sometimes, we get stocked and toe them with bigger vehicles. So these are the major challenges we have been having.

We want to see that we draw the light because we have been operating on Generator for the past one year. If you check the multiplier effect we have, you will discover that we have lost over N20 million. Government should not undermine investors. I bet you in this part of the state, there are few enviable investment like this. Government should encourage that because we brought this investment home due to heed to the call from the government for Anambrarians to come home and invest.

 To join hands in developing the state. We are now here and they can’t give us the road. If we manage it for the next two years and we don’t have return on investment, we close down and go to somewhere else.

This is part of what people are running from coming home to invest in the state.  I don’t want the government to do any other thing but the road and let me show that the Golden Tullip at Agulu cannot compete with this place. The elevator is here, before they brought the elevator, we have to wait from the beginning of one rainy season to the end of the other rainy season. The people were on standby, waiting for the lift to arrive .It didn’t come and they waited and left. The lift has been here for one year and there is nobody to fix it.