[Interview] Leopold Ebegbuna: MD/CEO, Rising Light Global, Nigeria
Leopold Ebegbuna is MD/CEO of Rising Light Global Company Ltd., Nigeria. Africa Business Communities speaks with him.
Would you please introduce your company?
My company is Rising Light Global, and it has been in existence for about three years. We are located in Nigeria and operate in the fields of Human Resource Business Process Consulting & Outsourcing (HRBPO), recruitment, performance management, customer service, training and medical tourism (facilitation of
evacuation for medical treatment in India, the Balkans and Israel). Fundamentally, we advise and counsel influential businesses and individuals who want to make impacts in their chosen areas of operation.
In which industries do you operate?
Finance, Quick Service Restaurants, Confectionery & Food Processing, NGOs, Entertainment and Medical.
What are the USPs of your business?
We continuously provide creative and enduring solutions to the business needs of our clients.
Our other key USP is customer relationship management orientations. Our professional relationship skills enable us identify and assume control over cost saving operations while allowing the client to focus on more strategic issues of the business.
Who are your clients?
We have clients in the Insurance industry, quick service and food processing industries, entertainment industry and the Maritime Industry. We provide these industries with a wide range of HR services, from recruitment to payroll and performance management.
How does Rising Light Global remain competitive in a fast-changing global marketplace?
Our product offerings are trending. We deploy technology to reach our target audience and our method of delivery is practical. Flexible pricing is also our plus.
What can be done by entrepreneurs and government to stimulate the business environment in Nigeria?
The governments at all levels – federal, state and local – could do well to improve the operating environment, update the infrastructural facilities, reduce the costs of doing business and eliminate corrupt tendencies.
Entrepreneurs should make more efforts towards sponsoring research and explore opportunities for commercial success. With our population, businesses that are able to identify accurately the needs of the people will always achieve sustainable success.
What can you say about the targets, plans and ambitions of Rising Light Global for 2015?
Basically to create a service-based company whose primary goal is to deliver distinctive value to its customers. We hope to leverage on this to increase the number of clients served by 20 per year.
We also have plans to develop a sustainable start-up consultancy firm that can survive off its own cash flow, has significant equity holdings in other SBUs and its own fully operational office by end of 2015.
Do you believe Social Media and the Internet to be a plus to the business environment, as it applies to your industry?
Definitely a big plus for our strategy. With the advent of cheaper smart phones, the growth of ecommerce platform, affordable internet services, the stage is set for greater online transactions. It is also presents an economic and more effective marketing and sales tool. We anticipated this trend and we are adequately poised to play big in the new media platform.
What expectations do you have for Nigeria´s economy in 2015?
Nigeria depends on oil as major revenue to the government. The lower oil price indicates lower income from that source. To survive, the governments are likely to cut back on expenses and impose more taxes. This could lead to slower growth rate for some sectors. Not all sectors are going to be affected, I think. My role as the CEO is to rejig our strategy to identify those sectors we can add value to and redesign value chain to meet their needs.
Which African countries will perform best in 2015?
With the elections over and the insurgency dealt with, Nigeria will continue to attract direct foreign investment in the foreseeable future. There remain vast untapped opportunities. This will continue to increase the growth rate over and above South Africa and Egypt, which are my other two favorites for Africa.
South Africa, though a developed economy, has a slower growth rate. The margin of profit is lower and they are moving to other African nations in order to retain a favourable balance of trade.
Egypt will do well too. If the new government is able to deal with the internal security challenges and is better accepted by the Egyptians, we should see more development. This may take a while to see results and recover the economy´s balance.
Africa Business Communities is conducting a series of interviews with CEO's in Africa. Are you a CEO in Africa and interested in an interview? Please send an e-mail to Andrea Ayemoba: andrea@africabusinesscommunities.com