There are indications that the
international fast and take away food providing services McDonald’s and Chicken
Licken would soon be in Cameroon. An international South Africa-based business
magnet is prospecting and making plans to eventually franchise with the multinational
companies to get them established in his home country.
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| EMILE ETAMBO : I MEAN BUSINESS! |
EMILE ETAMBO NGWE, an entrepreneur,
partner and CEO of the renowned DELANY GROUP SA-a chain of businesses-(car
dealers, recycling companies, taverns, and bottle stores) explains his concerns
about doing business in Africa and his urge to give back to Cameroon.
In this interview, the business tycoon
explains what it takes to be successful in business. Excerpts:
How did this idea of creating Delany Group
come about and why choose to set the company in South Africa and not elsewhere?
When I left the Higher Teacher Training
College ENS Bambili, Cameroon I became a senior Physics lecturer. I had also
studied computer and was a technician. I repaired computers and had some
knowledge on ICT.
My pay package as a physics teacher at
that time was not able to do things as I wanted or support my family and me. I
also wanted to further my education. I choose SA because that was an
opportunity I had at that time and relocated to Johannesburg in 2007.
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| ACTRESS NOLO , ETAMBO's FIANCE, ESADI AGWA |
It was
not too easy to immediately get back to school. The fees and the day to day
life (- paying of rents, feeding etc) were expensive. I tried to get a job in
vain. I then decided to continue with what I started in Cameroon-computer
repairs and ICT.
The money I started earning at the
computer shop kept me going. In 2009 after raising some money I enrolled at a
Computer College in Johannesburg where I upgraded my computer skills and
knowledge for more than six months.
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| ETAMBO,SPHILE : EYEING McDONALD's |
From there I began buying and selling cars
and gradually got fully engaged into business. Eight years later I partnered
with a prominent South African Business Lady, Sphile Mendar Mbhele, to create
Delany Group, a chain of businesses.
We own bottle stores, taverns, scrap yards
(recycling) and we buy and sell cars. We are also major investors in
social show biz events. We are real investors in South Africa. If you have
ideas that can bring us profit in return our experts look at it and if good we
invest.
How is DELANY Group fairing now?
With good management in place we are able
to sell three to five cars in a month. With the bottle stores and the
taverns located in Mafikeng (a locality on the outskirts of Johannesburg) we
are progressing and getting profits from there.
The scrap yard is going smoothly though
not giving us enough profit. We have been in the scrap yard or recycling
(buying and selling of ferrous and non-ferrous metals) business just for two
years and hope things are going good this far.
In the scrapyard we have
four employees and in the bottle stores and in the taverns some 16 employees.
When we have a project we hire a few experts and we venture in into it. We can
say so far God has been with us.
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| DELANY RECYCLING & SCRAPYARD |
You give the impression all is bed of
roses, when there is the impression doing business in SA seems risky at times?
The day to day running of the business in
Mafikeng has not been easy. Our major difficulty is that the workers steal a
lot from us. I run the business from Johannesburg and go to Mafikeng from time
to time to pick up books and do checks.
I realize shortages. It’s difficult to
dismiss the workers and start recruiting new ones because I have to rush here
and there. I just give them warning or do salary cuts but they end up doing it
again. There is competition in the scrap yard and car businesses.
But we are able to face the challenges. If
you look at SA you notice that many investors are not South Africans. I know
people think of xenophobia perpetrated by a minority that seems to scare many.
That minority are in the locations, the suburbs. Even though I am a bit scared
at times, I allay my fears because I live in an area where there are mostly
migrants. All the same I’m trying to be careful the way I invest. South Africa, despite its own ups and downs remains business friendly to a great extent.
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| DELANY CARS ON SALE |
.
You raised the issue of xenophobia and we
might be tempted to ask how best the business environment can be improved?
One of the best ways of building a
cohesive SA is to provide employment opportunities not only to our own people.
Let’s try to bring South Africans into our businesses, help and show them how
to be self-employed. For example in Mafikeng, of all my employees only two are
migrants.
The rest are South Africans. There are
other things we could do like taking part in events such the Cameroon Festival
Tournament, CAMFEST amongst others that brings people together, teaching them
how to accommodate each other.
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| DELANY BOTTLE STORES |
We should be looking at the contribution of each
individual in improving any society not from where he comes from.
We are made to understand that Delany
Group is brazing up to expand its area of investment to other African
countries? How soon would that be?
We want to venture into franchising. We
have two in mind; Chicken Licken and McDonald’s.These are international fast
food providers which are there to assist workers etc who get very busy and have
little time to maybe prepare food at home. We have employed some experts to do
some research especially on McDonald’s for a start.
To get into McDonald’s and or Chicken
Licken here in South Africa is not easy. Delany group is looking at
possibilities of opening one up and expanding it to Cameroon and other African
countries. I got feedback that to start McDonald’s in Cameroon we can’t handle
it at level of SA. We are talking to those who are in charge in USA and we are
on right track.
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| SOON IN CAMEROON |
Our experts are studying it. Once we get
the right conclusion, which would be done the soonest possible, we would
immediately expand. I think that would also provide employment to many. Delany
Group is really moving forward and growing. We are also into cooperate social
activities. We were major sponsors in the first edition of the Cameroon Great
Achievers Award, CAMGA and supported them again in 2015. The franchise project
is already looking positive and we hope next few years Delany Group is going to
be bigger than now.
Many abroad who are involved in business
back in their home countries have political ambitions. That is an observation.
Is that the case with the CEO of Delany Group?
I have great political ambitions because I
just joined the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, CPDM. I am
aspiring and want to be part of the South Africa CPDM bureau .In a long run I
look forward to go back home and be a proper politician. Maybe we can start
being a mayor or parliamentarian. One cannot live out of his country of
origin forever. Man is
naturally a political animal. I am no exception.
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| McDONALD's FAST FOOD |
What is your intention of joining the CPDM
party? Why not the opposition?
In Meta in the North West of Cameroon
where I come from, the past politicians did not do a lot for our people in my
view. I want to be able to do something for my community and my people and I
also want to be a good politician for myself. The politics I will do is for development
and nothing else. Many youths are leaving Cameroon and going abroad. It’s not a
good sign for us when we see most youths leaving our country.
That’s why some of us join politics so
that we make a difference. I want to go back home and do things the way we see
in South Africa. SA is more democratic. For instance the media is allowed to
say what is happening and they are not really suppressed.
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| FAST FOOD PROVIDERS |
So those are kind of things we want take
back home. Charity begins at home. If those of us abroad don’t show that things
have to be different I don’t think there is going to be any change. It has to
start with us. People must see change in us. It would not be easy to bring that
system but we must start from somewhere.
What would you advise those who might want
to venture into business but might not have mustered the courage?
I encourage everyone at home or abroad to
work hard. Hard work pays. No risk no reward and no action no film. Whatever
you are doing you put your mind there. Definitely you will win, just like
Delany group is winning.
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