Finally! Atiku reveals how he started his business investments in 1971

macfranc007 December 01, 2017 Nigeria News today & Breaking news ▷ Read Nigerian newspapers 24/7 Nnenna Ibeh

- Atiku Abubakar has revealed how he started his business investments in Nigeria

- Atiku said he bought four pickup vehicles for hire purchase in 1971

- He urged Nigerian youths to have more drive towards entrepreneurship

A former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, has revealed how he began his business investment in 1971.

Atiku will receiving the Honourary Achiever Award, at the Africa’s Youth Entrepreneurs Conference and Award said he moved to Lagos on Lagos on June 29, 1969 after his training with the Nigeria Customs Service.

He also dedicated the award as the Honourary African Outstanding Entrepreneur to Nigerian youths whom he urged to have more drive towards entrepreneurship.

He said it was in Lagos he discovered that the most lucrative business was the transport business.

Atiku said: “I came to Lagos on June 29, 1969 and after my two years training (with the Nigeria Customs Service); I was posted to the border station of Idi-Iroko."

At that time, the Badagry Road had not been constructed and the only means of transportation to the rest of the West African corridor was through the Idi-Iroko border to what used to be called Dahomey and what is now known as Benin Republic.

“On getting to Idi-Iroko, my first posting, I was not married and what I discovered was that the most promising business was transportation. Many pickup vans were transporting women traders from Ajase (Port Novo) to Lagos every morning, and every evening from Lagos back to Port Novo," Atiku said.

The former vice president said he had approached the automobile company, SCOA, where he signed a hire purchase agreement.

He said with the agreement, he bought four Peugeot pick-up vehicles which he handed over to four different drivers.

“So I asked myself, how I can seize the opportunity of this moving business. I came over to Lagos and in those days SCOA were the sole distributors of Peugeot, so I went to SCOA and I signed a hire-purchase agreement and bought four of those pickups and gave them to four different drivers and every day they will bring their returns to me and at the end of the month, I will go to SCOA and pay them.

“I wasn’t married, so my salary was intact and in addition I was saving from what I was getting from my transport business. So, sometime, to be an entrepreneur you must have the ingenuity to be an entrepreneur," the former vice president said.

Decrying the state of Nigeria's educational system, Atiku said in the early 1960s the nation provided the Nigerian youths the opportunities to make diverse carrier choice.

"The educational system we operated in the First Republic provided our students then the opportunity to either go to universities or go to technical colleges or to go to crafts schools. There was never a dropout in that kind of educational system. The dullest was trained on a skill and given the capital to start a business," he said.

He also said he regrets that the Nigerian educational system has moved away from what it used to be in the past.

“So, what I am trying to say is that my Nigeria is possible and your own Nigeria is possible”, he said.

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The former vice president urged the youths to take advantage of the rebound in railway infrastructure to start a business initiative of transportation of goods across the country.

He encouraged the youth to do so in order to reduce the reliance on heavy duty trucks to convey those goods.

NAIJ.com earlier reported that another top member of the ruling party, All Progressives Congress (APC), Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed decamped from the party.

Baba-Ahmed defection from APC comes shortly after the former vice president resigned from the APC.

Baba-Ahmed said he left the party because the Muhammadu Buhari administration lacks competence and is corrupt.

Atiku versus Buhari: Who will win? - on NAIJ.com TV