Mr. Jackie Dai Hui is the Deputy Managing Director of Senoria in Nigeria, the parent body of FABCON, located in Abuja. Dai Hui, whose company is into the production of stone-coated roofing sheets and fibre cement boards, spoke with some journalists on the spate of building collapse in Nigeria, among other issues, TOPE SUNDAY was there.
What is your view on building collapse in Nigeria?
It is not only in Nigeria, in China, 10 to 20 years ago, it was the same challenge even after the contractors building the houses, hand it over to the occupants, the building collapse and people die. Later, China had to change its approach; quality became the number one consideration. It’s now in our country’s culture, and I think in Nigeria, you should understand that you are responsible for people’s lives and future, especially the youths and the next generation. However, if you choose poor quality, the bad materials used for construction, who will afford this waste? Our next generation will. Using bad building materials for construction is not good, therefore, I think the Nigerian government should make some rules and regulations tackling the contractors so that if there is a building collapse the company that built the house should be punished. That’s what is practiced in China.
Having said this, what is your view on the built environment in Nigeria?
You know in Nigeria, you have many construction companies building houses. Some mostly build low quality buildings that are not good for Nigeria’s future or its people. They use poor quality materials for construction, but I can assure you that my company will deliver top quality products if the building contractors decide to choose our products for their work, it will guarantee the safety of people’s lives.
What’s your take on substandard building materials?
Some people tell me that about 99 per cent of products imported into Nigeria are from China, they say Chinese products are of poor quality, but I can tell you why? In China, we have top or best quality products, but I can tell you that when Nigerians come to buy, they request that they only need low quality products, and if this is the order given to the manufacturing company, then they have to produce for low prices, meaning that they have to reduce the quality, utilize fake materials, so when it is imported to Nigeria, you still expect the Nigerian people to buy them. Nigerian people don’t really know how the Chinese people changed. For instance, I got a call from Lagos, some of the big men in Nigeria know about our factory in Abuja, saying they want to purchase some roofing sheets, but that they don’t need the price I’m offering them, when I saw their own price, I refused to accept because I wanted to guarantee them quality and I didn’t want to lose my reputation, such that if you build good reputation, your company can last for over 10 years. But if you want to destroy your reputation, only one bad situation or product can ruin it for you. We hope to thrive, survive and grow bigger in Nigeria; we want to contribute to Nigeria as a good reputation is the life to our company, that’s why we only produce good quality.
So, what are the plans of your company to grow Nigeria’s construction industry?
Well, as you know, my company is not only into products, we are also into construction, as I receive a lot of information about road and housing construction. My company didn’t really participate because a lot of other companies compete for such projects. But you know, like all the cement factories, the Dangote, BUA Group, and even Lafarge, we worked for almost 20 years with the China road contractors. In my company quality is number one, safety is also number one because we want to contribute to the lives of people in the society. In Nigeria generally, I think many companies have a very bright future, even the Nigerian government is seeking to work with our company to achieve the best results.
Our building materials are in high quality and they are safe as well. When you build with our material, you build with rest of mind. For now, we have only one factory and it is located in Kuje, Abuja. Just as I said earlier, we hope to establish more factories in other states such as Lagos before the end of 2019. Then soon, we will start the construction of another factory for our fibre cement board production within our Kuje factory. If we find out that these factories are making progress, may be next year or in ten year time, we will introduce more factories. The factories are being established because our target is to increase the job positions to Nigerian people. Secondly, we want to increase the living standards of Nigerians, thirdly, we want to increase the Nigerian economic standard, the Gross Domestic Products (GDP), fourthly, we intend to increase the Nigeria’s manufacturing industry to be number one in Africa, now it is time for us to change our idea, the market and other people’s perspective for life to be great.
Why did you decide to establish in Nigeria?
Nigeria is the largest country in Africa, just like China is the largest country in Asia. I think Nigeria is seen more like China before, because when we came here, we found out that your country is investment and business friendly and we’ve been having a very good working experience the people of the nation, and Nigerians are very welcoming. I think it was time for our company and our country- China, to contribute to your people and the Nigerian government that was why we established our company- Senoria and our factory- FABCON.
Our products are made here in Nigeria, when you get to our factory, you will find out that it is the biggest factory in the country for producing stone coated roofing sheets, and our products are top quality at a very good price. We hope that in the nearest future, we can invest more into a factory that centres on building material products as we intend to contribute to Nigeria by producing top quality products at a very affordable price.
Our products have 40 years warranty, this is what we do, through the tests, but when you go to the market, you will see that the fake kind of products outside ours do put fifty years warranty, or they can even tell you fifty-five years warranty, but when you see our products compared to theirs, you can simply tell that theirs have poor quality. You know we can also make the fifty years warranty, but we want to be responsible for our claims towards Nigeria people; we don’t want to cheat Nigeria people.
We have over 200 Nigerians working with us as of now in the factory. We shall also increase the figure to 500 Nigerian as we hope to establish branches in other states like Lagos, if that is a big factory, then we may just have up to 1000 workers only for the factory. But in the cement factory, we have up to 1,500 staff.
