A SILENT PERFORMER IN SOLAR WORLD
His numerous trainings and expeditions beyond the shores of Nigeria sharpened his appetite to make an impact in the solar sector. It is on record that he has attended various courses within and outside the solar power circle, both locally and internationally. As an astute personality with humor and style, his sense of sacrifice for humanity is built on safety, peaceful co-existence and national development, from which his first dream of becoming a career ambassador emanated. However, by providence, he detoured into the solar career, which has, within a couple of years, impacted tremendously on regional and national economic growth of Nigeria Nation.
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Secodi energy solutions with an impeccable mission and vision, can you give us an extensive range of products the company offers?
We have office use products, home use products such as the solar ceiling fan, solar freezers both standing and the flat freezer, we also have solar generators for homes, solar blenders, solar cooker, solar boiling ring, basically we have most of the home use appliances in solar right now. Then for the office use, we have the industrial solar solution like the solar generator and solar system. We have what many offices can use in reducing their overall expenses on energy which range from solar air conditioner and the rest of the offices need. We also have solutions for market women, those of them that need light for selling their products. We also have cold room solutions for those who are into protein, meat, fish and turkey storage. We have solution for barbers too where they don’t need to depend on using their fuel to power their generators. Secodi is an industry where we build our solutions by ourselves. We manufacture our generators which makes it very easy for us to design whatever any institution needs. We have made solutions for universities, hotels, petrol stations and others. With the little resources we have in our custody in Nigeria, we are able to make this innovations and it has really empowered a lot of people.
In transiting Nigeria to a cleaner energy future, what stands Secodi solutions out from other companies relative to customer satisfaction?
Secodi is also into research and development which gives us the edge over other solar companies. We go into the in-depth challenges that people face in using solar, then, we come up with solutions and this is why today, the innovations we have is profound. We are the first company to actually produce the biggest DC solution in the world, so we have that advantage. So as a company that first introduced solar car into the country, that gives us an advantage because we are solution personified.
Secodi has one of its missions to reduce the rate of poverty in 3rd world countries, how do they aim to achieve this, Whatcan you say about its progress thus far?
We have already done a lot. We have empowered thousands of people of which we have lost count. Our model is that we make provision for a platform where people can become distributors of our very unique products, the people make their profit from it and they get their family sustained with the profit from this. Another thing we have been doing to reduce the rate of poverty is the solar installation training we conduct time to time, and I will say a lot of persons have become solar installers in courtesy of Secodi solutions, not just Nigeria but globally especially in Africa such as Ghana, Congo, South Africa and many others. In Nigeria many solar shops you see today is in courtesy of Secodi solutions. We would want to do more as God gives us the ability.
How has the journey been since the inception of this international company, managing it as the CEO?
The journey has been tough to be candid. Bringing a new innovation is tough. When Secodi started, solar was still coming up in Nigeria and a lot of people had their doubts and when we wanted to bring solar vehicles, many persons called it scam and that was quite a challenge for us. The acceptability of the people wanting to know if this innovation would solve their problems was an issue also. We have been working with ourselves even without the help of people. We really appreciate God because of the impact that we have been making so far. You know when it comes to solutions, you have a lot of failures but that is another way for you to make it better.
There’s a side of you that is worth emulating which is your philanthropical lifestyle through the Moses ONOJA foundation, what drives this passion and how did you start doing all of these?
What brought about that part of me was a need that came after a lot of research especially when the whole kidnapping thing was happening, so with that information, we discovered that a lot of people were being used because they are not educated and an educated mind is less prone to committing lots of crimes because the person wouldn’t want to jeopardize his or her future. Then, we created a foundation for people who were seen hawking in the street and put them in school. The passion was born out of concern of the insurgency that was happening and we are trusting God to actually do more because it is not easy with the demand because a lot of people are actually there looking for how they could further their education with the current state of the economy. So all this makes us want to support the society through this foundation.
A lot of people find it very difficult today to focus on a particular thing today, but here we have an industrious and God fearing man, How do you manage being a pastor, a CEO and running a foundation as well?
I would say, all glory to God. It is a function of grace. There is a part of the Bible that tells us that “we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us”. It’s not also easy tho, there is pressure and you have to combine all that but we have been strengthened by the grace of God to fulfill this.
What advice would you give to your younger self today for the youths out there to learn from?
NEVER you say NEVER to your dreams. lot of people have good dreams but they feel that it is not attainable and achievable. They lose courage at some point. Consistency I would say to my younger self. Whatever you want to do, just start and remain there, keep improving on it and before you know it, you would achieve that success. I would also say, being focused is very important for anyone who wants to achieve success or bring an invention to reality. Most persons start something but give up at some point or just get distracted by what their mates are doing. When you have a dream, there would always be a way for it to be a reality and always know that you have the capacity to bring it to birth. When we started Secodi, I saw the solar car in my mind and then it was not here in Nigeria, lots of persons saw it that it would not be possible to achieve but I told myself that there is nothing impossible. So that was what propelled me to ensure that we brought in solar cars to Nigeria and that dream is now a reality because we were focused and didn’t allow the obstacles weigh us down. Finally I would say, don’t look at the resources you don’t have, make use of the available resources you have to start up. The amount we used to start up this company is very funny but here we are today. With consistency you would see yourself going to where you have dreamt of.
What should we expect from Secodi Solutions in the next 3 years and also the foundation?
In the next 3 years, we are bringing more innovations especially in the solar industry that would help people even during rainy season. This is the next research and development we are working on now. Then for the foundation, we are looking at having our tuition free university in the next 3 years.
