With barely two-year at the helms of affairs at the hitherto moribund Lagos State Printing Corporation (LSPC) – print expert and driver of excellence – Mr. Abiola Owoaje has without doubt transformed the State’s printing press into a leading printing company of choice for not just Lagos State Government’s printing jobs but commercial printing as well in Nigeria. Observers believe – this is a rare feat worthy of emulation. That is why in this issue of SMART PRINT CELEB, WHERE To Print met with the versatile Chief Executive Officer of LSPC – Mr. Abiola Owoaje who shares with you in the following interview session, how he is able to revamp the printing corporation, boosts staffs morale and position the press for the future. Excerpt:
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN IN THIS PROFESSION?
I graduated from Yaba College of Technology in the 1984-1985 session majoring in Graphic Design and I have always worked in printing establishment since then. So I can say I have spent over 28 years in the printing industry.
WHAT ARE THE EXPERIENCES YOU HAVE GATHERED SO FAR AS CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER AT LAGOS STATE PRINTING CORPORATION?
The major experience I can point at is – getting the grips on how to deal with the Government. All my working experiences before now are gotten from private enterprises in the United Kingdom. This is my first time of working with government or better say – of being a public servant and also working in my mother land – Nigeria after my graduation. The experience I have with the State, knowing how things are done most especially the operatives and operations of Civil Service – is a different ball game from where I am coming from. And what one often found out is that – some things that are done in a certain way in private establishments – there are clear cut differences when it comes to the Government. It usually calls for extra steps, most especially in terms of getting approvals because the public funds must be utilised judiciously. However, my experience with the private enterprises brought about my drive for excellence and pursuit of goals – I put in my energetic drive to ensure we achieve our objective of coming on board.
WHAT WERE THOSE OBJECTIVES OF COMING ON BOARD IN THE FIRST PLACE?
Lagos State Printing Corporation then was moribund with low staff morale, high debt profile, lack of standard printing equipment and generally lack of clear vision. All these have now changed with the Corporation undergoing tremendous restructuring in line with the new leadership vision of making LSPC the leading printing company of choice for not just the State, but commercial printing business in Nigeria. Again, staffs are motivated and their morale boosted to align with LSPC next phase of developments. We are rebranding the corporation structurally and strategically for new opportunities that will be introduced into our production mix that will aim at making Government to Commercial works in the 40:60 percentage ratio.
SINCE YOUR APPOINTMENT, WHAT ARE YOUR ACHIEVEMENTS SO FAR?
When I assumed this post, there were a lot of challenges on ground. We have historical issues to deal with such as, infrastructure, obsolete equipments, with staffing issues, employment issues, labour issues and all manners of challenges were on ground. As I said earlier, one of the key reasons I was brought in is to provide the way forward and bring about a change and also to centre the road map for restructuring the printing corporation. So, what we first tried to do initially is to look at the wastage on ground and we manage to put in place processes to ensure that we cut down the wastage as much as possible.
We also had inherited a reputation of late job deliveries, poor quality of the work and unprofessional pricing. We dealt with by finding out – why jobs are delivered late and the reason for the fall in the quality of the jobs apart from pricing. We put measures in place to ensure that the jobs were done professionally, and on time. To enhance the quality, we re-trained our production staff on quality control system of the press and put in place quality control unit to ensure unchecked and poor jobs do not go out of the press. We also look at cases of account receivables and measures were put in place to reduce the amount of credit the Corporation was giving to clients. The net advantage is that we have drastically reduced our own loses as well as pay our suppliers on time. We also get more suppliers to supply us at competitive rate, and we have gone into different arrangement with suppliers in terms of payment structure – and within the short time I have spent in this office we have managed to successfully increase the income of the corporation and we are working towards reducing the liabilities to the barest minimal.
BEING THE STATE OWNED PRESS AND ELECTION IS AROUND THE CORNER, CAN YOU PRINT FOR THE OPPOSITION PARTY?
Let me answer that question by giving you a brief history of the Corporation. The Corporation was set up in 1980 as a semi-autonomous government agency. Though it was previously a Government press, it was allowed by law to print commercially upon incorporation. It shows from history that we don’t have restriction. We have the right to print to the general public without any restriction on whom to print for and whom not to print for; we don’t have any reason whatsoever to turn away any legitimate job. And if anyone comes to us for printing and as long as it is profitable to us and they are willing to pay – we don’t see anything wrong in printing for the opposition party of any State – not only Lagos State.
HOW CAN YOU DESCRIBE YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH NUPPROW?
Before I came on board, the Union had a very stormy relationship with the previous management on the working condition and salary payment of staff. Immediately I came on board, we have several meetings with the Union – both the branch and the National Union – where they stated their grievances and what was going on. We picked the issues outlined one by one and we explained the issues to them. We went on further to deal with some issues immediately. Issues surrounding non-payment of salary was usually the most crucial of all the issues. And because of the way we have structured the Corporation, now I can tell you that we have managed to pay all the outstanding salaries and constantly pay staff salary as at when due. We have improved our relationship with the Union drastically that we now have an extremely cordial working relationship. I can tell you categorically that there has not been any reason for rancor between the Corporation and the Union since I took over and this has dramatically boosted the morale of staff with corresponding productivity and profitability of the Corporation.
WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR 2015?
What the Government have been kind enough to do from what we proposed to them before we came, was that after such a long time of not investing in the Printing Corporation due to several reasons; we actually found out that Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) had a clear vision for this place of which we have all bought into. The intention was to bring back the Printing Corporation to its former glory – by so doing – the State will pump substantial amount of money into the Corporation as a way of restructuring the dilapidated infrastructure, premises, replacing of obsolete printing machines with brand new one and building of our press which is going to be a completely modern press which we hope to complete in the first quarter of 2015. We have ordered printing equipments from Heidelberg, KBA and Bielomatik in Germany together with various finishing equipment including a Kodak NexPress digital press (which will be installed before the middle of next year). With the new infrastructure in place, everyone here is highly motivated and we aim to end 2015 as one of the top-notch and profitable printing presses in Nigeria.
LET GO PERSONAL; CAN WE MEET YOU?
My name is Abiola Owoaje. I studied Graphic Design at Yaba College of Technology where I finished in 1984 before I proceeded to United Kingdom after my National Youth Service Corps. In the United Kingdom, I worked with Venus Printers as a Graphic Designer and later rose up to become the Studio Manager before I left to join one of Europe’s largest Screen Printers called Augustus Martin Limited as Supervisor. In 1997, I left there to start my own business as a design and printing company – so I came back to Nigeria early 2013 and I was appointed in July 2013 as the Chief Executive Officer of Lagos State Printing Corporation. While in the UK, I went to University of The Arts, London UK (former London College of Printing) to study Business and Finance.
HOW DID YOU RELAX?
I play golf and ride motorbike but not in Nigeria. However, I play golf in Nigeria. I’m also involved in humanitarian and charitable activities.
