SIFAX boss charges African businesses to take their place in global market

Segun Oladipupo |

Mr. Adekunle Oyinloye, Group Managing Director, SIFAX Group, has urged businesses on the African continent to dream big by taking advantage of emerging opportunities on the global stage.

This is contained in a press statement made available to our correspondent in Lagos by Muyiwa Akande, Corporate Affairs Manager of SIFAX.

Oyinloye said doing this, would transform them to global business brands with attendant bigger rewards for their stakeholders.

He gave the charge while speaking at the maiden edition of the Africa Scale 2019 Conference held at the Oxford University, United Kingdom.
Oyinloye who spoke on ‘CEO Talks: Leaders who are building global businesses from within Africa’, noted that African businesses should expand their horizon through international expansion and diversification.

To do this, he listed factors such as core competence leveraging, sustainable partnerships building, adopting cutting-edge technology, offering products and services that meet international standards, top-notch customer service as well as excellent understanding of the local ecosystem, as some of the factors necessary for a business to thrive in the international market.

Using SIFAX Group as a reference point in his presentation, Oyinloye noted that the company has embarked on a related diversification strategy and established presence in various countries, to build an ecosystem of business that supports the core business of port handling and integrated logistics.

He said: “The hospitality company is an extension of the airport handling business geared towards providing world class accommodation and hotel services to patrons who use airlines which our subsidiary, SAHCO Plc, has agreements with.

“The investments in the financial service sector outside Nigeria is to provide the Group with presence in other markets in order to understand these markets and to build an ecosystem to support the main business of shipping and logistics given the foreign currency requirements of international shipping and maritime business.

“African business owners must begin to think of scaling their operations and business investments to the international market front.

“The survival and relevance of any company in the ever-growing Nigeria market base are hinged on the adoption of new strategies- diversification and internationalization of operations. SIFAX Group has benefitted and is benefitting from the scaling of its businesses into the international market.

“I therefore urge business owners to scale their business operations to the global front so that they can take advantage of the various opportunities that abound”, he said.