By Frederick ASIAMAH
The term “Ponzi Scheme” has been making the rounds in recent years in Ghana, due to the increasing spate at which microfinance companies are becoming bankrupt.
As more companies fold up and have difficulty refunding deposits of customers, the conclusion that is often drawn is that such businesses were schemes established to milk unsuspecting investors and members of the public.
But in a wide-ranging interview, straddling his life and career as a business magnate and coach, Samuel Bright Kaitoo, chief executive officer of Galaxy Capital suggests that weak internal control mechanisms could be the reason behind the insolvencies.
Bright Kaitoo, who is one of the astute personalities scheduled to speak at the “SpiritPreneuship Summit 2017,” also spoke about his days as a hawker and the things he would not do for money.
Excerpts:
Business Day (BD): To start with, who are you?
Samuel Bright Kaitoo (SBK): Well, I’m somebody who aspires to reach higher at every point in time. I don’t get satisfied with my achievements. So, what I do is that whatever I’m able to achieve, I put it aside as if I haven’t done anything at all. Then, I try to start all over again.
BD: Does it mean you always start from zero?
SBK: I always start from zero. I mean, I always see my achievements as if I haven’t done anything at all.
BD: Do you mean, for instance, that tomorrow you will discount everything you have done up to today?
SBK: Yes! That always makes me to be on the move. Because, you always see to set more goals for yourself, set more objectives for yourself and you achieve it. So, it means that I always try to aspire to achieve new things. I don’t rely on past glories. That is what I do. And, one thing about me is that I also work very hard.
BD: How did you become a business leader?
SBK: It is something that one should aspire for. I mean, one should dream of becoming a business leader or owning a business. It is something I found myself doing. I love business. I remember very well those years. I have sold as a street boy before. I sold at car parks and roadside.
BD: Like the present day hawkers do?
SBK: Sure! Sure!
BD: What did you sell?
SBK: I was around age 12, 13 thereabouts; before I could enter secondary school. I was selling hacks, peppermint, P.K. – those things. Somewhere along the lines I also sold wrapper – the rubber that we use in tying money.
BD: Why were you doing that? Where were your parents?
SBK: I don’t know whether to say fortunately or unfortunately I lost my dad at a very young age. I had about nine other siblings.
BD: Are you the eldest?
SBK: No, I was in the middle. We were being taken care of by a single mother. I mean, you can imagine. So, if you really need to be able to support yourself then it means that you need to do something extra because the funds for the family wasn’t enough to take care of everybody. My mother, because she was a single mother was also working very hard. She was also selling a lot of things. She was doing those things with us at that tender age. So, we were supporting her in her business. That created the hardworking tendency in me.
BD: What time was this?
SBK: I should say this would be around the early 1970s. So, we grew into business; I mean trading and other things. And so, after school I found myself teaching. But even whilst I was teaching, I was doing other things. I wasn’t teaching in only one place. I was doing part time teaching after school.
BD: Did you train as a teacher?
SBK: Yes. I am a professional teacher. Whilst I was teaching, I was doing other things because I wasn’t used to doing one thing. I found myself doing other things; making small, small money to finance my education. So, at the end of the day, the ability to make your own income, generate your own income started right from my youthful stages. So, you realise that working for people, acquiring some knowledge, I believed that it was about time that one could start working for himself. So, that is what led to me starting my own businesses.
BD: Apart from your youthful day ventures, what was the first business you started, and how much did you start with?
SBK: The first company that I started with is Galaxy Microfinance. In the course of doing Galaxy Microfinance, I wrote books. I have books that I authored – the one that actually shot me to the limelight, is the one on retirement: “Enjoying a blissful retirement.” It brought me consultancies so I registered a company that would do that consultancy work and I was still doing the microfinance. When it comes to the capital that I put into the business, my colleagues and I pooled our resources together to raise the stated capital – at the time we started with GHC80,000. But with time, we increased the stated capital. Then, within a year of starting the microfinance, we decided that we would also go into asset management because the experience was there. So, I moved the idea and we set up Galaxy Capital to run alongside the microfinance. By the grace of God the two companies are doing very well.
BD: What is the staff strength?
SBK: For the microfinance, we have a staff strength of about 25. The idea is that we didn’t want to just expand and set up branches and all that because of the turbulent nature of the industry. Because, we realise that a lot of companies who started microfinance and had branches all over, some of them are not doing well now; some of them have also closed down. It’s because the risk in the industry is very high and if you are not careful, you will just set up branches upon branches and you will end up increasing your cost of business. Your profitability and all other things can be affected. But our strategy is that we want to grow slowly and that has really helped us.
BD: How many branches do you have?
SBK: For now we have only two branches – the head office branch and then one at Makola.
BD: Why do you think some begin microfinance and immediately want to populate the system with many branches?
SBK: Well, it is a business model that some of them adopted.
BD: You think they got it wrong?
SBK: Well, they didn’t get it wrong per se. You see, the microfinance industry is very challenging. The reason being that, number one: you need to get trust worthy people. If you don’t get such people, there will be a challenge. Number two: you need to have some processes and then also have good people who would do recovery and monitoring. You need to have people who would ensure that you have a very strict internal control mechanism. If these systems are not there – even if they are there and they not strong – it would be a problem because you realise that the more branches that you have, the difficult that is for you to manage, for you to control.
BD: What is it that you will not do as a business executive, even if it will make your business prosper?
SBK: It is a challenge. You know, when it comes to business, of course, there are some dos and don’ts. But for me, one thing that I hold in high esteem is my integrity. Because as a Christian, business person and spiritual person, you need to make sure that whoever you are dealing with – whether as a business associate or partner, supplier or client – should trust you. They should have confidence in you. So, all you have to do is that you play according to principles, play according to rules, play the game according to regulation. So, you don’t break rules; you don’t circumvent processes, don’t try to do things which, when played back, at the end of the day – in the near future – can have a negative impact on you. For me, I try as much as possible to go by the rules of the game. I mean, do what you need to do because whatever it is, in life, you need to know that whatever you do can catch up with you. So, if you do the right thing, it will be in the best interest of your organisation and the people that you work with.
