At Noble Merry Venture, our focus is empowerment of ordinary people- Mrs. Ogechi  Iwunze-Anthony, MD /CEO

 

Tell us about yourself and how Noble Merry Ventures came about?

My Name is Mrs. Ogechi P Iwunze-Anthony, a mother of two and a wife. I am a graduate of Public Administration from the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN). I am from Anambra State , married to a man from Abia State.

The vision of Noble Merry came about from a quest to relieve people of home burdens like putting food on people’s tables. I grew up in an environment that was not too rosy. I saw couples fighting because of lack of food and I resolved then that when I grow up, I would help to solve such problems. I however forgot about that dream when I grew up and left that environment of lack.

The vision came back when God took me to another environment just like the one I grew up in but I didn’t know how to go about solving the problem. One day, i had a dream and saw myself  in a farm with people in groups. They were however not farming with implements like hoes, knives and seeds, and they were not wearing farming clothings. The people wore suits and were carrying files. I wasn’t dressed like them so I was wondering what kind of place it was. I summoned courage and asked a Hausa guard in the corner of the place what the people were doing and he told me they were empowering people. I asked what if I am interested and he replied that I should bring my people and come. I even thought of a woman who I knew to be rich and who I thought could be at the forefront of the whole thing in that dream. When I woke up the vision was clearer but I was still plagued by fear on how to birth it.

Later I called a friend who advised that I should wait till January but I couldn’t because the desire was seriously burning in me. I knew this was a God –given assignment and even prior to the dream, a friend had prophesied same thing to me. She called and we were talking about our society generally and the hardships faced daily by citizens, when she suddenly said to me. ‘I have a message for you, God has a project for you. I saw you organizing a crowd of people and you were like a succor to them’. I laughed and said in my dialect, Uche, you have come, when did you become a pastor?  Anyway, from there she started speaking in tongues and started praying for me and I started responding. The dream I later had was actually a confirmation and after speaking and praying with my pastor and more dreams from God on the issue, Noble Merry was birthed. It took  two  years of incubation during which I tarried in the presence of God and conquered my fear. The fear was there because I had seen systems like it fail and I didn’t want Noble Merry to fail.

Is Noble Merry a thrift business and is it registered with the appropriate authorities like CAC, SEC and Lagos State Thrift and Credit Societies?

Of course Noble Merry is registered as a thrift business and it is also registered as a trading company with Corporate Affairs Commission( CAC). It is not yet registered with Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and that is because the initial vision was just to let people contribute money and we buy food in bulk and distribute among ourselves. Along the line, the issue of empowerment came up. People started saying that they would like to have some money apart from the foodstuffs so that they can establish businesses of their own and engage in other economic activities that generate wealth. That is how  paying of double money  came  into the business.

So is there a plan to register with SEC, now that money is involved?

Yes, there is a plan to register with SEC now that money is involved and we are working towards that. Noble Merry is also registered with The Lagos State Thrift and Credit Societies.

What is your driving force and how do you make the money to pay double investment plus incentive?

The driving force is the passion and the joy that comes with people being satisfied. when I see that people are happy and fulfilled with being members of this venture and when I hear testimonies , especially of little children testifying about having sufficient food to eat, my joy knows no bounds and I am fulfilled.

I also ensure that we invest the monies that people pay in wisely and profitably by engaging in trading concerns so what people get is from the returns on investment. We do not rob Peter to pay Paul. Every kobo we get is sent on an errand and it does not come back empty handed. That is also why there is a gestation period of 50 weeks before people are settled.

Serving the public is not easy, so what keeps you going?

That area is not so easy but one thing I have come to understand is that if you are a solution provider and you say what you do and do what you say, it helps to cushion the effect of negative reactions you get from people. Of course, it’s impossible to satisfy everybody knowing that human wants are insatiable.  I try to carry all members along by sharing all relevant information concerning the business and at the right times. I also educate members on new innovations introduced and render help where necessary to see that they keep up.

Do you have measures in place to ensure the longevity of the venture, considering that there have been other organizations like it in the past that collapsed and left investors desolate?

One of the measures is that we have tried to stand out when it comes to delivering on our promises. Noble Merry is Charity-Oriented and one of my driving slogan is’ I rise by lifting others’. This organization was not birthed as a result of selfish interest or a desire to make loads of money. It was birthed primarily to be a solution provider for people. Trust  issues is what affects businesses like ours negatively  especially when people don’t live up to their promises . I have had offers from people operating ‘same’ kind of establishment but the offers were so selfish that it was obvious to me that the initiators cared only about themselves. Collapse can come from the part of initiators and can also come from the investors. If the initiators fail to do what they are supposed to do, like investing wisely and focusing on the vision that birthed the venture. If greed overtakes them, then the venture can collapse. For investors, if they fail to adhere to instructions, then problems can arise, which may sink the venture as well. For us at Noble Merry, our focus is empowerment of ordinary people and it is the passion that drives us. We engage in buying and selling and the money we pay investors is from our profits, and besides, our system is working and we are growing daily because satisfied investors tell others and daily, more investors come in, also those who invested come back to re-invest.

What plans do you have to ensure that investors will continue to get the double payments and incentives, in the face of the worsening economy?

We carry our members along information wise. We ensure there is no breach of information and we communicate via the various channels created. We make sure that issues are communicated promptly. We are also first and foremost a trading company and we are major distributors to a lot of FMCG companies. We get huge discounts from them and they sometimes gift us incentives as well, as a result of the volumes we do with them. We also look at the economy and adjust accordingly. What we were giving out to people as incentives when we started, is no longer what we are giving. We have had to adjust in the face of the worsening economy but we still try to do the best that we can. If in future, there is anything that we are currently doing, which we can no longer do, we will also communicate cordially with our members.

Me, there are always foodstuffs around the office, how do you guard against robbers and staff pilfering considering the hunger in the land?

Part of what we have tried to do is to empower our staff. They are also part of the thrift. They invest and get their returns accordingly. When some of them were employed, they could hardly raise their transport fares but today, they are okay. Whatever service we are rendering to people, they are also part of it. We also have checks and balances in place, for instance, when they are coming to work, they are checked before coming in and after work, they are also checked before leaving the premises. We also do stock taking and records. We have different staffs manning every department and our security system is good.

How do you manage the mammoth crowd that comes on settlement days?

Prior to now, we were operating a manual system, the old system of thrift collection and settlement days were always rowdy with lots of shouting. However, last year October, we launched our website and so far so good, its seamless. People on the website are enjoying the system. We did short videos, tutorials on how to navigate the website and now people can do their registrations from the comfort of their homes. They can also log in anytime and get information about their status. We have also done a lot of staff training and empowerment and settlement days are definitely less rowdy now, because people can do clearance on the system. Its no longer manual.

Has Technology helped you to stay on top of things, if yes how?

Of course it has and even when we were operating manual, we deployed a bit of modern trends, for instance, we insisted that registration information must be submitted through Whatsapp and some investors  did not even have WhatsApp on their phone and some who had, were not even using it because they didn’t know how to use it. We had to organize free tutorials in our office for our investors  This is why, when you talk to some of them today, they will tell you that they have learnt a lot from Noble Merry. Some have leant how to make effective use of social media and some others have learnt how to manage their temperament, some others how to invest wisely and increase the returns on their investments. After two years of using manual, we decided to deploy technology to make the system more seamless and at the beginning of this year, every investor that came in, registered online and have their dashboard where they have all  their information at their fingertips. Payment is without stress as they pay into their account with Noble Merry and the system deducts the money every week without issues so technology has really helped us and kept us at the top of our vision.

You are aware that a lot of people do not trust technology yet. Deploying technology in the Noble Merry system may even convince a lot of people that their investment is no longer safe with you. What are your measures to mitigate this?

When we launched our website, we got a lot of such reactions, not with Noble berry because we already had peoples  trust, but with the technology itself. People were afraid that hackers may hack their virtual accounts and steal their monies.  We took time to educate people that this technology has come to stay. Virtually everything is done online now, people shop on line, pay bills on line, bank online etc. We had to explain to people that our website and server are secured and their monies paid online is not online per -se. The figures seen online is not the physical money and cannot be hacked or stolen by Fraudsters.  Flutterwave is a known gateway payment agent. They collate our monies and pay into our dedicated accounts with banks in Nigeria. We also encourage members not to share their login passwords with just anybody and above all, we are a Nigerian company, physically present here in Nigeria and all our accounts are with Nigerian banks. The only way a fraudster can get at someone’s money is if they are able to get their password and change their receiving bank in the system but even this is impossible because the system does not allow that. The person will have to come to the office with physical proof that their names and other details have changed.

How do you guard against fraudsters hi-jacking this Noble Venture, by investing huge amounts of money in it. Is there a process of screening out money launderers in the system?

By the special grace of God, we  guard against that by giving certain stiff conditions to very big investors to dissuade them. If you are doing  over 50 portions, because of the incentives, it becomes obvious to us that you are not coming for empowerment so you are screened. We give you a schedule that puts that in check. Studying Public Administration in school has helped me a lot. When I see such people, I usually know.  Now that we are online the system automatically throws up such people and we give them conditions which they must follow or leave. We have people this venture is meant to benefit and we must not take our eyes off such people. We understand that there are people whose mission is to  tear down or destroy people’s organizations and we have put measures in place against such people. That is one area where ones integrity comes into question. I have a name to protect and I am passionate about this project which God has put into my hands.

What are the challenges you have faced in the work so far and how have you solved or mitigated them?

One of the challenges is our economy. It is not encouraging and it is very limiting.  We wish we could do much more than we are doing. I wish we could touch more lives even beyond Noble Merry members and by the way, we do but not in the magnitude we would have wanted. We have a program we do around December called’ Street Feeding’. We extend hands of charity to the less priviledged, motherless babies homes etc. We also have the one we call ‘Back to School’ where we visit certain schools in low income areas like Oshodi and other parts of Lagos and distribute school bags, stationeries etc. One of the challenges we face in this area is that often when we go to some areas for charity, the people at the top will demand that we give them the items we brought to do the distribution themselves. This usually does not sit right with us because we want to ensure that the items get to the right hands so we insist on going to areas where we are allowed to interact with the recipients directly.

Do you have any regrets at all on the business and how do you balance home and work being a female, in Nigeria?

I don’t have any regrets, every day I wake up and Noble Merry is still standing and is still empowering people, I feel contented. Of course there are days that bring a lot of challenges and stress but by the special grace of God, I have a very supportive and understanding husband and children. I know I have been blessed immensely by God since starting it so no regrets at all.

Are you fulfilled doing this work irrespective of some difficult and even ingrate investors?

I am very fulfilled. I understand that one may not be able to satisfy everybody at least not at once. You solve problems  gradually. When we were doing the work manually, some people could not join because it was cumbersome and taxing, after deploying technology some couldn’t cope and dropped so life is like that. Some of those that dropped have come back because we took time to coach them on the benefits of the technology and carry them along.