Sir, you are the managing director of
Studio 24, a household name in photography in Nigeria. How did you start and
then become such a big name?
I am actually the MD of Colvi Limited, and the company has different companies within it, among them is Studio 24. Studio 24 started in 1991 in Kaduna with a small store serving essentially people in GRA Kaduna. But amazingly, we saw that a lot of people were coming to shoot with us from Kano, Zaria, Katsina and all over the North. At times we had queues of people waiting for services there. And so over the years, we found that with all the patronage we were getting, it was ideal to expand to different locations in Kaduna. We were not even thinking of going outside Kaduna. The moment we opened a large outlet in Ahmadu Bello Way in Kaduna, it exploded. It was so busy and in 90 days from the day we opened our doors, we had broken even. So, with that kind of success, we were encouraged to take the brand, to build it as a brand and export the services out of Kaduna to other cities.
So what are the major innovations that you brought into photography in
Nigeria?I am actually the MD of Colvi Limited, and the company has different companies within it, among them is Studio 24. Studio 24 started in 1991 in Kaduna with a small store serving essentially people in GRA Kaduna. But amazingly, we saw that a lot of people were coming to shoot with us from Kano, Zaria, Katsina and all over the North. At times we had queues of people waiting for services there. And so over the years, we found that with all the patronage we were getting, it was ideal to expand to different locations in Kaduna. We were not even thinking of going outside Kaduna. The moment we opened a large outlet in Ahmadu Bello Way in Kaduna, it exploded. It was so busy and in 90 days from the day we opened our doors, we had broken even. So, with that kind of success, we were encouraged to take the brand, to build it as a brand and export the services out of Kaduna to other cities.
Now is hard for some people who are younger people to understand this. In 1991, if you take a picture in the morning, you get it in four days in a typical studio. The first thing we did was to make sure that those who took pictures in the morning got them at night. It sounds easy now but at the time, it was like a miracle. No one had ever seen that happen; ever, in the whole of northern Nigeria, where you take pictures and get them the same day. So that was the ground breaking thing we did. Also, the kind of lighting we were using for our pictures made it easy for us to get better quality than most of our competitors because they were using less intense lighting. So, we had an edge over our competitors because of the equipment we were using and the delivery.
Over the years, more and more people started to buy these equipment so more and more people became proficient at getting same day delivery. To maintain an edge over competitors, we went further, into digital. In entering digital, instead of same day delivery, we now had 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 1hour delivery. So you can wait and get your pictures instantly. And over the years, even though it is saturated in one town, it is saturated in Kaduna or Abuja, it is not saturated in Port Harcourt, it is not saturated in Enugu or Kano. So expanding the brand to be able to serve customers in different platforms has made it a household name according to what I hear.
You said Colvi, the parent company, is involved in other things, what are these things?
Apart from Studio 24, we have other brands in photography. We have Kodak Express which is a brand, we have Twinkle Star imaging for children and mothers and maternity pictures. We also manage the buildings we function from. We actually manage the physical buildings, so we also have a real estate firm.
How many studios do you have so far in the country?
We have 14 now.
Are you planning on expanding?We have 14 now.
Of course, we have plans to engage 50 women through franchising, that is to open 50 outlets which are to be supported by our company. We’re going to be part investors in each of these franchise studios across Nigeria and each employer needs 10 people. So we are looking at another 500-1,000 people who will be employed in the next 12 months in photography. And we also have plans to open more of our own studios, six more studios this year, in Benin, Uyo, Warri, Zaria and Katsina, and the sixth one in Enugu central. So these are six additional studios within the course of this year for our company and we are also looking at opening two outside Nigeria.
We are looking at Ghana, we’re looking at Nairobi in Kenya as options to look at this year 2016 so that we have our first effort outside Nigeria.
How is the franchise for the 50 women going to work in concrete terms?
We intend to open applications for the franchise by the end of May or early June. Young women who have interest in photography or have a business background will be selected, interviewed and then trained for like three months. After that, we will get our bank to set them up at the locations of their choices. Like I said earlier, we will be co-investors in the business, so we will help them employ the staff, teach them how to keep the books and share a certain percentage of the profits. There are abundant opportunities out there and we want to help our young women to grab them.
Were you the pioneer MD of the company?
We started Colvi Limited in the university. The company was registered in 1987, but we didn’t start business until 1989. I was serving that time. We opened barbing saloon, opened photocopy centres, opened video clubs and opened Studio 24 in 1991. I have my younger brother who was in Nigeria, before he was part of our day-to-day running but he is in America now. My sister, Dr. Oputa, was in Kaduna, she worked in Studio 24 in 1996-1998. So we have a lot of input in my family as well.
What
lesson can young people learn from your experience; you are a trained engineer
but you went into photography and you have been so successful?
Our story should be a lesson for most of the people who are either working now or those who are coming out of school. We learnt early, through personal life experiences, that you could become stranded if you don’t have a business or a source of income. And if you become stranded, you find that most people who relate with you will abandon you. So from personal experience in that direction, it drove me and people who are close to me to continuously not rely on paid employment, but to go out and try our hands in business, and try a hand in serving people at earning daily income. The daily income rescues you from being enslaved by anybody.
On the other aspect of the question, yes I am an engineer but I am also a business person. Before I became an engineer, the core of myself was a business person. So I see opportunities and I am very interested in tapping those business opportunities.
So for us, photography is a business. For some people, photography is just an art. So we are in the business of photography not for fancy like other people look at it and they remain in it to enjoy the limelight.
You are over 25 years into the business, what impact would you say you
have made on the Nigerian society?Our story should be a lesson for most of the people who are either working now or those who are coming out of school. We learnt early, through personal life experiences, that you could become stranded if you don’t have a business or a source of income. And if you become stranded, you find that most people who relate with you will abandon you. So from personal experience in that direction, it drove me and people who are close to me to continuously not rely on paid employment, but to go out and try our hands in business, and try a hand in serving people at earning daily income. The daily income rescues you from being enslaved by anybody.
On the other aspect of the question, yes I am an engineer but I am also a business person. Before I became an engineer, the core of myself was a business person. So I see opportunities and I am very interested in tapping those business opportunities.
So for us, photography is a business. For some people, photography is just an art. So we are in the business of photography not for fancy like other people look at it and they remain in it to enjoy the limelight.
One of them is, over the 25 years, we must have employed 1,500 people at least. Most of the people we have employed are young people who are mostly in school and those going back to school to further education. We have people who are coming out of secondary school for a year or two and those people who have worked over the years, I can say, half of them have gone further to open their businesses in photography. Most of them are working in other companies that are in the photography industry.
So we’ve created an army of people who are now out there developing photography and the business of photography across Nigeria. And you could imagine that if you have 1,500-2,500 over the years and 1,000 people are employing five people each, then you have 5,000 people employed because of this venture. So we have thousands of thousands of people who are employed and who are engaged and who are inspired by our business to create their own stories in photography. That’s the biggest legacy we have.
How many studios do you have so far in the country?
We have 14 now.
Are you planning on expanding?We have 14 now.
Of course, we have plans to engage 50 women through franchising, that is to open 50 outlets which are to be supported by our company. We’re going to be part investors in each of these franchise studios across Nigeria and each employer needs 10 people. So we are looking at another 500-1,000 people who will be employed in the next 12 months in photography. And we also have plans to open more of our own studios, six more studios this year, in Benin, Uyo, Warri, Zaria and Katsina, and the sixth one in Enugu central. So these are six additional studios within the course of this year for our company and we are also looking at opening two outside Nigeria.
We are looking at Ghana, we’re looking at Nairobi in Kenya as options to look at this year 2016 so that we have our first effort outside Nigeria.
How is the franchise for the 50 women going to work in concrete terms?
We intend to open applications for the franchise by the end of May or early June. Young women who have interest in photography or have a business background will be selected, interviewed and then trained for like three months. After that, we will get our bank to set them up at the locations of their choices. Like I said earlier, we will be co-investors in the business, so we will help them employ the staff, teach them how to keep the books and share a certain percentage of the profits. There are abundant opportunities out there and we want to help our young women to grab them.
Were you the pioneer MD of the company?We intend to open applications for the franchise by the end of May or early June. Young women who have interest in photography or have a business background will be selected, interviewed and then trained for like three months. After that, we will get our bank to set them up at the locations of their choices. Like I said earlier, we will be co-investors in the business, so we will help them employ the staff, teach them how to keep the books and share a certain percentage of the profits. There are abundant opportunities out there and we want to help our young women to grab them.
We started Colvi Limited in the university. The company was registered in 1987, but we didn’t start business until 1989. I was serving that time. We opened barbing saloon, opened photocopy centres, opened video clubs and opened Studio 24 in 1991. I have my younger brother who was in Nigeria, before he was part of our day-to-day running but he is in America now. My sister, Dr. Oputa, was in Kaduna, she worked in Studio 24 in 1996-1998. So we have a lot of input in my family as well.
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