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Coleman Technical Industries ranks sixth among cable manufacturers in Africa and first in West Africa, its chairman Solomon Onafowokan said at the opening of the company's new headquarters in Arepo, Ogun State.
The company has just turned 50. It began with a 2,000 square metre factory, and the building it has now moved into covers 4,900.
Onafowokan founded Coleman in 1975 and it has stayed in the family since. His son George runs it as managing director and chief executive, and another son, Michael, sits on the board as executive director.
The chairman used the occasion to set a target rather than mark an anniversary. He challenged the company to move beyond its current position in African cable manufacturing over the next fifty years, and said its development strategy runs in 25-year cycles, with the present phase aimed at strengthening its market position and expanding outside the continent.
George Onafowokan described the building as a physical expression of the company's plan for the next fifty years, and said the past fifty are not the whole story.
Michael Onafowokan made the industrial argument. No country can reach self-sufficiency in power without a strong cable manufacturing industry, he said, which is the case Nigerian manufacturers have been making to government for years as the country tries to fix a grid that leaves most of the population without reliable supply.
He also gave a figure on hiring. About 40% of Coleman's middle managers joined through the National Youth Service Corps, the compulsory year of service Nigerian graduates complete, and were retained and promoted from there.
The headquarters itself took 20 months. Sana Group built it using lightweight concrete with prefabricated steel sections, a method its chairman Alaa Alghadban said weighs about 100 kilogrammes per square metre against 400 for conventional concrete, cutting roughly 1,500 tonnes from the load across the 5,000 square metre structure.
Tunde Bakare, senior pastor of Citadel Global Community Church, dedicated the building and said Coleman had gone from a mustard seed to a phenomenon in Africa. He urged the family to build an institution capable of surviving across generations, citing Ford as the example.
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