Chuku Wachuku

Career Movement

Over the years, since 1982, Wachuku has served humankind as follows: consultant economist and specialist on entrepreneurship development, small scale industrial advancement and strategy; commissioner of special duties and special adviser on economic affairs to the governor of old Imo State: Nigeria; chief executive officer: Development Finance and Investment Company: old Imo State; director of operations: NDE: National Directorate of Employment, and later, he was appointed director-general of NDE: National Directorate of Employment of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by president Ibrahim Babangida. In 2007, he was Labour Party governorship candidate for Abia State.

Also, Wachuku is president and chief executive officer at ICED: International Center for Entrepreneurship Development in Nigeria; as well as consultant economist on entrepreneurship development plus small and medium scale enterprises in the informal sector for the federal government of Nigeria. He serves as an advisor and consultant on the US$6.2 million or ₦1 billion naira Central Bank of Nigeria – Abia State Agricultural Empowerment Scheme.

Wachuku is executive chairman of Zara Limited, a Nigerian company involved in real estate development and construction, including being president and chief executive officer of Zara Homes Incorporated in Maryland: United States of America. He serves as national president at NASSI: Nigerian Association of Small Scale Industrialists, while also serving Nigeria's Abia State University in the following positions: ranking member: governing council; chairman: finance and budget committee; chairman: technical committee of tenders board; chairman: investments committee; chairman: founders day committee; member: development and investment limited; chairman: investments and finance committee; chairman: planning and strategy; plus chairman: budget committee.

In recognition of Wachuku's commitment and progressive service to Nigerians, president Goodluck Jonathan appointed him to be constructive part of the following federal boards: RMRDC: Raw Materials Research and Development Council; SMEDAN: Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency; NASENI: National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure, and delegate to the 2014 Nigerian National Conference, representing south eastern states – by recommendation and support of Abia State government.

NASSI Presidency

Proactively helping to grow the Nigerian economy to the people's poverty eradication benefit; while protecting all interests of marginalised small scale businesses, has been Wachuku's daily mission in caring servant leadership, since he became the national president of NASSI: Nigerian Association of Small Scale Industrialists. He has made it an unwavering point of presidential calling to make sure that the ideals for NASSI's existence are upheld, results orientedly.

Established in 1978, NASSI: Nigerian Association of Small Scale Industrialists is meant to cater for the needs of the small scale business industrialist through the provision of social, political and economic support for its members. NASSI organises knowledge transfer workshops, conferences, exhibitions, trade-fairs and study tours, including the provision of advisory services for all relevant groups and individuals in business. Also, the association provides information on required global manufacturing standards, sources of raw materials, market situations, available plants and equipment. NASSI grants micro credit facilities to members and sometimes stands as sureties for verified and trusted SMEs: Small and Medium Enterprises in their relationship with finance institutions. The association connects its members to diverse opportunities within Nigeria and internationally. Serving as a strong advocate for its members against disadvantageous public policies is also part of the work of NASSI.

Guarantee project

In March 2011, Wachuku announced, in Lagos, that NASSI was launching a guarantee project of action for its member firms, saying that the programme is aimed at filling gaps for members who lack collateral to support their credit proposals to banks. He affirmed that NASSI would work out the critical minimum requirement for accessing credit by small industries, emphasising that NASSI was already looking at ways of accessing the US$1.2 billion or ₦200 billion naira SMSEs: Small and Medium Scale Enterprises fund put up by the Central Bank of Nigeria. Wachuku stated: "I want to make sure that government understands that the engine of growth of any economy rests on SMEs. It is my duty to initiate and tell people that the policy direction of NASSI is to make loans available to SMEs. I want to ensure that lack of collateral by our members is addressed such that concessionary interest rate is given to small scale borrowers."

NERFUND agreement

In December 2011, Wachuku led NASSI to go into favourable agreement with Nigeria's NERFUND: National Economic Reconstruction Fund to help finance projects for NASSI members. A memorandum of understanding was signed between the managing director of NERFUND: Alhaji Baba Maina Gimba and Wachuku. Under the agreement, NASSI is required to present projects that need funding to NERFUND; and accordingly, NERFUND is to evaluate and disburse helpful funds; as well as insuring all business deals. At the signing ceremony, Wachuku grieved that: “A country of 167 million people with some 59 million small scale industries, having only three functional DFIs: Development Finance Institutions? That is clearly inadequate; and I am calling for more DFIs."

Stable power espousal

Strategically, Wachuku has always pushed for the realisation of stable power supply in Nigeria; maintaining that since the 1999 arrival of democracy in the country, many companies have been operating below capacity because of unstable power supply, insufficient financial resources and alarming labour costs.

He states that grossly inadequate power supply has increased businesses' expenses, reduced productivity and stunted economic growth in Nigeria, forcing the closure of many companies or relocation to neighbouring countries. Wachuku points out that: "The blackouts are negatively impacting the economy, which is grappling with a combination of slow growth, a weak currency, high inflation and the effect of flooding that is expected to drive up food prices."

Jobs for youths advocacy

Making sure that government upholds conducive ways and capacities for the private sector to empower and create jobs for the youth in Nigeria has been one of Wachuku's abiding principles of service.

In a November 2011 lecture at Ikeja: Lagos: Nigeria based SOFFE: Sam Ohuabunwa Foundation for Economic Empowerment, [1] titled: Investment Climate: What is the Weather in Nigeria, Wachuku reflected on his vision and mission of creating jobs for Nigerian youths:

"The private sector should be given more autonomy to direct matters that deal directly with youth empowerment and job creation. In this regard, NASSI will lead a networking initiative that will include value chain-related organisations along with states and local governments. NASSI will, through this partnership, adequately address the issues and factors that militate against the growth of SMEIs and work out positive and workable frameworks that will once and for all ensure the growth of SMEIs. Government can not create jobs in a sustainable way. There is need to boost production and ensure that small-scale industries contribute 90 to 95 per cent to GDP. That is why I ask you, can government actually create jobs? To this particular question, my answer is no! And I speak as an expert on this matter. The other sustainable way I know is to create a powerful private sector-driven entrepreneurial base, propelled and predicated on small and medium scale industries and the informal sector."

Again, in a June 2012 interview by Nigeria's Vanguard daily newspaper, Wachuku stressed the crucial need for jobs and youth empowerment, in the following words: "Nigeria needs to create not less than five million jobs yearly to meet the employment needs of her growing population."

SMEs and banks

With objective consistency, Wachuku has usually let the world know that Nigerian banks pay "lip service" towards effectively funding SMEs: Small and Medium Enterprises in the so-called "giant" African country. He maintains that, in any nation, banks should be helpful partners in sustainable economic development to the viable benefit of emerging businesses and general population. In a February 2014 interview he granted The Punch, Wachuku stated:

"We want to add value through skills acquisition. But in doing this, we have found out that the main problem is getting finance at affordable interest rates. The Federal Government talks about this and the banks also talk about it. But I want to state here that the banks have not been helpful. They always say money is available. Where is the money? There is no small scale industrialist who walks into a bank and gets a loan. It is difficult for SMEs to get loans from banks because they always demand for collaterals. The collateral they ask for is over and above the worth of the loan. So, the banks are not keen on lending to small scale businesses at all. They say this sub-sector is risk infested. They may claim that they have given some amount of money as loans to the SMEs; but you will find out that this is not true. For instance, what can a loan that is given to 2,000 people in a nation of about 167 million people do? The last statistics conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that there were about 17 million small scale industrialists in Nigeria and you are talking about empowering 2,000 people with loans. What is that? So, the banks are paying lip service to funding SMEs."

CBN Governor

As a respected financial expert and constructive economist, Wachuku was, in February 2014, called on by the media to comment on president Goodluck Jonathan's suspension of CBN: Central Bank of Nigeria's governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. He shared his economic and political angle view as follows:

"Sanusi should not have been publicly singing a different tune from that of the President. As a senior government official who has done an outstanding job in the country’s banking sector, what he should have done was talk to his principal and advise him in private. It was wrong for him to rush to the media to sing divergent tunes. No President anywhere in the world will allow that. However, Sanusi's suspension is likely to create micro-economic distortions and cause some shivers in the economy.

First Bank MoU

In October 2012, Wachuku concluded MoU: Memorandum of Understanding arrangements for a new SMEs funding programme between NASSI: Nigerian Association of Small Scale Industrialists and First Bank of Nigeria. Concerning the new programme, Wachuku explained:

"Lack of access to loanable funds at cheap and profitable interest rates had been the bane of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in the country. I commend First bank of Nigeria for their trail-blazing action. Before we got to First Bank, we had approached a number of banks, but their concern was primarily and solely the profit motif. It is, therefore, a major achievement that First Bank, as the leading bank, truly, agreed to our proposal. This gesture from First Bank is one laced with patriotic zeal, as it had the potential to revolutionise the operations of small scale industrialists, and by extension the economy of Nigeria as a whole. The current Group managing Director of the bank: Mr. Bisi Onasanya, gave unqualified support to the project. Onasanya saw it as a key corporate social responsibility activity with multipier effects on the economy.

The government itself agreed that the private sector contributes about 90 per cent to the nation's Gross Domestic Product. With SMEs forming about 65 per cent of the private sector operations, one can only imagine what the effects of the new move by the bank will be on the economy." Banks in the country, for along time, had been part of the problem of the real sector, saying they would rather get involved in round-tripping and short-term lending for commercial activities, than to lend to businesses with manufacturing operations. It is in this light that the new twist is commendable of emulation by other banks. First, through its current GMD, has shown an unusual disposition to the plight of small scale industrialists. I think he deserves all the kudos."