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OKI Construction, a wholly Nigerian firm in the construction industry, is set to reshape the industry. Its youthful managing director, Obelama Isokariari, is geared up for stiff competition in an industry dominated by foreigners.

Gbenga Omitogun

The story of OKI Construction is a tale of rare achievements. For a brand that has survived and thrived through the years, flaunting its 'truly Nigerian' identity even though it costs so much to do so. Its path to success is anything but smooth. By dint of temerity and resilience, OKI has charted its own growth path and held its own in an industry dominated by a league of big and mighty foreign players.

“We've had our good times and down times,” says Obelama Isokariari, the young and affable Managing Director of OKI, while taking The Business Eye on a walk down the firm's windy history lane. The reason foreign firms dominate the construction industry is not far-fetched. The business is very capital intensive and it places a high demand on technical expertise. These challenging factors in a developing country like Nigeria tilt the odds in favour of foreign players who have access to a huge flow of capital from the international financial market. This very fact also explains why the sector, which probably cuts the largest chunk of a projected $9 billion annual expenditure required for the development of basic infrastructure in the nation over the next decade, accounts for a huge capital flight that is second only to the oil industry.

OKI was founded in 1970 by Okomakio Isokariari. He was one of those who opted to retire from the service of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, NRC, immediately after the war. With his small gratuity, he started O. K Isokariari & Sons, which immediately became a supplier with the Rivers State Ministry. The OKI patriarch's entrepreneurial dream was greatly helped by the goodwill he enjoyed from the Sir Diette Spiff administration in the early 70s. This warm relationship which transcended successive administrations led to a tremendous growth through the late 70s and early 80s. This growth saw OKI expanding from a small-time supply service firm into the tenuous world of construction. It began with the handling of small construction works such as building of drainages, boreholes and small bridges through its new subsidiary OK Construction, OKC. The senior Isokariari sooner overcame his initial caution and went full blast into construction business by absorbing OKC into the parent company.

This golden age of OKI which fell under the Melford Okilo regime saw the company embarking on some of the landmark projects for which it has come to be known. They include the 10-storey NNPC Zonal Office building along Moscow Road, the Pan African Bank building along Nnamdi Azikiwe Road, and the sprawling NAFCON Housing Estate, all in Port Harcourt. This period also saw the company having in its employ 28 American expatriates.

Its growth curve, however, began a downward movement in the 90s. The junior Isokariari, a trained civil engineer, who took over the management of the company in 2006, said the downturn in the company's fortunes in the 90s was as a result of the slur cast on the company's image by a host of foreign competitors. “There is always this talk that there are certain projects that cannot be handled by indigenous companies. I can't stand such comments,” he says. For a company which has a strong asset base and a staff strength of over 400 personnel, Isokariari argues that if given the same opportunities as the likes of Julius Berger, the company has the potential to build capacity and experience.

The bad times are over now and the company is charting its way back to another round of growth. Thanks to the new management. “I like meeting challenges. I enjoy what I'm doing, money is only a plus,” says the energetic Isokariari who is in his late 30s.
Isokariari, who has been part of the OKI team since 1992, has worked in virtually all the departments of the company. He rose to the post of General Manager in 2001. The position of the MD, the highest in the company's management was handed over to him by his father in 2006. His new role as the helmsman has taken OKI to its second generation phase. The 73-year-old elder Isokariari has eased himself into the background where he serves in the less demanding role as the chairman of the company's board of directors.

In line with a five-year growth plan mapped out by the company during its extra-ordinary board meeting in 2004, the firm, now at the later end of the set period, has met its goal of overhauling its management, acquiring new equipment, an exercise that has enlarged its asset base to about N7 billion. Another growth strategy to broaden clientele base has paid off quite well. The company now has a solid deal with the Nigerian Agip Oil Company, NAOCo to handle location preparation for all its drilling rigs. The Rivers State Government as well as other Niger Delta states governments like Bayelsa, Abia, Delta and Cross-River are also on its clientele along with agencies like the Niger Delta Development Corporation, NDDC, and the Nigerian Army.

OKI's bid to reposition itself as a major service provider in the oil sector has not paid off well in spite of the much talked-about local content policy. Isokariari attributes it to the tag of “indigenous company” hung on it and what calls “the lowest-bidder syndrome” practiced by some major oil firms. The practice, he says, places so much attention on low costs at the expense of expertise which has brought about failure of the beneficiary to deliver on the terms of the contract.

On the local content policy of the Federal Government designed to ensure 70 per cent of jobs, supplies and services in the Nigerian oil and gas industry, he says: “Local content is still an idea that has not been followed through by the DPR officials. Multinationals and government still go for foreign companies. Government should look into local content so that it can achieve its good aim of reducing capital flight and develop local technical expertise,”
The peak of OKI's growth plan is to go public. That has been slated for the first quarter of 2009. “We might just do some private placements,” Isokariari hinted brimming with enthusiasm and optimism for the future.

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