HE HAD no office, but used a truck he had bought from his earnings as an office. It was from this ‘office’ that Joseph Neene Nakaanga sold his charcoal and mushrooms.
But today, he smiles as he manages his three companies from the comfort of a spacious and air-conditioned office in Lusaka.
He minded less about people’s comments then that he was driving aimlessly in the streets with a second- hand truck. This perception gave him confidence and was a stepping stone to success.
Nakaanga says it sounds easy today that he is running three companies namely Citimop Limited, Kaleya Trade Limited and Safer Foods Traders with his siblings whom he teamed up with to fight the pitfalls of life by simply working hard and ensuring their dreams were not shot down by failure.
[pullquote]“Many people think that it is money that will make them rich but it is the idea that you need to create wealth in life. I had an idea which I sold to my brothers and we started our first company, Citimop Limited in 1999,”[/pullquote]
He never thought that one day he and his siblings would run businesses but one thing he was certain of, was that poverty should not be allowed to be ‘a guest’ in their family. He comes from a humble Christian family which values hard work.
He says for one to be successful in business, he or she does not need to have a lot of money but bankable ideas coupled with good values that can propel their business aspirations.
Nakaanga, who was born on September 14, 1964, explained that attaining his dream to be a business man did not come easily.
He says it was not how much money he invested in the businesses but how many bankable ideas and what he invested in them that mattered.
“Many people think that it is money that will make them rich but it is the idea that you need to create wealth in life. I had an idea which I sold to my brothers and we started our first company, Citimop Limited in 1999,”
He said he bought a second-hand small truck after getting his US$3,200 (K10 million then) retirement package from Galaun Holdings Limited in 1992. He did not directly manage the company but his brothers did.
Nakaanga earlier on graduated from the Copperbelt University in 1988 and got his first job as a graduate assistant accountant at Galaun Holdings Limited where he worked for four years.
In 1992, he joined Horizon Communication Systems Limited where he worked for five years with his last appointment being finance and administration manager.
He left Horizon Communication Systems and joined the hospitality industry in 1997 when Lake Hotels Limited hired him as its chief accountant and company secretary but he did not stay there long.
In the same year, Nakaanga went back to Galaun Group of Companies where he worked as management chief accountant until 2005 when he resigned to focus on his company, Citimop Limited.
“In April 2005, I decided to concentrate on my private business, Citimop, a company I founded as managing director and chairman in 1999,” he says.
He said establishing the company was not easy, especially that at first its offices were a second-hand truck where mushroom and charcoal were sold from.
The mushroom and charcoal business was not viable, so the company went into waste management, a service sector where Nakaanga had never ventured before although his passion to live a better life compelled him to try a new business venture.
“Citimop emerged from the inability of the Lusaka City Council (LCC) to service the entire city adequately. This created a gap which needed to be filled,” he says.
He recalls that a number of small companies sprung up in a bid to meet waste management needs in the city but some failed because of various reasons, including inadequate and inappropriate transportation systems.
His company was also dogged with its challenges such as the demotivated staff that had to work from a truck with less pay but he used to tell his workers one day the company would grow big. But did the firm grow?
[pullquote]“Citimop emerged from the inability of the Lusaka City Council (LCC) to service the entire city adequately. This created a gap which needed to be filled,” he says.[/pullquote]
“Doubt not, today, Citimop employs 36 staff servicing about 2000 households and 400 corporate clients within Lusaka city,” he says.
Nakaanga says in 2003, LCC with the support of the Danish government decided to introduce a waste management system under the Lusaka Solid Waste Management System Unit (LSWMU).
The aim of the LSWMU was to empower private solid waste enterprises to manage the waste throughout Lusaka urban.
As opposed to watching from the terraces, Nakaanga sensed the opportunity and started providing the waste management services to the city populace.
“Our vision is to be a leading integrated waste management company in Zambia, pioneering environment-friendly waste management processes in order to deliver sustainable waste solutions for our client,” he says.
He explains that the company’s integrated approach to waste management endeavours to deal with a complete spectrum of issues affecting clients such as commercial waste being generated by shopping centres and office blocks.
Nakaanga says he has a dedicated team he groomed as he believes that for every business to grow, different skills are needed to enhance the vision and the objectives of the company.
“Citimop is run by a board which is chaired by me as the chief executive officer. The composition of the board is indicative of the company’s ambition to be the leading waste management company in Zambia,” he says.
He says as the company was growing, he decided with his siblings to start two more companies Kaleya Trade Limited and Safer Foods Traders in 2006 and 2007, respectively.
Talking about his family and poverty, he remembers the hurdles his family went through when he was a toddler. Poverty visited and forcibly entered the home of his parents, who were devoted Salvation Army church officers.
His father, Shaderick Nakaanga, and his mother, Daka Nakaanga, cherished hard work and honesty but poverty did not spare them despite being Christians.
“At a tender age, I used to sell munkoyo – a local refreshing drink – and fish in the street with my eight siblings. After selling, I remember we could give all the money to my mother,” he says.
Nakaanga says his parents disliked poverty but they cherished honesty and hard work in life and these values were passed on to all the children.
“My father, despite being a Salvation Army officer, was a welder who worked with his hands but I did not want to be like him. I wanted to be in an office when I finished school,” he reflects.
He says his father left him with nothing but these words, “We never see each other (Nakaanga) but I will give you something no-one will take away from you. I will give you education.”
He recalls that when his father died in 1987, their relatives grabbed property leaving them without anything and heart-broken. But he soldiered on and got the necessary education to improve not only his status but his family as well.
He says life is full of ups and downs but what keeps the people especially those in the business fraternity moving, is the will to triumph over poverty and failure.
Nakaanga said education is not a substitute to success and encourages everyone to continue improving thier lives.
To this effect, he is a proud man who, in addition to his bachelor’s degree in accountancy and finance he got from Copperbelt University this year, is completing his Master’s degree in Business Administration from Mancosa in South Africa.
He says he does not only manage businesses and study but also offers his expertise as a licentiate member to Zambia Institute of Certified Accountants (ZICA) and has membership with the Zambia Institute of Directors as well.
Nakaanga says he is also the current president of the Solid Waste Association of Zambia, an association which is dealing with the country’s waste management.
He says any person who wants to succeed in life should not abandon education because of poverty but they instead should cherish books to be winners in life.
[Zambia Daily Mail]
