Prof. Aaron Baba is a man of many parts; an academician, administrator, entrepreneur, innovator and investor; Hearing about Prof. Aaron’s achievements in all of his fields of endeavors would create a picture of a man with elements of pride and pomposity taken into consideration his achievements in multidisciplinary fields of endeavor but on the contrary he is a humble, gentle and pleasant man to meet and talk with, this soft-spoken gentleman relates well with all classes of people and is a good motivator to his peers and subordinates.

 He is an extraordinary business man, an entrepreneur with interest in bringing good products that makes a difference to the market place.

Born in Iyale in Dekina Local Government Area, east of kogi state, Nigeria.

He is the first born of the family of Seven, four females and three males. Aaron went to the famous Government Secondary School, Dekina; from there he proceeded to University of Calabar and then to Bayero University, Kano and from there He left for the US in 1989. He holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry. He graduated in Chemistry in 1994, taught in the US from 1994 up to 2008 before coming to Nigeria on the invitation of the then Governor of kogi state, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris to join his government.

In Kogi State, Prof Baba started off as the Special Adviser to the Governor on Technological Development but was appointed a Commissioner and Member of the State Executive Council one year after, as he brought to bear on his job, his rich knowledge in many fields and impressive managerial and interpersonal skills. He served as Commissioner for Special Duties, Science and Technology, and Information. As a Commissioner, this widely travelled and experienced scientist has had to do a yeoman’s job and take in his strides, multi-disciplinary duties and assignments that require in-depth attention. As an ICT expert, with extensive experience in several computer packages, he developed blueprints on how to put Kogi State on e-government platform. Special assignments and projects implemented in Kogi State under his supervision include coordinating the repositioning of State-owned Confluence Beach Hotel, Lokoja, revamping the Ministry of Special Duties and Information, reclaiming of mining sites and establishment of smalls scale industries. With his expert knowledge of mineral deposits and their investment potentials, he coordinated several investors to Kogi State in minerals, agriculture, and tourism sectors. On ICT, he advised Kogi State Government and facilitated the installation of WIFI (Internet signal) in government offices. He equally guided government on effective strategies for reducing expenses via staff audit and implementation of e-payment. He managed the Kogi State Salary Database from January 2010 to March 2012 with commendable oversight and transparency. More importantly, he produced and implemented an economic roadmap that has led to substantial increase in the State’s Internally Generated Revenue, IGR.

 

“We must produce drinks that are safe and meet the highest standards”

 

Prof Baba has apart from all of these, a plethora of academic accomplishments, a catalogue of publications and an equally long list of Chemistry and Science Majors to his credit, over 24 major Research Publications and 27 students to whom he has served as Advisor. He has also held posts as Committee Member, Acting Unit Head and Departmental Representative various Universities. Over the years, he has taught Introductory and General Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, Physical Chemistry, Quantitative Chemical Analysis, Nuclear Chemistry and Radiochemistry, Instrumental Analysis, Structure and Coordination Chemistry, Environmental Chemistry, Corrosion Chemistry, Atomic and Molecular Spectroscopy, Cement and Fertilizer Industry and Special Topics in Physical Chemistry, among other courses.

Aaron is married and blessed with four lovely children.

Aaron’s father is still alive and looks very young even at old age. People who know him jokingly mock Aaron of being older than his father. He is still very strong and agile at his age.  â€œHe is my number one fan, number one mentor; he beliefs in me so much. I thank God for keeping him up till today. Every day I see him, I am so glad that he is alive. He has done so much and have accomplished so much. He is so proud of what I am doing”. Ironically, his greatest pain till date is the tragic loss of his loving mother who passed on about ten years ago.

Aaron’s philosophy is to keep pushing, keep hoping for the best, and trusting that God would never forsake the righteous.

Professionally, Prof Baba has given major presentations in the areas of his research interests, spanning Photochemistry, Corrosion, modelling, Chemical sensors and Agrochemicals. This proficient chemist has in-depth knowledge of many modern chemical analytical techniques, such as UV-VIS, FT-IR, FT-NMR, GC/MS, HPLC, electroanalysis and laser spectroscopy.

 Aaron’s inspiration to go into the beverage industry began from when he was living in the US. “I was in the US for almost 20 years. we (my family) use to come home almost on a yearly basis, and whenever we come to Nigeria we found out that the most common drinks that you would find are the drinks that are highly carbonated. And for me, for some reasons I am allergic to carbonated drinks. So, I kept looking for a drink I can consume and also make available to the general public. So, we started exploring the possibility of setting up a beverage drink that is based on green tea. So, it was our desire to produce a healthy alternative to the carbonated drinks that we started the Multilife Green Tea Company which is green tea based”.

 

 Aaron’s product; Multilife Green Tea  came into the market in 2012 and quite coincidentally, got NAFDAC approval the same week the Kogi State Executive Council was dissolved which became a green light for him, “that God is telling us something as one phase of our life was ending, the beverage business was starting off, so, we started in 2012”.

Aaron has a guiding principle for his business and especially in the production of beverages which is “we must produce high quality products”. “We must produce drinks that are safe and meet the highest standards”. There are guidelines of the Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON) and NAFDAC that regulate what the drinks should be and what contents should be included in the drinks. But beyond the NAFDAC and the SON requirements, Aaron’s Multilife company’s requirement is that these drinks that his family, friends and people that know him would drink must meet their safety standards, according to him,  â€œif it does not meet their safety standards, it doesn’t matter what SON or NAFDAC says, it is not good for the general public”. This guiding principle in the production of Multilife Drinks has over time become the driving force for a non-compromising quality standard, control and assurance; that “it must be safe for the general public, and it must be safe for my family and friends”.

Of course, growing the company and the brands was not without many challenges, “if you are an investor, entrepreneur in Nigeria, there are issues you must contend with. Because these are very, very sophisticated drinks, they are chemistry based, and one of the basic challenges we faced was when our products were going bad. We needed to increase the stability and the shelf-life. There are few persons around that I could ask. So, many times, to tackle the issue of product safety, quality control and so on, I had to go into my background in chemistry as a scientist and look for the solution that we can derive based on world-wide research results that had been published. So, in terms of challenges of maintaining quality, I had to rely on my chemistry background”.

 

“with the increasing population, I see the continual growth of the beverage industry in Nigeria. And, also people are becoming more health conscious, and as they become more heath conscious, they will try to gravitate towards drinks that are really of high quality that would address their health needs”

 

And then with the issue of funding; “funding has always been an issue. We have been producing since 2012, and we have not had any conventional funding from any bank or financial institution. So, the challenges are still there to weather it; the fact that we remain in the market up to this point, is something that we need to be grateful to God for”.

Naturally, the Multilife Brand was not without its lows, “when we started production, I expected that the product would have gone very, very far. And because it could not go very far because of limited capital to put into the operation I had lost focus on trying to push it further. And so, within the past few years our presence, the market had gone down” This was primarily because the product was not pushed into the Market as hard as the company did initially, at a point we were discouraged and felt that the market was not really interested in the product. So, for about 2-3 years we didn’t give it the same attention that we did when we started, because one, I put in a lot of effort, a lot of resources in the beginning and the results then were very, very discouraging. But within the past 2-3 months I have come across people who told me that they miss the fact that they cannot see Multilife Drink in the market place because our drinks, the Multilife Drinks are all sugar free. And this, I think Multilife is the only sugar free beverage drinks that are produced in Nigeria. Having realized that the market place is missing the sugar free drink from Multilife, he is currently injecting more resources, time and money to restore the brand to the market place.

“Unfortunately, when I look around because I often go to some of these stores; I was in Shoprite and Next Cash n Carry and I did not see any drinks that are sugar free and produced in Nigeria that are in our category. So, Multilife drinks are the only sugar free out there in the Nigeria market place. But I know that we need to do more to promote the product, because Nigerians are becoming more health conscious, and as they are becoming more health conscious, they are running away from the sugar drinks. Ours are all sugar free. We have the regular; we have the big bottle in the category of coke sugar free. And then, we have the energy boost which is also sugar free and the alcoholic drink which is 18% alcohol and yet sugar free. So, these are unique different products that are in the market place and are sugar free. So, I have not seen any sugar free drinks that are in that category in the market place.” Aaron is full of hope for the Beverage industry in Nigeria, he says “with the increase in population of Nigeria, I see the continual growth of the beverage industry in Nigeria. And, also people are becoming more health conscious, and as they become more heath conscious, they will try to gravitate towards drinks that are really of high quality that would address their health needs. I think, the growth path is very strong”.

Aaron believes that the problem of the Nigeria beverage industry is very similar to that of most investments in Nigeria. “There is issue of financing, and then the issue of infrastructural deficits. Where we are right now most of the time we run on generator, we run on our own bore-hole, no access roads; we have to provide ourselves every infrastructure including security. So, infrastructural deficit is the main challenge that the beverage industry and others are facing in Nigeria”.

 On the growth of the beverage industry in Nigeria and the role of investors, Aaron is of the opinion that it takes guts to be an investor in Nigeria. But because of the increase in the population of Nigeria, if you can stick your neck out, it is worth it. In all he encourages people not just in the beverage industry but everywhere because the more investors that come into Nigeria, the more jobs that will be created, the less crime that will be committed in the society and there will be general increase in the quality of life for the citizenry regardless of the challenges.  We have low funding, infrastructural deficit, and sometime access to quality human capital is low and far between but it still worth to invest in the beverage industry, and also other industries in Nigeria. Because, “with the increase in the population of Nigerians there is increase in demand for quality goods and services. And if you are willing to endure the initial challenges i think it is going to be worth it”.

Aaron is a man of Faith and testifies that he has seen God’s strong hands in everything about his life, family and endeavors. “I have seen life ups and downs. I have gone very far and come very, very low. I have had many, many challenges health wise and even family wise but through it all, the fact that I am alive today, and the things we are doing, is a testament of God’s faithfulness. And because He (God) had given me many chances, He has elevated me beyond my wildest expectation”. He prays and hope that everything that he does in life and business would give Him the greatest glory because, He had backed him always. He believes that, the future of the business is in His hands as humans, he will put in his ideas, plans and work towards them with prayers because he has the vision towards expanding the business.

  Aaron is a US citizen and travels regularly to visit his children, for medical check-up, and to explore business opportunities in the US.

 

 What is your view about broadband penetration in the country and how will it help in achieving Nigeria’s digital economy drive?

Nigeria has come a long way in broadband penetration. As at 2015 when the current EVC of the NCC, Danbatta, was appointed, broadband penetration was between four per cent and six per cent. In December 2018, the country surpassed its 30 per cent broadband penetration target and today the country can boast of 43.3 per cent broadband penetration, with another target of attaining 70 per cent broadband penetration by 2025.

So with the current broadband penetration level, Nigeria is ripe to achieve its digital economy drive. We have reached a point at our broadband penetration level, where nothing can stop us as a country from achieving our dream of the digital economy. With sufficient broadband penetration, businesses will grow and new businesses and companies will spring up. With broadband, companies will save cost and the country will generate new streams of revenues, despite the challenges that come with the digital economy.

 People have called for collaboration in order to achieve a digital economy. What form of collaboration do you think can lead to achieving the digital economy?

I quite agree that collaboration is necessary to achieve the digital economy. VDT, which I operate, for instance, has its focus on providing the enabling infrastructure for broadband growth in the country. In achieving the digital economy, we have to consider all sides of the digital economy framework like the consumer side, producer side, enterprise side, and regulatory side. The enterprise side of it has to do with industries, factories and offices, and that is where VDT plays a key role in the country’s digital economy drive. Our retail, business is fast-growing and supporting the digital economy growth of the country.

 Telecoms operators are asking for seed funds to sustain their telecoms business. Do you see funding as a challenge to achieving digital economy in Nigeria?

Nigeria is an emerging market and as a player in the emerging market, I strongly believe that telecoms operators need seed funds for their businesses. Naturally, it is very difficult to operate in an emerging market because the cost of sustaining a business is on the high side. There are so many things militating against raising funds in an emerging market like Nigeria. The Nigerian economy, for instance, has not enjoyed economic salability, and the country has to devalue her currency severally to stabilise the economy, yet the economy kept dwindling and it is difficult for businesses to thrive in a dwindling economy like ours. For this reason, funding of long term projects like the telecoms project has been a herculean task for business owners. The situation is also affecting infrastructure companies because they need huge money to purchase equipment for infrastructure rollout. VDT operate on the infrastructure aspect of telecoms business and I can tell you the fact that it is difficult to raise money for infrastructure and service rollout. Those clamouring for seed funding for telecoms business are right and government must see to that in order to keep telecoms business running. Just like the Bank of Industry and the Agricultural Development Bank, the telecoms sector needs a telecoms bank that will fund telecoms business in the country.

The multinational players in the telecoms sector do not have much funding challenges like the local players do, so the government must support local and small players in the telecoms sector to grow and sustain their telecoms businesses.

 So how small is VDT in the telecoms sector, when it has operations outside of Lagos?

VDT is a small telecoms operator that is focused on the retail aspect of telecoms business, but even at that, there are several telecoms operators that are even smaller than VDT in terms of their operational capacities. If VDT, as small as it is, still struggle to raise funds for major projects, you can imagine how the smaller operators will be struggling even more than VDT to raise funds for capital projects, hence the need for seed funding for local and small telecoms operators.

 Given the scenario where only a few companies are offering fiber-to-home services in Nigeria, where the majority of people now work online from home as a result of the new normal caused by COVID-19 pandemic, what is the possibility of sustaining working from home?

Connectivity has gone far beyond offering fiber-to-home services. Today, many operators offer wireless services just like VDT. With wireless services, people can still work conveniently from home with their wireless devices without depending outrightly on fiber-to-home service that has to do with fiber optic cables. So the combination of wireless and wired services can conveniently sustain the new normal, where people can work from outside of their offices without getting to the office. Once there is adequate coverage of fiber and wireless connectivity, the tempo could be sustained. It is technology-enabled and it is all about the internet and broadband connectivity. For example, today, Nigeria boasts of 43.3 per cent broadband penetration, but 40 per cent of that penetration level is from wireless connectivity, and that is where VDT operates, providing wireless connectivity services to homes, offices and schools. What we need are incentives.

 What kind of incentives do local operators need to remain competitive in the telecoms business where the big players operate?

The incentives can be in various forms. The telecoms regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), said they were giving palliatives to infrastructure companies (InfraCos), but such palliatives need to go round the small operators and VDT should be considered for palliatives because we need support to sustain our kind of telecoms business.

 VDT is into wireless connectivity, just like several other operators, yet we have little presence of free wireless hotspots in public places where people could connect to the internet for free like it is the case with most developed countries of the world. Why is the case of Nigeria different?

Yes, people could get free connectivity in public places like airports and malls in developed countries, but it is not so in Nigeria because of the issue of lack of adequate funds to operate free internet services in public places. The free wireless internet services you experience at airports and malls in developed countries were installed by small players who got funding from the government, but in Nigeria, it becomes difficult to set up free wireless hotspots where there is no funding from the government. Lagos State tried it some years ago by using small operators to establish free Wi-Fi hotspots in some parts of Lagos, but I do not know if those hotspots are still working because of funding and sustainability. There has to be continued funding for installation and maintenance for such projects to be sustained. The operators cannot go to the bank to take a loan for such projects because of the two digits interest rate that is involved in bank loan, which makes highly expensive and risky to take a bank loan for telecoms business.

 What happens to the USPF funding for telecoms operators. Why can’t small players take advantage of such funds to provide free Wi-Fi hotspots?

If the telecoms regulator channels the Universal Service Provisions Funds (USPF) to small operators, then I think they should be able to provide free Wi-Fi hotspots in some designated public places across the country. In developed countries where you experience free Wi-Fi hotspots, they are being funded by the government and we need our government to do so in Nigeria.

 Telecoms development is largely tilted towards urban cities, while the rural and underserved areas remain impoverished of telecoms services. Is it not possible for the operators to use the gains made from cities to deploy services in underserved and unserved areas of the country?

The NCC had rightly said Nigeria has 114 access gaps and about 25 million Nigerians are not connected to broadband. Nigerians should not expect telecoms operators to invest their gains in unserved areas of the country because investments love profit. Every business person will want to invest in areas where investments are easily recouped. They invested money and the need profit and they cannot get that kind of profit in underserved and unserved areas, and no investor will want to invest in such places unless there are incentives from the government and that is exactly what the USPF funds are meant to achieve. More profits are made from urban areas because of the population and no operator will install 3G and 4G networks in rural areas where the return on investment is very low.

 Given the fact that Nigerian youths and small business owners form the bulk of Nigerian population and start-up organisations, to what extent can government tap into the strength of their numbers to drive tech development across the country?

Youths and start-ups, no doubt, have the numerical strength to drive technology development and help Nigeria to achieve its digital economy drive a lot faster, but they do not have the capital for expansion. So the government needs to see their numbers as an opportunity to tap into by providing incentives for them. One of the incentives is to provide them with cheap capital, supported by training and education. The government also need to provide a better business enabling environment for our youths and SMEs to enable them to thrive and become employers of labour. They need protection in their business with special preference to help them grow with less stress. It must be a conscious effort on the part of the government to address youth unemployment in the country, and this is one of the better ways to achieve it. It is not enough for the government to be collecting taxes from organisations without developing its youths. So part of the money generated from taxes should be invested in youths and SMEs development. If the SMEs are protected today, they will surely grow large to compete with the exiting large enterprises in the telecoms sector, who also started very small, but became very large with time because of the initial support they got from their government.

 What is your view about regulating technology activities in the country, in relation to the Nigerian Data Protection Regulation(NDPR), which the National Information Technology Development Agency is championing?

The NDPR, which the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) is currently promoting, is a good move by NITDA, and they should be commended because data protection and regulation have become global issues. The data regulation embarked upon by NITDA will compel big and small organisations to be mindful in handling personal data, because data is now the new oil that will boost the Nigerian economy if properly regulated, analysed and put into proper use.

 Do you agree with those calling for monetisation of data, who felt that Nigerians are sitting on a huge amount of data that are not properly being utilised?

I quite agree with those calling for monetisation of our data because Nigerians are not making good money from data, yet we have data all around us. We need to first organise our data before we can monetise it. This is true because data that needs to be monetised, must first be structured, organised and cleaned up, to enable monetisation. We have a lot of personal, organisational and national data all around us, but we need to structure them to make the best out of the data.

For instance, in the retail part of our business, it was after we reorganised the organisational data that we started making good money from it. So data must be first organised and structured before monetisation of the data can work effectively. Data simple helps organisations to make good business decisions and predictions that will help the organisation to avoid wastages and in turn, make a good profit. So data has to be organised and well analysed for better decision making that will be profitable for the organisation.

 How will you assess the implementation of the new National Broadband Plan, which seeks to achieve 70 per cent broadband penetration by 2025?

Efforts on the part of the government to meet the 70 per cent broadband target as enshrined in the new National Broadband Plan, is ongoing, but some people are of the view that we could effortlessly achieve the target by 2025, because of the springing up of start-ups and FinTech operators who are actually driving new software applications that will make the digital transaction a lot more possible. Telecoms operators are also busy deploying 3G and 4G networks, which are broadband enablers. All these put together will fast-track broadband penetration without conscious efforts.

 You chaired one of the panel sessions during the National Dialogue Forum on Telecoms and ICT, recently organised by the Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON). What is your assessment of the forum?

I must congratulate the organizers of the National Dialogue Forum on Telecoms and ICT because it was a huge success in promoting telecoms and ICT activities in the country. So much was said about how Nigeria could harness her digital resources for the building of our national economy, and the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami, was able to give guidelines and timelines on how Nigeria will achieve her digital economy drive. The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Danbatta, was also able to throw more lights on what the commission is doing to achieve digital economy through the commission’s Eight Point agenda, which majorly focused on broadband penetration and utilisation. We can’t talk of digital economy without talking about telecommunications technology on which the digital economy rides on, and I quite appreciate what that ministry and the NCC are doing in this regard. Paper presentations at the forum were focused on broadband, funding, investments, regulation and the challenges and opportunities that abound in digital economy and how best to harness the opportunities and also turn the challenges into opportunities.

 

Source: https://bit.ly/32uTUPi