BELLO-OSAGIE, Hakeem

The Business Enigma by(Ayo Arowolo). Some say he isa corporateenigma.Otherssay he is the business phenomenon ofour time. Regardless the appellation pinned on him, what cannot possibly be denied is that Hakeem Bello-Osagie, 43, lawyer, economist, phi losopher and political scientist, is a complex and fascinating businessman who has managed to reshape Nigeria’s banking landscape in the lastcentury. His gait is deceptive. His appearance may notoffermany cluesabouthisentrepreneurial abili ties, butthosewhoarecloseto Bello-Osagie sayitis his unassuming personality that has, until very re cently allowed him to garnerso much influence and financial muscle without being noticed. A very private person endowed with sharp business instincts, Keem, as he is known in busi nesscircles,shot intothe limelightsix yearsagowhen he,along with some business lieutenants, executed a clinical corporate coup that placed them in firm control ofthe United Bank for Africa Pic. This was during the first phase of the privatization exercise when UBA’s shares were put on offer by the then Technical Committee on Privatization and Commer cialization (TCPC), acting through Lead Merchant Bank Limited. What Keem did was to enlist a few influen tial shareholders of the bank in an elaborate cam paign strategy where he horse-traded with the re gional chapters of the Nigeria.!Shareholders Soli darity Association to museie enough votes to win board seats. The scheming paid off. After some hours of intense politicking at the NICON Hilton Hotel, Abuja, venue ofthe bank’s AGM, it was obvious that Keem and his team had carried the day. Keem did not have more than 0.003 percent stake in the bank, but he had tremendous backingOf the bank’s foreign shareholders from Banque Nationalede ParisInternational, France; Banque Na tional de Paris, Pic, UK; Bankers Trust International Corporation, USA; Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, Italy; and Monte del Paschi diSienna, Italy who hold 40 percent of the bank’sequities. Hisdeft manoeuvres produced a coalition of interests that controlled a voting bloc ofabout20 percent of the bank’s shares. Bello-Osagie eventually emerged the vice chairman of the bank, while Alhaji Abdullai Nuhu Bamali became the chairman. Close associates of Keem said his passion for investment in UBA was fired by an early impression he got after buying a number of shares in the bank. He was said to have been appalled that a bankof UBA’s size and clout couldnotstampitsfeet inthe market place. To him, UBA was a sleeping giantthat needed to be woken up. Hakeem Bello-Osagie, undoubtedly the most fascinating financial wizard on Broad Streettoday, has told everybody who cares to listen that he in tends to change the fortunes of the bank for good. He talkedof making UBAthe biggest and the most profitable bank in Africa. He also talked of making UBA an IT-driven bank that could deliver superior services to customers. Howfar hashe gone?Those who are famil iar with the bank’s profile before the ‘Keem coup’, say that the Oxford and Harvard-trained business manhascreatednothinglessthan a revolutioninthe bank. “Thechanges thathavetaken-place inthebank since he took over have been incredible”, says a bank inganalyst, whosayshehasfollowed the ‘Keem phe nomenon’ with keen interest. This is probably not an exaggeration. The bank’s profit level stood at N355 million in 1995, but by the 1996financial year, the bank had netted NI billion profit after tax. The bank’s incomefrom interest as at March 1999 stood atN5.2 billion. Since Keem took over the management of UBA, he has extended the influence ofthe bank beyondNigeria’s shores. A few years back, he signed a money trans fer deal with Money Gram in the United Kingdom, a venture that has become a money spinner for the bank. All these successful manouevres have been at a price. Many workers have been retrenched since Keem and his team took control of the bank, and the team has also taken a number of unpopular meas ures. On balance, however, he has given the bank more than he has taken away from it. Interestingly, Keem’sforay intobusinessdid notstart with the financial services industry. Keem made a quiet incursion into the business arena in 1980 under the civilian administration, when he was ap pointed special assistant to the presidential adviser on Petroleum and Energy, the late Mallam Yahaya Dikko. Hakeem was just 25, fresh from Harvard School ofBusiness. Under Yahaya Dikko, Keem had responsibilities that cut across the liquefied natural gas project, crude oil and petroleum products pricing and marketing. As the secretary of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) committee which produced the blueprint for the project, Keem was said to have endeared himself to everybody includ ing financiers and foreign consultants to the project. The brilliant manner in which he handled the com plex negotiations involved in the LNG project, earned him so much political clout and influence, thatwhen the President Shehu Shagari’s Second Republic was swept away, Keem was among the very few people that were allowed to continue with their jobs. By the time he bowed out of public service in 1986, he had made so many contacts with people in the petroleum business, that he would have been clos ing the door on a prime opportunity if he had not taken advantage of his privileged position. Indeed, many of the foreign firms that had dealt with Keem when he was in the public service wanted him to serve as their link in the petroleum business with the Nigerian government. Credit Transactions and Investments Limited (CTIL) formed by Keem in 1986 was a response to that opportunity. Within a very short time, CTIC’s clientele grew and the company consulted for sev eral firms from the United States, Europe and Japan. Many indigenous oil companies interested in forg ing some form of alliance with foreign firms also found it convenient to go through Keem’s company. It was from this consultancy business that Hakeem dabbled into the finance industry through KMC, a finance house which was consumed by the distress virus that hitthe sub-sector. The operations of KMC were later transferred to the First Securities Discount House, the first discount house to be licensed by the Central Bank ofNigeria. It was essentially a virgin territory, but Hakeem was smart to seek help from the experts: the International Finance Corporation had a 10 per cent stake while the Intermarket Dis count House of Zimbabwe also picked 5 per cent and stood ready to provide technical assistance. The First Securities Discount House has understandably shone among its peers, and it has continued to post admirable results every financial year. It was Hakeem’s involvement with UBA that has given him this larger than life image. He has had cause to complain to friends that he is not comfortable with the publicity he has been getting. “If you look out there, you’ll see a mobile policeman sitting by the gate with a gun”, Hakeem told a group ofjour nalists that he had invited to his house in Ikoyi some time in April 1995. It could not have been other wise. Hakeem, who read Politics, Philosophy and Eco nomics at Oxford University and sttudied law at the University of Cambridge, both in the United King dom, also has an MBA from Harvard. He is a man who has his hand in many pies. He is into oil. He is into estate development. He is into solid mineral business. And presently he is also into banking. Hakeem is also said to have reasonable investment in Ghana and a few other countries. Those who have transacted business with him talk of some special attributes that stand him out. For instance, he is said to be endowed with an unu sual ability to concentrate. Once he is keyed into a project, nothing else matters until he pushes it to a conclusion and usually with international bench marks. For those who have sought to know the source of his money, Hakeem has a ready answer: he did not make his money from the public service. One fact which he does not mind repeating, is that he had the good fortune of coming from a comfortable fam ily, which also meant good education, maximum exposure and fantastic business networking, that he has been smart enough to convert into goodwill and wealth. Hakeem is the first of the four children of Harvard-trained Professor Tiamiyu Bello-Osagie, renowned obstetrician and proprietor of the Osagie Medical Centre, who has had the privilege of being the gynaecologist to a number of ‘first ladies’ in Nigeria. It is very difficult to predict what would be the next move of this fascinating entrepreneur who be lieves that the successful completion of a project should not merely be the cause for jubilation, but should rather serve as a reminder to move into an other project. One thing is certain, however: with the way government is turning public assets into pri vate business, Hakeem will definitely have many challenging engagements in the new millennium.