One of Ghana’s biggest agricultural secrets is now out.
Ten days ago, the great and good of the agricultural sector, together with a cross-section of the Ghanaian business and diplomatic community descended on a previously lackluster part of Dawhenya Community 25, off the Accra-Tema motorway.
The occasion? The launch by the President, His Excellency Nana Akufo-Addo, of Omnifert’s multi-million dollar plant fertiliser blending plant, the largest by far in Ghana.
Omnifert is disrupting a previously cosy fertiliser market, capturing a significant share of the local market and making inroads into neighbouring countries. It’s the latest in a series of businesses built by Michael Zormelo. His most audacious yet.
The younger Zormelo wanted to work at Ghana National Petroleum Company (“GNPC”) because ‘the people in GNPC lived in Heaven’. So, after high school at Achimota, he proceeded to study petroleum engineering at Maretta College in the United States. After GNPC ignored his application, he went on to intern at Chevron in the United States, followed by a short stint as a furniture salesman.
Striking out
After realising he was single-handedly responsible for the majority of sales at the furniture shop where he worked, he decided to work for himself. At 22, together with a high school friend, he established Union Furniture in Virginia, to retail mattresses.
He expected to make a killing from mattresses because “Americans bought and discarded their mattress like they were consumables”. His expectations turned out to be partly true and business was OK. It paid for his upkeep plus a little extra. Many would have been content. But not Zormelo who’d decided an OK business was not enough for him.
Seizing opportunities
Further liberalisation of Ghana’s economy, following return to democratic rule, created opportunities Zormelo felt he couldn’t ignore. So he moved back home and set up Zytec Computers to sell telecom and intercom solutions, computer accessories and computers. In addition to selling other brands, Zormelo developed and assembled in Ghana, his own brand of ‘AUWA’ computers. With help from Origin8, then the leading Ghanaian advertising company and counsel from Joel Nettey and Professor Bob Hinson, Zormelo developed an award winning marketing campaign which led to increased turnover and an eclectic mix of private, corporate, government and international customers.
Business was good! Until it wasn’t. The fast and furious depreciation of the Cedi, between 1998 and 2000 sent Zytec into a nose dive. Zormelo’s margins and most of his capital disappeared, leaving him unable to service his debts as he’d bought goods in dollars and sold them in cedis. He says that during this period, only Kofi Amoabeng, then of Unique Trust Financial Services, believed in his vision enough to first lend to him and then, during his difficult patch, provide him a restructuring plan, in sharp contrast to other Ghanaian bankers unable to appreciate blindingly obvious opportunities.
In search of new revenue sources to help him out of his woes, Zormelo started Mustek Engineering to construct roads, sell bitumen and quarry stones. All was well in Zormelo’s world again.
In later years, Mustek would provide Electricity Company of Ghana and GRIDCo with electrical inputs and grid construction services. He’d also go on to establish Omni Energy, providing rig services for oil operations throughout West Africa, with business as far afield as Equatorial Guinea.
The birth of Omnifert
Zormelo’s dream is to retire as a farmer. So when, in June 2016, he saw a Ghanaian Times advert inviting bids for fertiliser supply, he reckoned that could be his way in. He submitted a bid but lost, because he’d been unable to demonstrate any capacity to deliver fertiliser projects.
Undeterred, he hired top-notch agronomists, bought 10 acres of land and proceeded to build a full-service fertiliser plant, able to blend and store his nine fertiliser blends and still have the capacity to blend and store for other suppliers.
His 10,000-hectare maize and rice farm in Northern Ghana (Omnifarms), now in development phase, would naturally rely on Omnifert fertilisers. Zormelo’s target market however, is the broader West African region.
Secrets of entrepreneurial success
Asked about the secrets of his success, Zormelo replies, “Meeting the right people at the right time is the icing on the cake for successful business growth”. What he is too modest to add is that, it’s his warm engaging personality, friendly demeanour and relentless drive that enable him convert chance encounters and casual acquaintances into meaningful business relationships.
He attacks all entrepreneurial opportunities with energy and astonishing decisiveness. He’s not one to worry over things he cannot control. He’d rather deal with challenges as they arise, “setbacks are a part of business. The important thing is to seek out good advice and never give up”. He lives by a win-win philosophy that’s won him competent and loyal employees, and made friends of his competitors. As he puts it, “tenders are just for one or two days. After that, we have the rest of the 364 days where we must work together”.
Considering the scale of Zormelo’s new venture, his track record and his ability to bounce back from setbacks, I’m betting that Omnifert is headed for the top spot in the West African fertiliser market in the next few years. Look out for the name.
**This article was first published in my “Celebrating Entrepreneurship’ column of Graphic Business on Tuesday September 17, 2019
