Lagos — Tosjini Nigeria Limited a building and civil engineering company, is located at Abule-Egba in Lagos, Akure in Ondo State and Athens in Greece.

It specialises in industrial, residential, commercial, educational public buildings as well as road networks. It also encourages beautification of environment landscape and aesthetically striking edifices as its director, Olumide Kasali Balogun tells Sunday Business.

WHAT is Tosjini all about?

It is a name coined from my children's names Tosin, Jibola, and Eniola Balogun. Tosjini is a company that deals with hiring and sales of earth moving equipment such as caterpillar tractors, sales and services of caterpillars, pay loaders, graders, bitumen sprayer, water tankers, trucks, dumperds, compressors, scaffolding and wheel barrows. We are also into rural development like road construction, building, plant hire, importer and exporter of these products.

Why are you into this type of business?

During my school days, I came to Lagos as a clerical assistant on part time basis under Sules plant hire. This was where I gathered little experience about caterpillar business. I later left the company for Nigerian Army School of Signals, Apapa, where I obtained diploma in printing technology. From there, I gained an employment with Nigeria Security and Minting (Interglo Section, Currency Department) as a machine manager. In 1993, I travelled to Athens in Greece. My present manager was my former director at Sules. I sent a machine to him to manage in Nigeria and from there I was encouraged to go into the business fully.

How old is the business?

We started in year 2001.You spent 17 years abroad. Now you are back. Why?Home is home. Nigeria is the only place I can build my confidence because whatever building I had acquired abroad cannot be shifted to Nigeria. I decided to come back to my father's land and contribute my quota. Also, I want to add the little experience I gathered abroad to the business back home.

What is competitive advantage?

We have dedicated staff. Apart from this, we have standard equipment because most of them are imported. These machines are reliable and customers have confidence of ultimate deal in terms of output. Also, when we talk of maintenance, our machines don't break down any time they are on the field.

And the challenges?

The greatest challenge we have is power. As you are aware, maintenance of these machines involves welding. As a result, we need to take them to far places to get this done. More so, we burn a lot of diesel to run the generator in the office which is mostly run between 9.00 a.m and 6.00 pm.. Also, in terms of contract, we have not been able to get a direct contract because of the political state of the country.

And you selected to locate the business in Lagos?

The architect of the business is in Lagos. Lagos is a place that has continuous construction work, building, proximity to tools and equipment for maintenance. The business is better run in Lagos because cost of maintenance in Lagos is low compared with other states.

Transportation?

We have trailers that carry our machines to various destinations. We also have bulldozers, rollers, pay loaders, graders and escalators.