Welcome, Guest: Register On Nairaland / LOGIN! / Trending / Recent / NewStats: 3,152,318 members, 7,815,607 topics. Date: Thursday, 02 May 2024 at 03:12 PM |
Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Investment / The Success Story Peace Mass Transit (1569 Views)
Before You Venture Into Bakery Business Know The Success Secrets / 2010 Ford Transit Ambulance. Tokunbo. Fully Equipped. 2 Units / Sports Betting: The Success Formula (2) (3) (4)
The Success Story Peace Mass Transit by nonhuman(m): 12:39am On Apr 02, 2017 |
In 1994 Samuel started with 2 buses. Today, PEACE
MASS has over 3000 buses. How did it
happen ?
Born in Nsukka, Enugu State in November 1963,
Sam is the first son in a family of nine. Sam’s
father was a bricklayer at the University of Nigeria
Nsukka. He slumped and died on the last day
of February, 1977. Sam had his primary school
education at the Enugu Road primary school,
Nsukka from 1971-1976. He then was admitted
into Bubendorf Grammar school, Adazi, in Awka,
Anambra State. But the death of the father left the
mother with no option than to withdraw him
from the school for financial reasons and bring him
closer home. He then entered Community
Secondary school, Mbu in Isi-Uzo LGA of Enugu
State.
Barely managing to survive in school because of
poverty, Sam had only one pair of white khaki
shorts and a white shirt as a school uniform as
against two recommended by the school.” At that
time, I only wash my school uniform on Saturdays,
wear it clean to school on Monday to
Wednesday and avoided morning assembly on
Thursdays and Fridays because my uniform was
too dirty. I used to report to school early those two
days, but I would go and hide somewhere
until the assembly was over. Of course, I was
always punished for coming late. That was not all.
I climbed all the mango and cashew trees around
our school to pluck their fruits for food and for
sale, to supplement what my mother was giving me
as pocket and feeding money. I climbed
these trees so often that I know those trees knew
me by my name.”
At the end of his class 3 at Community Secondary
School, Mbu, he could no longer cope with the
financial demands and subsequently, had to be
transferred to St. Theresa’s College, Nsukka
where he felt a lot more relieved as it his home. But
as a senior student as he was in class 4, he
was expected to wear trousers to school. He had
no money to buy trousers, and so he continued
wearing shorts until the second term of his final
year. It was a public embarrassment!
While in secondary school, Sam had dreamt of
being a lawyer, but his poor financial background
made sure that dream was never achieved as he
could not continue after the secondary school.
“At the time I passed out of secondary school,
government was recruiting auxiliary teachers in
his state. The minimum qualification was five
credits in one sitting. So, I applied because I had
that. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the job because I
didn’t have two naira to bribe a messenger to
allow me enter the zonal commissioner’s office to
collect my appointment letter. What pained me
more was that some applicants, who did not have
up to five credits at one sitting, got the job. I
couldn’t explain what could have happened. That
was my first encounter with what they call the
‘Nigerian Factor’. I was so fed up with education
that I contemplated tearing my school certificate
to pieces so as to forget all about academics. On a
second thought however, I remembered the
sufferings and the sacrifices my mother went
through for me to go to school. I decided to
handover the certificate to her and leave to search
for what to do with my life.
His mother gave him N200 which was the bride
price of one of his sisters to enable him go to
Enugu and fix himself somewhere, but this failed.
Back in Nsukka, he tried his hands in many
things and at a time, he was a barrow-pusher and a
bus conductor. Later, he went into learning
a trade after which he could not still go into the
business because there was no money. He then
went into music as a song writer and singer. His
producer went into political detention before his
record was released .Out of frustration, he left
them. “I traveled to the North, Kaduna state, to
serve as a laborer at a place called Ikara. I left my
employers in1984 because my salary wasn’t
paid in full. I returned to Nsukka fortunately for me,
that was when UNN was paying my people
some money for our land which was sold to them.
My mother received N1200 as her own share
and she handed over the whole money to me
because she trusted me. With that money, I
returned
to Ikara and went into second hand clothe business
and later moved to Kano in 1987. By 1989, I
had saved up to N12000. With that, I went to learn
motor spare parts business for 24 days and
then, set up my own. I had saved up to N260000 in
my bank account.”
Sam was challenged to pursue university education
by one of his village men who ordered him to
keep quiet because as an ordinary West African
School Certificate (WASC) holder, he shouldn’t
talk where graduates like him were talking.
“this guy was my junior in Primary school, in fact,
he was two years behind me; even though he
was older than me, but he had become a graduate.
He told me in public that I should not argue
with him because I was only a WASC holder. Can
you imagine that? That was when I told myself
that I must go back to school, to acquire that
University education for which I was insulted. I
personally like challenges and this was just enough
challenge to make me abandon my business
in the north to return to Nsukka. Like I said, I like
challenges because when someone delivers a
punch on you, the person’s armpit is open and you
can always land a shock on the person’s open
armpit, although, it depends on how you position
yourself and are able to land a cut on the
person’s open armpit. I was a boxer in my
secondary school days and I know how to give a
good
punch. I am always guided by this belief in
confronting challenges on my way. I got admission
to
do a diploma program at UNN between 1993 and
1996 and later, a degree program from1996 to
1999. I graduated with a second class upper in
Social works and Community development”
When he started his lectures as a student, he
discovered he had plenty of idle time. To fill that
space, he went back to Kano and withdrew that
N260, 000 in his account and used it to purchase
two buses. He gave one out to another driver and
managed one himself. He used the bus to
convey passengers after lectures on week days and
full time one Saturdays
“my going into transport business was like a film.
At a time, I was only doing it to support
myself in school. but before I knew it, I had moved
from the initial 2 buses to 8. I went into a
contract with Nsukka LGA to use their name. my
company then was called Nsukka Mass Transit.
The number of buses continued to grow that when
I was graduating in 1999, I had up to 45
buses.
“I fell out with the local Government because they
violated our agreement by allowing another
operator to use a similar name as mine. The new
person called his Nsukka Urban Mass Transit. I
had to change my name to Peace Mass Transit. I
applied for a private park and it was granted.
So, I owned the first mini-bus private park in
Nsukka, Enugu, Onitsha, Aba, Abakaliki, Owerri,
Njuba Abuja. Then, it was almost impossible, but
God was with me.”
Peace mass Transit (PMT) from that humble
beginning has today, blossomed into not only the
foremost road transport business in Nigeria with
over 3000 buses, but also the fastest growing
Mass Transit business in West Africa. It has grown
into what is known as the Peace Group of
Companies, comprising among others, Peace quick
response Insurance brokers; Peace Petroleum
Limited; Peace Micro-finance bank; Peace express
service ltd; Peace Capital Market ltd (Stock
Brokers); Dealers and Investment Advisers; Maduka
Commercial and Futon International Ltd, the
sole importers of Peace Hiace Brand of vehicles;
Peace Bureau de Change; Peace Aviation
Services, PMT Beijing Trade ltd. China.
LESSONS
“One important lesson I want the young generation
to learn is that there is nothing like carry-over
in success. Success does not necessarily come
from one’s background. My father is rich and
therefore the richness will come to me or that my
mother is very poor and therefore I will be
poor, no way, I do not believe in that. Any body can
be successful; there is no hindrance from
being successful in life.” “I also want the young
generation to know that God gives money,
through hard work and dedication to duty”
Chief Onyishi reveals that God talks to him in
dreams and directs him on whatever he wants to
do. “God revealed to me in a dream when I wanted
to venture into the big buses that I shouldn’t,
that He wants me to concentrate on the small
buses.” The directive from God was very
instructive because after about 12 years in the
business, all the big bus operators left the big
buses and came down to the small buses and it’s
like every transporter is now doing the small
bus business.
One another important lesson of Chief Onyishi is
Honesty in Business. He recalled that when he
was in Kano, that there was on Alhaji Lawal Kurfi
who used to give them goods on credit to go
and sell in Lagos. He said, while other people will
sell and invest the money and pay
instalmentally, he will sell and bring the whole
money back to Alhaji and this has made the Alhaji
to trust him which aided rapid growth in business,
because the alhaji introduced him to more
suppliers because of his honesty.
The story of Samuel Maduka Onyishi is the story of
an African child who will not allow his
background to determine his destiny. It is the story
of the dogged spirit of the African child. It is
a story that proves and again that with
determination, integrity and hard work, one can rise
from
the smallest of beginnings to the highest
aspirations.
It is a story that illustrates that Success is within
the grasp of each and every one of us, and that
no external condition has the power to stop us
from achieving our dreams if we are determined to
do so.
These are the qualities we teach young
entrepreneurs today, Because we know that is
easier to
fall back on blaming the government and fruitless
agitation once we loose focus on what we can
achieve on our own, if we make the effort.
Join us today and refuse to let anyone or anything
discourage you from become a success in life,
and achieving your dreams. Join MIllionaires
Academy today. |
Re: The Success Story Peace Mass Transit by Nobody: 12:52am On Apr 02, 2017 |
Good |
Re: The Success Story Peace Mass Transit by searchcorp(m): 1:02am On Apr 02, 2017 |
Thanks for sharing bro. bless ya! |
Re: The Success Story Peace Mass Transit by Misslynx(f): 11:00am On Apr 02, 2017 |
Very inspiring to all those out there who are still in the struggle to make it in life...The sky is just your starting point by God's grace |
Re: The Success Story Peace Mass Transit by gamaliel9: 10:06pm On Apr 02, 2017 |
Where in Enugu does Peace Mass sell her used ot tokunbo buses? |
Re: The Success Story Peace Mass Transit by FavoredGuy: 6:36am On Apr 03, 2017 |
I thank God for Peace Mass Transit's success. I key myself into his testimony. |
(1) (Reply)
Start Earning With Just 200 Naira / Telegram Bots That Pays / Sleepless AI Launches On Binance In 24 Hours - Get Free Airdrops Now
(Go Up)
Sections: politics (1) business autos (1) jobs (1) career education (1) romance computers phones travel sports fashion health religion celebs tv-movies music-radio literature webmasters programming techmarket Links: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) Nairaland - Copyright © 2005 - 2024 Oluwaseun Osewa. All rights reserved. See How To Advertise. 30 |