Culled from stelladimokokorkus.com
Entire savings in the Netherlands withdrawn from the bank; land sold in Nigeria; he called family members in Nigeria to borrow money; friends, country-men and associates in the Netherlands gathered to put funds together ... All to raise capital for a night-shop (mini supermarket) in Vlaardingen (Rotterdam). Then two nights before the grand opening of the shop, everything went down in flames, leaving Jeffrey Ekhator with over €80,000 worth of damages and irretrievably in debt.
How did Jeffrey Ekhator survive this financial tragedy to become one of Africa's growing business success in the Netherlands?
Read his story below
In 1999, Jeffrey Ekhator entered the Netherlands - the end of a long road escaping Nigeria’s Sani Abacha’s regime. After seven months in a refugee camp in the North of the country; a residence permit ; and a home in Rotterdam, Jeffrey got a job at McDonalds . His plan was to save for his own business - the only logical step for a young man who had started in trade at the age of nine (helping his mother) and owned his first kiosk at the age of fourteen. Two years into saving, in 2001, Jeffrey made the first attempt to set up a business. That attempt failed because someone frightened him away from the plan. But the fear that that individual put in Jeffrey’s heart was not strong enough to kill his burning desire to start a business. So it was that Jeffrey took the opportunity in 2004 when the opening came in the form of an old Dutch man who was looking to sell his shop (mini- supermarket) in Vlaardingen (Rotterdam).
On the grounds that the mini-market could and would be turned into a night-shop, Jeffrey signed a contract with the man, taking over ownership of the shop. Takeover cost was €30,000 - to be paid in instalments, while upfront payment was Jeffrey’s entire savings of €7,500. Jeffrey quit his job at McDonalds to concentrate on the shop. But the shop could not begin without an official permit to turn the mini-market into a night-shop. Since the old man had assured Jeffrey that getting the permit was going to be only a matter of course, Jeffrey expected an almost immediate response from the city council (gemeente). On that understanding, he prepared the shop for takeoff.
The gemeente sent Jeffrey a reply. No night-shop at that spot. Phase one of Jeffrey’s problems had begun. Phase two progressed in quick succession. The old man would not return the advance of €7,500 since the condition upon which the contract had been signed was no longer applicable – as in no night-shop. But he did agree to drop the €30,000 take-over bid, leaving Jeffrey to negotiate a compromise with the gemeente. A compromise was reached: a semi-night-shop. But by this point – already months into the takeover - the utility and rent bills of the shop and other costs had mounted to such a degree that Jeffrey’s financial pressure was beginning to become stifling. He turned to his family in Africa and his countrymen in the Netherlands for help. His mother sold two plots of land, other relatives borrowed, and country men in the Netherlands pooled money. Finally, in April 2005, after eight months of steep lows and tampered highs, the shop was ready to open. One day before the opening ceremony , the shop disappeared.
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| Jeffrey and wife |
THE SHOP DISAPPEARED OVERNIGHT!
Jeffrey had taken a friend (one of the guests of the upcoming opening ceremony) to see the vicinity; but instead of the shop, they found huge plank barricades. What happened? This happened: The shop went up in flames the night before, during which time the police tried in vain to reach and alert Jeffrey by phone. The place was now barricaded and under investigation.
Two weeks after the fire, Jeffrey received a letter from the police: they could find no leads on the cause of the fire. Case closed. Jeffrey was now left to deal with the arsonist (for informal information on the cause of the fire (arson) and the suspect had come to him). But harming another human being was less urgent to Jeffrey than recovering. Jeffrey turned his attention to his insurance.
ONLY WAY OUT.
The insurance told Jeffrey that they were not paying. By this time, Jeffrey was already over nine months behind on a shop rent that cost €1200 a month. His young wife and 2 year old baby were, along with him, subsisting on the remaining canned products that had not completely burnt down in the fire. Jeffrey had no lights - Eneco, the electricity company, had cut off his electricity. Coca-Cola,
whose €18,000 worth refrigerator went down with the fire, wanted their money and so sent a deurwaarder (creditor) to confiscate Jeffrey’s properties. Jeffrey’s contact person at the housing corporation came to visit him too. Both Coca-Cola and housing representatives , meeting a man living with no lights, no food, and hardly anything worth confiscating, decided to work out a payment arrangement with Jeffrey. Jeffrey went to the social office for financial relief. The social office told him that they could not help a man registered at the KVK as a business owner. It was either strike out his name from the KVK register or do without their monies. Jeffrey could not strike out his name from the business register because doing so would render him illegible to bring claims against the insurance on business-related issues.
Jeffrey called a friend at McDonalds and pleaded to get his old job back. He got it.
STANDING AT A CROSSROAD.
The decision of the insurance not to pay the insurance claim sent Jeffrey to a lawyer. The lawyer accessed the situation, filed in a case, and called Jeffrey one afternoon. He required €4000 from Jeffrey. Shocked by this request, Jeffrey told the lawyer that he could not produce such an amount. The lawyer explained that the money was necessary to hire more lawyers to fight the band of solicitors that the insurance company was bound to unleash on the case. Jeffrey offered to give the lawyer 50% of the claims money once the case was won. The lawyer replied that he could not guarantee that the case would be won. The conversation ceased; Jeffrey would return to the lawyer on the matter. Jeffrey did. He thanked the lawyer for having taken on the case, asked him to please drop the claims. “I have nothing more,” Jeffrey said solemnly to the lawyer, “I have nothing to fight with. Let it be like that. Let it end. It is over.”
It was over for the human eyes but God was about to show that he is God in Jeffrey's life.
JEFFREY EKHATOR’S UNBELIEVABLE RECOVERY!
JULY 2005
Jeffrey went to his room after this conversation with the lawyer, went down on his knees and prayed one prayer: “God help me. ” Then he told God that his life was now in God’s hands. Thereafter, Jeffrey picked up his phone and began calling his creditors, telling them, one by one, that he did not have the money to pay now, but if they gave him room and time to recuperate, he would begin the process.
Jeffrey did not know where he was going to get the funds to begin paying back. But he knew he wanted to pay his creditors back, and was going to have to start somewhere.
OCTOBER 2005
The job at McDonalds continued. Jeffrey worked without any clear idea what to do about the monies he owed. One afternoon, at a bus stop in Nieuwe Binnenweg (one of Rotterdam’s busiest streets), Jeffrey entered into conversation with an elderly Moroccan man. Their conversation moved to
Jeffrey’s tragedy three months earlier. Struck by compassion, the Moroccan man lamented Jeffrey’s fate and told Jeffrey that the city centre was a better place to do business in, rather than city fringes like Vlaardingen. He himself was at a business crossroads, he told Jeffrey, for he wanted to sell his shop at Nieuwe Binnenweg and move back to Morocco for good. Alas, said Jeffrey, if only he could buy the shop. Jeffrey said this partly in jest, but the old man was not jesting when he replied that he would talk to his son and see what they could come up with. For someone with Jeffrey’s history, the idea of a business take-over of any sort should have been scary. It did scare Jeffrey’s wife. But Jeffrey was now acting on the certainty that he had asked God’s help and was now the wiser. The man’s son agreed to go with his father’s plan - to let Jeffrey take over the shop on a no-strings-attached basis from October to December. They settled that if by December Jeffrey found that he did not want to continue with the business, the old man would take his shop back. If by this time Jeffrey saw that he liked the business, then from January Jeffrey would begin paying in installments the €15000 take over cost of the shop.
No papers signed, no names changed, no monies asked, barely two weeks of meeting each other, the old man handed the keys of his shop to Jeffrey.
NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER 2005
Between October and December 2005, Jeffrey (in addition to the rent and utility bills of the shop and his family’s needs) started stocking the shop with African foodstuff to begin attracting clientele he was familiar with: Africans South-of-the Sahara. In December, the old man left for Morocco.
JANUARY AND FEBRUARY 2006
From January, Jeffrey began paying the takeover cost of the shop through the old man’s son. He also started paying off his backlog of rents... beginning with paying two months’ worth of backlog in a go.
MARCH 2006
From March 2006, Jeffrey started paying Coca-Cola and some other creditors. In April 2006, he finally signed the takeover contract of the shop. By this time, more and more Africans were flocking to the shop.
2006 and 2007
Between 2006 and 2007, Jeffrey paid off the €15000 take over cost of the shop. From 2007, everyone Jeffrey owed began receiving monthly payments.
2009
In 2009, Jeffrey found a bigger shop at 1st Middellandstraat. The shop at Nieuwe Binnenweg had become too small for both goods and clientele.
2010
In 2010, Jeffrey opened the first African nightclub (Club Mi & YU) in Rotterdam. The same year he began expanding his business in an Abacha-free Nigeria.
2011 - 2012
Jeffrey entered 2012 as an employer of six fultime workers in the Netherlands. He also entered 2012 with a multifaceted business empire mushrooming in Nigeria.
Jeffrey was awarded best entrepreneur 2013 at the ADMA Awards which held recently in Amsterdam and i asked him a few questions days after the awards.
WHAT IS THE SECRET TO YOUR SUCCESS?
Realising that my survival depends on God, and turning to God when things get impossible. Not being too quick to dwell on bad situations, always ready to challenge myself, my situation and to risk failure... not once, not twice but as often as is necessary to arrive at my goal.
HOW DO YOU START YOUR DAY
My day usually starts at 6 a.m. I take the children to school, then go to the shop in the day and in the evening to the night-club lounge Mi & Yu.
JEFFREY YOU BROKE DOWN AND CRIED WHEN YOU CAME OUT TO COLLECT YOUR AWARD,PLEASE TELL US ABOUT THAT MOMENT.
I felt very emotional because i never thought i was going to win any award,there are a lot of competitors.I was so shocked that it was God that gave me the peer to speak that day.i cried because Gods hand in my life humbles me.
The ADMA award was the third this year.i had earlier on received Best entrepreneur of the year 2013 Oodua progressive union Award and best entrepreneur 2013 at the Voice Magazine achievers award.
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