Meet Agisu, the 'stubborn' risk-taker who left teaching to build a fuel enterprise
Sponsored by Co-operative Bank of Kenya
Businessman Starbon Agisu of Mbale town, Vihiga County.
By Evans Ongwae
Starbon Agisu loves taking business risks, and he says the bigger, the better. That daredevil attitude saw him ditch his teaching career and venture into oil marketing in 1992. You’d have thought, being a trained teacher, he’d have started a school! But no, he instead chose to open a fuel station.
More than three decades later, he’s still at it, and going strong. He’s expanded over time and now has four petrol stations in Vihiga County. He has stations in Tigoi, Gambogi, Irungu and Jebrok. Should his plans succeed, he hopes the business will have grown even more in the next five years.
Of his dreams, he says: “I see Mum’s extending beyond Tigoi and Gambogi. I see it introducing more facilities like Service Bay, which so far, I don't have. I see Mum’s starting a small shop…. Customers can easily fuel from a station and buy a few basic commodities.”
Growing a successful business for 30 years is no child’s play. As Mr Agisu narrates, it took a lot of effort and a willingness to face risks head on.
Consider this: During the business’ early days, some workers would sell oil, pocket the money and disappear. He would be left nursing a financial hole. Also, consider this: Fuel shortages were common in the early 1990s but he soldiered on.
As Mr Agisu explains: “Unless you love risks, you'll never be a business person. I love risks because they build me up. I use them as stepping stones, as building [blocks] towards my achievements. And because of the high risks in petroleum, that is where I've stuck out my neck.”
Mr Agisu insists that, to succeed in any business, investors need financial literacy. He believes that is what enabled him to establish Mum’s. “Secondly, learn to use other people's money,” he adds and explains: “And these other people's money lies nowhere else apart from financial institutions such as Co-operative Bank and others. So, if you can use other people's money, you can do anything you want in business.”
He points out that trying to save money to start a business might take a lot of time. “No. You must use other people's money,” he stresses. “That is what has guided me up to where I am.”
Mr Agisu speaks of the need to borrow because oil marketing is expensive. He explains how challenging it was to start: “The biggest problem was first to get the capital to start off with. And I'm very happy the first capital I got to start the business was from Co-operative Bank. The bank offered me a cheque guarantee, which enabled me to start off selling the products with all the ease, and that also helped me avoid experiencing the shortages that were common at that time.”
He adds: “I started with Co-operative Bank right way back when they introduced Bank Guarantee. The Bank Guarantee enabled me to purchase oil or products from the oil marketers without paying until after a period of 10 days or 30 days.”
He then graduated to overdrafts from Co-operative Bank. “I operated overdrafts for two to three years until when I lost one of my vehicles. I was not able to move oil comfortably.”
He continues: “My overdraft hit a hard-core level. And then I was advised by a gentleman from the head office, that I should go and ask for stock finance. That’s what has uplifted me from that time up to where we are now…. I'm able to stock all my filling stations with all the ease, courtesy of Co-operative Bank.”
Mr Agisu values the asset finance loan he obtained from the bank because this helped him to tackle the logistics challenge he faced when he began the business. He bought a tanker, which he describes as “a big plus”.
“I was able now to go directly to Kenya Pipeline Company to get my fuel. After two years, Co-operative Bank also financed me to buy a bigger tanker with a capacity to carry 10,000 litres of fuel,” he explains.
And so, Mr Agisu’s filling stations offer convenience, especially to motorbike operators or boda bodas and nearby schools. They don’t have to go far to access fuel.
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