Leo Stan-Ekeh:

Stan-Ekeh
Long before the signing on, implementation and delivery of the Direct Data Capture Machine (DDC) to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Zinox Technologies Ltd has been in the news.

A local original equipment manufacturer (OEM) with the Zinox brand of computers brought Leonard Stanley Nnamdi Ekeh to limelight.

Thereafter, he became a controversial person owing to business politics and the Nigerian factor that most of his products were only being hyped by the media because they were not functioning. Preferred to be known simply as Leo Stan-Ekeh, after going back to the drawing board, he was able to prove that local OEMs could compete favourably with their foreign counterparts. His business wizardry got him involved with companies like Task Systems, Guaranty Trust Insurance and IT Solutions and Technology Distributions Limited.

When the Federal Government devised a means to end rigging during elections with the DDC machines, several companies brought in their tenders to supply these machines but only three of them won the contract owing to their strengths. These companies were Zinox Technologies Ltd, Haier Electrical Appliances Corporation of China and Avante of United States.

Zinox was the only local company that won the contract and according to a stakeholder, Dr. Wilson Ademola, aside being a local ambitious company that understands the terrain, Zinox appears to understand the technology more than others. Dr. Ademola said that Zinox also appears to have substantial practical experience in the past when it salvaged the 2006 voters registration exercise from foreign suppliers.

Hurdles
Ademola also stated that the pricing and other conditions used in awarding the INEC DDC contracts to the three suppliers were unfair.

Daily Sun's investigation also revealed that each company had to present huge bonds to INEC before the contracts could be released. In the case of Zinox, it presented N750m for the 80,000 units of the machines before it was allowed to sign the contract. It took Haier a long time before it could sign for its 20 units.

This bond according to a financial expert, Paul Ehi, could in most cases liquidate a business if the body giving out such contracts suddenly withdraws the contract or the supplier could not cope thereafter, this type is non- negotiable because the bank would not seek for advice of such a company before taking necessary steps for its money.

'It was a great risk and even this type of bond is usually for business men with guts,' he said.

Daily Sun gathered from another source close to the Zinox boss, who also wants to remain anonymous that during those times that the chairman asked his bankers for the bond, they were exasperated. Asking him weather he knows the implications of the deal if the business went sour, he was told that he would lose everything he ever worked for.

'Chairman became jittery at a time but the support he got from his wife also helped him stood his ground to present that bond to INEC.I can authoritatively tell you that his weight dropped within a short while and he became sleepless because it was like going to hell without dying,' he said.

Employment
This project was referred to by critics as the largest in Africa. They stated at least that nothing less than 4,000 of Nigeria's unemployed graduates were provided with a means of livelihood.

Daily Sun gathered that each casual worker went home daily with nothing less than N4, 000 aside being fed by this company with three meals per day.

Even the supplier of water in the course of the project, according to some casual staff when Daily Sun visited to ascertain the true picture, hinted that the man was on his way to becoming a billionaire. The Private Sector Participation (PSP) waste bin trucks owner that evacuated the huge dirt away on daily basis was also smiling to the bank for as long as the business lasted.

The company was also able to help out Haier, according to our sources, during knotty times but only Avante had not been able to deliver as at when due.

Delivery
Daily Sun gathered from a reliable source, who pleaded anonymity that Zinox had already delivered 83 trucks of the DDC machines nationwide while Nassarawa got 998 units, while other states got 3,000 units each. As at last week, Daily Sun source hinted that Zinox has only a few units to deliver.

Towards the last quarter of 2010, Spirit of the True Nigerian Entrepreneur (SoTNE) invited Ekeh to Abuja to unravel his business mystery and wizardry to over 1000 prospective entrepreneurs' ways of achieving the truly Nigerian successful integrated companies.

Personality
Ekeh, who was born in Ubomiri,Imo State to a middle class family with two brothers and two sisters explained that he established Zinox on the 9th of October,2001.While stressing that his ambition as a young boy was to own the biggest transport company in Nigeria.

The Zinox boss whose mother was a nurse and a disciplinarian father ,who was a teacher, he attended St. Mary's Catholic College, Mbomiri for his secondary education before leaving for India for his university education, where he received a bachelor's of science degree in economics from Punjab university.

According to him studying in India was 'a great turning point in my life because I found the economy of India a realistic economy'. After his university education in India, Ekeh opted to study at the Cork City University, Ireland, and later transferred to Nottingham University, UK, to earn a degree in risk management. After his programme, he decided to earn a master's degree in business.

Controversy
Just when the Zinox brand, which critics disclosed have earned a brand equity that would translate to other local and international businesses was trying to soft pedal after such a hectic project, it was hit with the non- functionality of the machines.

According to another source in INEC, who spoke to Daily Sun but who does not want his name on print, Leo Stan has really helped the country and even INEC tremendously, but it is unfortunate that the electoral body still runs on old applications that could make a voter spend up to seven minutes instead of three minutes.

'Before this second delivery, Zinox had already delivered 14,000 and it was helpful. In Nigeria, we believe in fire brigade approach, there is nothing wrong with those machines except for the fact that most people do not have enough patience. In fairness, Leo Stan has helped INEC.He knows his onions and has been able to even take pains to send a step by step approach of using the machines.

'For me, Leo Stan should be celebrated as one of the new fathers of modern technology and if possible be awarded the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Man of the Year for 2010. He did the impossible in quite a short while. Have you seen the custom made battery back up he designed and produced just to ensure that the registration goes without hitches?' he asked.