Ask any youth who he would want to be as per financial stability, he would quickly say Bill Gates. But Bill Gates is not the only rich man (financially on earth), Dr. Cosmos Maduka is rich as far as knowledge and money was concerned.
But his riches did not come just on a platter of gold, as many youths today are wont to making money without putting any hard work or, work at all, to make success. Dr. Maduka had one time told the world that what is known today as CosCharis Group took 27 years of hard work. It was not just by chance but he did a lot of menial jobs before his initiative on planning for the CosCharis Group started, which predates, started about 1975. He gave the background, beginning with himself.
Cosmos Maduka is a native of Anambra State, precisely from Nnewi North Local Council in Anambra State. He was born to Peter Maduka. His father died when he was just four. It was very difficult for his mother to take care of them. This was before the Civil War. But his mother, as a single parent, had to take care of him and other children his late father left behind with difficulties, but with love.
He believed that heʼs a first class brain. But he had to drop from out from school at elementary three because it was difficult for his mother to cope with the family responsibilities.
Dr. Maduka started hawking akara for the mother. Her mother discovered his entrepreneurial spirit and would fry a pan of akara each for him to sell. His elder brother was not exempted. But he sells three pans of the akara sometimes before his elder brother could sell one. But in all, Dr. Maduka sees it today as an act of God
Hear him: "I am a Christian, which is why I refer everything to the Bible. The gift and the calling of God are without repentance. Many of us are born as we are into the world but we can also improve on what we are destined to become by sheer hard work and dedication".
In his early years, it was his mother who saw that there was something about this enigma and that was unique in terms of creating wealth. His motherʼs younger brother took him as an apprentice when he was just nine. He sold spare parts of motorbikes and they lived in Lagos. He worked for his uncle for seven years without salary. Though apparently, he was fed and sheltered.
Basically, as it is the norm from where Dr. Maduka hails from - Nnewi, at the end of the tutelage, his uncle was ready to let him start his own business. But why did his uncle not back him up in school? Perhaps his uncle was induced by the fate with Dr. Maduka. It was only Dr. Madukaʼs elder brother who went to school, up to elementary six, with their mother paying a coin through the nose.
It was unbelievable that the settlement orchestrated for this dude today by his uncle then, was his uncle giving him N200, to start his own business. This was in 1975.
Young Dr. Maduka then looked at the whole thing and complained that the money was too small. He complained that he served his uncle well and deserved something better than the token given to him. Rather than argue with the young Maduka, his uncle said 'even if I didn't give you money, I believe you will succeed.' He blessed him by given him the hope that there was something in Maduka that would take him to the very pinnacle of business. And there he is today.
As he left his uncle, his elder brother and him teamed up and opened a company called, 'Maduka Brothers' at Nnewi and came to Lagos. By this time his elder brother had also completed his apprenticeship. They teamed up and were buying motor parts and sell at Nnewi from Leventis, Boulos Enterprises.
Until sometime in 1977 his brother and him started having different opinion and they peacefully parted ways business-wise. After this, Maduka teamed up with a friend called, David Nwosu. What did they do? They both formed a company called 'CosDave Motors'. Each of them contributed N5, 000 to form the company. They worked so hard and by 1978, they had about N300, 000 in capital and by 1980 they had over a million naira. They also parted ways in 1981, having had differing little ideology.
It was in 1982, he incorporated Coscharis Motors. The word, 'Coscharis' came from a combination of his name and his wife's name. His wifeʼs Charity. When this company was formed the tireless Cosmos hired some young staff to join him. According to him, it was not yet uhuru. "But the turning point in my business was in late 1982 to early 1983 when the economy of this country came to a halt", he intoned. "This was during the import licence regime".
In a plan of God, CosCharis was the seventh company, among 10 motor companies, that were penciled down to be given import license by the Ministry of Trade then perhaps because, Coscharis Motors Limited, sounded like a Greek name.
At that time very few companies had import licences. And Nigeria was almost grounded that whatever that one brought in the country could be sold at maximum profit. It was a seller's market. It was like money doubling. That was where he made money to prepare the base and foundation of the todayʼs booming Coscharis Group.
Not only CosCharis was making money then, but lots of people were also making money. But unlike many of them who did not manage it well, Maduka was a different. Maybe because of the discipline he had acquired.
Maduka was known as not a flamboyant person. He was still living somewhere in Ajegunle, in Olodi Apapa, driving a second hand vehicle then, when he bought a whole complex by 1983. Nobody knew he had money, not even his mates knew how much he was controlling as of 1985. But Maduka knew that he was sitting on oof.
Dr. Maduka then did not believe in making noise. Hear him: "An average Igbo trader would build some high rise to announce to people that he had arrived. But that was not my idea. As I am talking to you, I don't own any of such buildings but I own some few prime property like our corporate offices in Lagos and Abuja and the new place I will be moving into as residential quarters. I don't want to do what everybody does; I believe I can create my own idea. I believe I can do something and become a role model and act as a source of inspiration to others". This was in 2003.
But when he felt that he has arrived, he began to put a lot of things back to the society. He began to sponsor sports. Table tennis precisely. When this took place was when people started hearing about the man and his company. People asked: 'what is this company called Coscharis?' Because the dude was into table tennis sponsorship, people amiss the company to be dealing on tennis balls. They never knew things like selling cars or being into banking and the selling of auto parts was not something that people attached value to. People attached interest to school.
TalkOfNaija
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