I am very delighted to welcome all of our network members at ROLU to the start of the end of our first quarter in 2023. As you already know, towards the end of 2022, the Board of Directors of ROLU Ltd decided it had become necessary to do away with non-financial members of ROLU network.
By the first week of January we started the delisting exercise. The Editor needed to know from each business on our website whether they still wanted to stay with us or if they wanted to opt out. Apparently no businesses can be forced to stay on our website against their will.
We have shown every sense of responsibility in our dealings with our network members. So many of them have not paid even shishi to ROLU and we have continued to keep, associate with and pamper them, some of them for as long as seven years.
Several appeals on the website and on our social media forums for them to come forward to be identified as financial members appeared to have fallen on deaf ears. Indeed, only an insignificant percentage of the 1,500 members we have on our roll have paid their subscription. That is not something to be proud of.
Some members say they have not got anyone who came from us to do business with them. And yet they have visitors on their platforms on the website ranging from 200 to 2000 plus. The question these network members have to answer frankly is: when people come to buy from you, do you ask them how they knew about you? Certainly not many business people ask such questions. So, how do you know they did not come from us? Perhaps if you ask them, you will know the truth.
Be that as it may, the new naira crises in Nigeria created a condition the Board of Directors at ROLU considered and extended the period of payment for another three months up to the end of June. It is hoped that by then the issue of naira shortage and bank procedures would have been completely sorted out by a new government.
I sincerely hope that network members will use that opportunity to breast up. Going global means that information about your goods and services will be noticed in every state of Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory and in every country of the world where Nigerians do business or render service. Listing your business in ROLU expands your marketing horizon and will definitely enhance your business prospects.
For the very last time I want to make it clear that ROLU is not running a charitable organisation. We are seriously in business. We are in the business of promoting the businesses of members of the Nigerian Business Community in Nigeria and Overseas. We pay bills for the wifi we use daily. We pay staff salaries. We pay for transportation. We pay for data for our phones. We pay for electricity. We pay for office accommodation. We pay for the website domain. We pay for the website hosting and other incidental expenses. And so, we need members to understand that we are in the business of advertising their businesses worldwide and that costs money.
We had planned from this year to have business gurus from the United Kingdom, Australia, Taiwan and America to lecture our members via the Zoom channel once every month on the latest business strategies trending, and for our members to ask questions and enrich their knowledge. This was one among other innovations we planned to introduce in order to keep the network vibrant and to enable our members follow the level that business is done by international standards.
If that would happen, we would need to pay the lecturers every month and we would have to pay for the zoom. We will definitely be unable to cope with all these plans if everybody sits back to enjoy their cake and not bother about who are helping to bake the cake. So, I am once again appealing to every member. The editor will give you a call. She will help you log on to your site. She will discuss fully with you. She will then ask you if you want to continue or drop out.
If you still want to belong to ROLU network, then of course you have to pay up your annual subscription. N12, 000 a year is not a lot of money. But it can fetch you a lot of money when you invest it. So, be encouraged and do the needful so that we can together enjoy growing our businesses to success as fun and not as punishment. Thank you and happy new month.
Sincerely,
Chief Sir Emeka Asinugo, KSC
