Even crooks and swindlers want honest people to drive their investments

On our flight back home via Nairobi, waiting three hours for KQ to connect, I clapped my eyes on two prominent Ugandan politicians. We knew each other from the corridors of power. We opted for drinks at some top-notch Lounge within the airport.  They were inquisitive about my trip. I told them I was looking for an equity partner to pursue some business ideas.

 

By Julius Peter Ochen

In one of my many equity venture expeditions, I took a flight with a colleague to a South African country to meet an investor who expressed interest in our business idea. We had had several Zoom calls already, so this trip was to seal the discussion.

When the investor appeared the following morning, he must have read astonishments on our faces as we exchanged pleasantries. He was younger than his money.

He took us straight to meet his lawyer to draft the investment agreement. He briefed his lawyer on his intention to invest in our business. When the lawyer asked how much he was injecting, he turned to us, like it skipped his mind. “$150,000 sir”. I sipped in. The investor returned to me and asked “$150,000 only? I thought you guys needed $500,000” I explained that indeed a million dollars is the ideal investment capital, but a booster of $150K could get us rolling. He said $150,000 is not an amount he would involve a lawyer. He pulled us out of the chamber.

He took us to one of his business offices and told us that our business had the greatest potential to expand and make more return on investment, but required more than $150,000 in additional capital injection, which we agreed.  He proposed to inoculate $500,000 if that doesn’t make him a majority owner. We calculated and testified that that would give him a 37% share in the company. We agreed to seal the deal as I make adjustments in projections and how additional capital will be deployed for our final signing. That evening, he hosted us to a luxurious dinner with his dear wife, with the kind of beauty only Kampala Pastors and Apostles enjoy back home.

“I know you guys are silently wondering how a 40-year-old man can be worth $40M in this kind of economy. I think you deserve a background” he started, to our tranquil attention. He then took us through his “long” journey to wealth. We chose peace. “Even the best business idea with whichever amount of capital can fail. And when that happens to the business we are discussing, I don't want you guys to think that maybe I brought dirty money into your business” he concluded as we tossed glasses of Flying Fish; their favorite beer. He emphasized hard work, trustworthiness, but above all God as we nodded in agreement.

The next morning as he came to pick us up for the airport, he had a counter-proposal. He is now offering $1M on condition that we relocate the business to his country. He gave all his reasons why that particular South African Country is better suited and they all made sense, yet we declined; a decision I now want to get the biggest stone and hit my head on it. I hope it cracks into pieces.

On our flight back home via Nairobi, waiting three hours for KQ to connect, I clapped my eyes on two prominent Ugandan politicians. We knew each other from the corridors of power. We opted for drinks at some top-notch Lounge within the airport.  They were inquisitive about my trip. I told them I was looking for an equity partner to pursue some business ideas.

They pressed me to understand what business I was up to. I lied, for I know the crooks they are. Time has taught me not to be carelessly generous with the truths in a country of crosiers. “Truths are now earned” I retooled myself.

They started all that lousy advice about UDB and this and that. I told them UDB is not an investment bank, it doesn’t even have money. Then they started lamenting how lack of trustworthiness has killed their business options and those of their colleagues in the “industry”. One said he got a distributorship deal from a beer company where he deployed 900M. He was robbed clean and closed it after two years with a debt of 215M. He also invested another 330M in a goat-keeping project with 1,300 hybrid goats, which he is also closing. He also tried the entertainment industry where he invested over 400M, but also closed with debts. Endless failed business stories and billions of shillings. In all their failed undertakings, one thing remained constant; corruption without remorse and outright theft from their immediate family members, their constituency supporters, and even people they hired on merits.

I told them God is just granting liberty to the funds they colonized. They wondered how. “Perhaps the people you employ know who you are and how you got your money. They are not about to be honest. To them it’s a recovery of public resources for their use”. I concluded as KQ boarding was announcing. I swigged their expensive whisky and ran.

The author is an entrepreneur in soybean value chain.