The man who built Kenya’s grain handling

By Morris Aaron

　A deep husky voice reverberates along his office corridors at the Grain Office — the headquarters of Grain Bulk Handlers Limited (GBHL) — is an obvious fact.

That voice is that of Mohammed Jaffer, 62, the brain behind GBHL, also called chairman by his junior staff.

They sit pretty easy around him, unlike most offices where the voice of a chief executive would send employees scrambling for anything that will make them appear busy.

For a man at the helm of a company that has been the subject of mudslinging and counter accusations lately, it is hard to believe the showers of praise until his firm handshake, nice demeanor coupled with forthright honesty comes alive when one meets Mr Jaffer.

Urbane and glacially ageing, with his grey hair cropped tight and a stripped short-sleeved shirt, Mr Jaffer gives an impression of a man who has long been languidly in control of his own destiny.

"Welcome Mr Aron, please have a tour of our operations when done come upstairs for the interview," says Mr Jaffer.

"Off you go and see you in a short while."

His diamond sprinkled wedding ring lingers for a while in my memory.

Away from the temperature-controlled offices, the sweltering heat characteristic of Mombasa hits one on the face, just as a pungent smell would do to a nose.

From one part of the GBHL firm to another, workers are busy carrying out their daily chores. A wagon full of wheat from Russia headed to Uganda rests on the rail trucks ready for take off next to the silos.

At the other end, a truck is being loaded with the latest imports, soon heading out to one of the many millers within Mombasa.

There is a busy weighbridge ushering in another truck, and a control room full of beeping lights, drawings and alarms from where all the operations of the firm are being monitored.

Even with the busy atmosphere, but I am told that the firm is operating bellow capacity. Only seven terminals out of the twenty bagging points are busy and there is no ship waiting in the high seas to offload its cargo.

Everything seems pretty functional and planned at the GBHL plant, a complete contradiction to what Mr Jaffer says is the day today politics of businesses rivalry that has been playing out in the press. It has been especially so since the now infamous maize scandal debate on shortages that were attributed to millers, National Cereals and Produce Board, politicians and loading capacity constraints at the port aimed at painting his firm in the wrong light.

"I saw an opportunity way back in 1983, when no bagging company was operational and slowly worked towards achieving it," Mr Jaffer says in a matter of fact way.

"After a myriad of challenges involving financing, leasing agreements and a hostile political and business climate, the dream is finally a reality."

　

So where did he start from?

Way back in 1976 Mr Jaffer borrowed Sh20,000 from a friend to start his business.At the time, the amount was a tidy sum.

It was something that was relatively easy for him to get, considering that Mr Jaffer is related to a group of Indian merchants and traders who come to the East African coast in the 1850’s and traded as Shariff, Jaffer and Company.

One of his great uncles, whom he is named after, is the Hajji Mohamedjaffer Dewji, a famous religious leader and a scholar.

Mr Jaffer’s own father was a councilor of the Mombasa Municipal Council in the pre-independence period, and fought for the country’s independence.

So much for family history.

With the money he borrowed safely with him, Mr Jaffer first set up a timber storage yard next to his family business, Inland Container Depot, which at that time was the first container depot outside the port.

With the first step made, he ventured into pallet business and was soon exporting to the same to Jeddah, Muscat Kuwait and Eden, a business that proved very successful.

Come 1983, mobile bagging operators were introduced at the port. Big players around the time included companies like Nectar, and a number of others who operated a much less efficient bagging chain for grains and fertilisers.

The bagging companies would store their bags at another end of the port, because they did not have premises within the port, and would transport the bags daily daily to the sea front to offer their services.

This process proved cumbersome and inefficient.

"It was while still in the timber business that I realised that the set up for bagging was wasteful and inefficient and that a more efficient bagging service needed to be put inplace," says Mr Jaffer.

"Many friends thought I was nuts and discouraged me from it."

To make the bagging services more efficient, Mr Jaffer reasoned, one needed to be stationed just next to the port. With such a system, he would offload directly from the ships and package and in the process eliminate transport and other logistical expenses.

The idea was not going to cost peanuts, which was huddle number one.

Even if he got the financing, which he later did through World Bank, he had to first secure a lease for land for his premises next to the port, and for a way leave to the port.

"I don’t know about treacherous, but it was certainly one very difficult journey."

Mr Jaffer applied for the way leave lease connecting GBHL location with the port, every year for 11 years, and kept getting turned down until 1992, when he was finally granted the license.

For those 11 years, he also had to struggle to maintain the lease on where GBHL is currently operating.

Then came the issue of financing. Kenya, at the time, was not receiving any funding from the international community due to corruption, social injustice and a host of other perceived, or real, ills.

Borrowing from banks was so costly that it would have not made any economic sense to undertake the project as interest rates had risen due to the effects of high inflation and financial complications brought about by the Goldenberg scandal.

Sheer determination saw him approach the International Finance Corporation, CDC among others for a Sh2.7 billion ($35 million) loan after reviewing the project as an East African initiative, instead of just a Kenyan one.

The rest, like they say, is history.

So what does it take to be an entrepreneur controlling a multi billion empire?

"There are no shortcuts to success. Sheer hard work, patience and honesty and a big dream will see one through, despite whatever obstacles," he says.

‘Your portion of what one is to receive of the world’s wealth will never be taken by anybody, though sometimes it might appear to delay."

"The problem comes when one resorts to illegally avenues due to impatience. Of course, there are consequences to that. Stick to the legal avenues."

Is Mr Jaffer done yet with entrepreneurship?

Well, not really, although he will be stepping back from day to day management of GBHL in a couple of weeks. He however has a bigger project coming up in the next few years.

"I am working on one more project that once successful, Kenya will have leaped two or three steps. But that will be kept under wraps for now."

I leave Mombasa wary but upbeat, with a funny feeling that I know what the project is.

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