Auto Dome is a car dealership in Nigeria that sells all kinds of automobile both brand new and fairly used, Auto Dome is also an ‘After Sales’ service provider to her customers and outsiders. Auto Dome is well known in auto leasing as we also do car accessories and car care products, because we believe in car maintenance, making cars look finer and last longer.
Speaking with Cliffsimeon Akalonu, Mrs. Adefunke Anurukem, Managing Director, AUTO DOME Nigeria Limited, said that life itself is a continuous learning process and “I have learnt to be tenacious, honest in business, I have learnt to talk less and listen more, I have also learnt how to advise people who come to me for auto advicc. It is not easy to have the capacity to convince someone on a particular brand he is used to.”
Mrs. Adefunke said that the key success to every business is product knowledge. “It is not good that you are doing a business and you don’t have knowledge of the products you are selling, you don’t know the auto policies guiding the auto market; You don’t know how the automotive industry its being run, what are the trainings to go for and you don’t ask questions. Don’t claim you know it all. Product knowledge and being abreast to the latest technology are part of my key success.
She said inadequate manpower and limited funding are great challenges in the auto business “If for example, you inject N10 m in a clothing line, automatically you have done massive support to that business line; but here where we are, N10m can only give you two fairly used cars, so we need financing from the government to keep moving.
“The high rate of import duty and impounding of vehicles by the customs without checking if the customs duty of that car have been duly paid, is another challenge.
“Before, we are battling with 5% VAT and now there is increase to 7.5% value added tax and all these are to our own detriment. Another challenge steering us at the face is the port delay, as I speak with you here now, we have uncleared goods at the port for weeks, and up till now nothing has been done which is making buying power to reduce. All this is to tell you that the ease of doing business in our ports is still word of the mouth, otherwise not effective even as it is a presidential order.
“I can tell you that the auto dealers association in this nation is not functional and that is why you can see everyone even a car washer, selling cars by the road side, everybody is bringing in anything to sell, even, those that do not meet up with standards.
There is no guidance to auto dealership in Nigeria and that is why “we the women in the business want to take it up by ourselves and make contributions in the auto dealership control in the country and make our grievances known to the government.”
She explained that the automobile sector is one of the greatest contributors to the Nigerian economy “because everything about it is done within the country even the money we use in importing them passes through the local banks.
The automobile industry is volatile, sometimes unpredictable. The number one thing that can help revive the automobile industry in Nigeria is regulation. This will make the industry look healthier because there is a lot that is embedded with the automotive industry.
“Auto Dome is 10 years this 2020, we are very excited and optimistic that this year is going to be one of our best years in terms of structure, in terms of business, in terms of overall turnover sales, in terms of expansion. We also have loads of packages like more locations to be opened, more business lines to be added.”
