Can you give an overview of EDM African Resources and the services the company offers?

EDM leverages the skill sets of its people – mainly mining engineers, finance and logistics staff – as well as the technical expertise of its suppliers to provide mining clients with solutions to challenges in the areas of: Rock Drilling Tools, Stationary and Portable Energy, Surface Drilling Equipment, Lubricants and Greases and Parts supply.

As an entrepreneur, how was your experience starting a company in Ghana?

After more than a decade of work experience in mining engineering, sales, marketing and business development, I made the decision to establish EDM. Registering the business was not difficult; the challenge was raising the capital to fund our operations and convincing the top tier mines to have confidence in a startup. My business partner Mr. Daniel Obeng-Davis was pivotal in addressing challenges of raising debt capital whilst I focused on marketing and business development. From a humble startup capital of 60,000 Ghana Cedi, shareholders funds are now US$1 million and we have had a yearly sales growth rate of 30% over the past five years. Our first loan was financed by Ecobank, which of course demanded collateral. The interest rate for a Cedi loan is around 22% and a loan in dollars is financed at 12%. Our strategy has been to reinvest all our profits into the business, which allowed us to grow.

Where have you been growing in terms of industries?

Despite our business being heavily reliant on Rock Drilling Tools (RDT), we are yet to tap into the opportunities in the onshore oil and gas drilling industry in Ghana. It has been our strategic decision to focus on scaling up our operations primarily in mining, due to the huge capital requirements to support the supply of products to our current gold mining clientele, not to mention the potential of huge non-gold mines in our chosen market. This we believe has helped us to maintain high quality of products and after sales service delivery, a factor that has been critical to the success we have demonstrated with mining clients such as Newmont, Golden Star Resources and African Mining Services. We continually strive to be able to supply a complete drilling package solution.

Do you see your business supplying just the large mining houses or do you see potential for growth in small-scale mining, too?

We have made a strategic decision not to focus on supply of drilling solutions to small-scale mining now due to legal context surrounding the practice in Ghana, coupled with their lack of compliance with Environmental Protection Authority laws. We prefer to deal with registered mining companies such as Newmont, Golden Star Resources, Gold Fields Ghana limited etc. However, we will support properly registered and law-abiding small-scale mines with our portable energy solutions.

Do you see potential in commodities other than gold?

Ghana is not only rich in gold, manganese and bauxite but also in other mineral deposits. Exploration is ongoing, especially in the northern part of the country. Most of the mineral deposits are situated in the southwestern region of the country around Tarkwa where most mining companies are based. We plan to continue scaling up to support the limestone (Dangote), iron ore and eventually on shore drilling industries.

What opportunity did you see in the market that led to the creation of EDM?

In the RDT sector, many mines have experienced major problems with product quality and life and have been unable to extract the best value from the tools. Furthermore, the end users have not had an excellent customer experience with several suppliers. Our clients demand quality products delivered at the right price and at the right time.

As a mining engineer, I am aware of the rock formations and their strength, so I know which drilling products/accessories fit the application. Our sales support efforts at one of the mines, for instance, led to the commencement of our supply of Rock Drilling Oil, the newest addition to our product offering. Major suppliers such as Epiroc and Sandvik are very present in the market, however we do not compete with them – we complement them. We are always happy to refer a client to them if we cannot supply the machinery and/or the tools they want. We work in the shadows of the big players and play the ‘hyena’ role. We are very dedicated to our clients – we offer product and application training and discard analysis to ensure overall lower cost per meter is achieved. We also organize monthly product performance meetings with our existing clients to ensure we are all on the same page and to foster a strong partnership bond.

At EDM, we are always on the road to serve our clients. As soon as we discover issues, our duty is to address them. We constantly offer technical pieces of advice to our customers on best practice to become more cost effective. Our aim is to build a business based on trust and sustainability.

What is your future plan for EDM?

The strategy is to focus on capacity development. Ghana has a decent workforce, however, the country also has high unemployment. Our dedication is to our people. Daniel and I started the company just the two of us, and we have grown to a team of 20 people over the past five years. Our growth will hopefully contribute more to the employment of the skilled youth of Ghana and the country’s economy. Going forward, we want to expand into other West African countries. We already have presence in Burkina Faso, which represents 20% of our revenue.