FROM REGIONAL ACCOUNTANT TO BUS DRIVER, AND BACK TO A BUSINESS EXECUTIVE…..The inspiring story of Fens investment limited CEO, Felix Nseluka

FROM REGIONAL ACCOUNTANT TO BUS DRIVER, AND BACK TO A BUSINESS EXECUTIVE

………..The inspiring story of Fens investment limited CEO, Felix Nseluka.

By Oswald Sichone in Kafue

As a common English saying goes, “All jobs come and go but needs never run” is exactly what Mr Felix Nseluka had to go through.

Before 1994, Mr Nseluka lived a good life working as a regional accountant for a parastatal company, Zambia National Wholesale.

Unfortunately he was retrenched unexpectedly after Zambia National Wholesale was liquidated by the MMD government in 1994.

Despite losing his job, Mr Nseluka an Accountant by profession still had an obligation to provide for his family so he opted to buy a Hiace mini bus (KF 1) and started working as a public service driver, on the Kafue, Lusaka, Mazabuka, Monze and Choma routes.

“Whenever there is change of life, that shouldn’t affect your children, so I had to do whatever it took for my family to have a good life. Ba Sichone, If you can recall, buses used to carry luggage on top carriers and government decided to ban that because of frequent accidents due to overloading. This created a business niche for buses that had trailers. One day I met a certain man who was selling a trailer made in South Africa but I couldn’t afford to raise K35000. At school I used to take metal work and technical drawing so I decided to use the knowledge that I had acquired and imitated the trailer that was made in SA, and made one for my bus which I registered with the help of my brother”

One Saturday morning, Mr Nseluka gave his bus to his mechanic to drive to Choma because he has not feeling too well.

Whilst his bus was in Choma, a prominent businessman, Mr Kalikeka got interested in Mr Nseluka’s trailer which was hooked on his bus.

He sold his trailer for K35000 to the Choma based businessman who further gave Nseluka four more orders for trailers from his friends.

From the K35000, Mr Nseluka made the four trailers, sold them and that is how the business started.

One day, a certain white man saw his trailer parked by the roadside and wanted to know who was making the trailers and he told that it was Mr Nseluka.

This white man made an effort to meet Mr Nseluka and he was impressed with what he was doing and made arrangements for Mr Nseluka to travel with him to South Africa to learn more about trailers.

In South Africa, Mr Nseluka was attached to Venter Trailers where he learnt more about manufacturing of trailers .

At some point his business was almost closed by the Engineering Institution of Zambia because Mr Nseluka is not a qualified Engineer.

Mr Nseluka survived the possible closure of his business by EIZ because he is an agent for Venter Trailers and uses their technology to make trailers.

“My trailers are everywhere because they are properly done. From the time I started this trailer business in 2010, Fens Investment Limited has manufactured 785 trailers. Initially my customers were bus operators but of late we have individuals coming to buy trailers”

Fens Investment Limited currently employees 15 permanent workers and has diversified into manufacturing of animal handling equipment such as Head clamps, Spray Races, Cattle Pens, Cattle self Feeders, Sheep scales and Water Tanks.