He will easily pass off as an intern at this busy company that specialises on supplying petroleum products to customers in seven countries in East, Central and Southern Africa.
However, 25-year-old Abdalla Mahmud is the General Manager of KISMA Transport Company which employs over 150 workers to among others ensure safe and timely delivery of petroleum products as well as other solid cargo to companies in Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Malawi, South Sudan, Uganda and Rwanda.
Mahmud who schooled at Kenya’s Aga Khan Academy Mombasa before joining Canada’s University of Toronto for his undergraduate, manages 90 trucks that deliver on average 3.2 million litres of fuel every month.
He says the secret to running a successful logistics company is in treating drivers well.
“Drivers are the back-borne of this company. I always remind them (drivers) that the cargo and vehicle are insured, therefore can be replaced, however you cannot replace a human being or a part of a body if they are injured,” Mahmud says. “Our priority is the wellbeing of the driver.”
He says the company is anchored on respect which is a key policy at KISMA.
“I have known most of the drivers closely since I was a child. They all have my contact and we all on first name basis. The most important thing in this company is treating each one with respect. We all work as a team, as a family to ensure that our clients are satisfied and everyone is satisfied,” Mahmud says.
In addition, he says KISMA as a transport company is a close-knit family of employees working for a common goal. The General Manager says the recruitment process places more emphasis on knowing who is joining the company with referrals being very key.
“Most of the people working here have known me since I was a six-year old. We are a family because we know each other and we are on first name basis. In this company I believe anybody can have access to my phone. From my drivers, my mechanics to my operations team, to the accounts and any clients. If there is an issue, I’m responsible for any cargo on transit at the end of the day and we have to ensure that that product is delivered on time,”says Mahmud.
Janus Continental Group’s subsidiary Dalbit Petroleum Tanzania which is a business-to-business firm specialising in wholesale distribution and storage of petroleum products in East, Central, and Southern Africa, has since 2016 been a key client for Mahmud’s KISMA.
Dalbit Tanzania, Country Manager, Caroline Mugambi says the business is anchored on reliability and safe delivery of products in a timely manner.
“Over the last nine years, KISMA has been a key business partner due to their reliability,” Caroline says, noting that she likes the work ethic of Mahmud’s team.
Mahmud adds: “What I believe separates Dalbit and KISMA from the rest of the competition is the openness to discuss issues at hand, the ability to adjust when issues occur and the ability to contact the right people at the right time.”
KISMA which was started by Mahmud’s grandfather in 2005 with two trucks has grown to a fleet of 90 trucks.
“My target is to increase the fleet to 200 trucks and dedicate a bulk of the trucks to supplying petroleum products. This is because there is huge demand for petroleum products by mining companies in the DRC and Zambia as well as to fuel the growing economies in East, Central and Southern Africa,” Mahmud says.
He is however quick to add that the company’s fleet expansion has to be informed by business growth and locking long-term contracts. “This is because each and every truck you see here has a cost of maintenance; whether it is insurance, a driver, support term, mechanical, fuel or parts,” Mahmud says.
KISMA has been gradually growing its fleet mainly by ploughing back into the business the profit the company makes. This differentiates the KISMA’s financing model from some companies that rely on loans to fund their operations or expansion.
“If we are going for a loan, we go for a short term loan of between six months to a year,” he says. This helps cushion the company from cash flow pressures.
He also plans to venture into the business of ferrying Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) to tap the rising demand for logistics service.
Mahmud says he was keen to learn about the business and would occasionally make enquiries about the running of the business. This is because when he was in school, he “knew he would come back to Tanzania to run the business.”
Even though Mahmud wanted to pursue mechanical engineering in college, he says his father persuaded him to pursue a degree in economics. “This is because I needed to learn how to run the business profitably. In addition, I had been involved with the garage since I was young and understood a thing or two about vehicles,” he says.