[dropcap]S[/dropcap]he is young, beautiful, amiable, passionate and dynamic. Those are the best ways to describe AMY MUONEKE, new Managing Director of Carmudi Nigeria, an organization on the Internet Market Space, selling automobiles. Before joining Carmudi last month, AMY, who holds a Masters degree in Business Finance from Brunet University London, had worked as Commercial Development and Operations Manager for Genesis Deluxe Cinemas Nigeria; Project Associate for Millennium Development Goals at DFID, SPARC and Communications Assistant for Securities and Exchange Commission, Nigeria. She was cornered by our Senior Correspondent, ROTIMI ASHER, after a press briefing organized to unveil her. Although she recalled a number of negative driving experiences on wheels, AMY spoke excitedly on what a car means to her and lots more…
EXCERPTS:
MW: Congratulations on your appointment as the new MD of Carmudi Nigeria.
AMY: Thank you very much.
MW: As somebody, who works for a car marketing company, would you tell me what a car mean to you?
AMY: A car to me means responsibility and reliability. Responsibility in the sense that it provides me the ticket that if there is a job I am assigned to do, if it is a church that I want to go to ,if it is a social gathering, the car is a means to transport that will guarantee that I accomplish what I am assigned to do. That is where the responsibility aspect comes into it. But talking about reliability, it has got to do with buying a brand and knowing it would be reliable. In essence, responsibility and reliability are two words that simply describe what a car means to me.
MW: Are you a car freak?
AMY: No, surprisingly. I am not a car freak, but I am excited a lot when it comes to Carmudi. For me, it is convenient that we will provide the average Nigerians the cars they need. That is what drives me. It is developing a market that is still very young, arguably one of the fastest when it comes to market development of car sales. We are growing very fast leading the market, connecting on one-on-one basis with the dealers. That is being able to develop the market, being part of it is what it is when it comes to Carmudi.
MW: How did you learn to drive?
AMY:I learnt to drive when my mother started to teach me herself. Then it ate into her time. So she signed me up for a class, where her driver took me on week days and then on weekends. But I think I perfected my driving in Los Angeles. I went to a driving school there, although I was driving a little bit in Nigeria before I left for the United States.
MW: How old were you when you learnt to drive?
AMY: I started driving when I was sixteen or seventeen years old. I started driving at sixteen and comfortably driving on my own at seventeen.
MW: Would you recall any bad experience you ever had since you started driving?
AMY: Yes. It happened one of the times, when I was learning to drive with a manual. In the middle of the road, I just climbed a bump and I couldn’t put into gear. So you had this okada riders and taxi horning profusely. I eventually moved the car out of the road. This was in Nigeria, when I was still learning. That was one of the experiences I will never forget.
I have also had one or two accident, but it was never bad but the experience of learning with a manual and not being able to put it back to a proper gear was a bad experience.
MW: That means you have never had an accident?
AMY:I have had an accident but nothing fatal. Thank God. I had a bad experience when a car I was in somersaulted. I have been robbed in a car. I had a brake fail while I was in the car. All sorts of car accident but luckily for me, none of them has been fatal.
MW: I am surprised you don’t have a particular brand of car that you like?
AMY: You will not get that from me, because I have good relationship with all my dealers that sell different kind of cars. So, anything that is functional and has air conditioner will do for me as a car.
[box type=”success” align=”aligncenter” ]”I have had an accident but nothing fatal. Thank God. I had a bad experience when a car I was in somersaulted. I have been robbed in a car. I had a brake fail while I was in the car. All sorts of car accident but luckily for me, none of them has been fatal.” – AMY MUONEKE[/box]
