Nick Hewer: Countdown to Freetown Page #5

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We're ten years since the end of

the civil war here in Sierra Leone.

A great deal of foreign aid

money has been spent.

The results are

in some ways equivocal.

In some ways, a lot has been

accomplished, but a lot has not.

What makes you think

that this is going to work?

Because it's specific.

First of all, nobody can get

their sticky fingers on the money.

It's not down to a group,

it's not down to a bureaucratic

muddle, down in Freetown.

And if, in six months' time, the saw

has been stripped, sold for scrap,

it's gone, and nothing has come

of it, how would you feel about it?

That would be his decision.

I'm not here

as Mother Teresa at all,

and I'm not here as some sort

of American aid thing,

bringing sacks of corn in,

a gift from the American people.

No, that's not my thing.

Are you instead the celebrity model?

- Is this the George Clooney

in Darfur model?

- No, no, no.

This is nothing to do with celebrity.

This was a private mission.

Later, James takes Nick to confirm

again what Nick already knows.

It's broken?

Yeah, yeah.

It broke down.

Who broke? He broke it?

Yeah!

It's our little problem.

You want to sell this?

It's Christmas!

This and this are pairs.

They work together.

So the saw and a planer

and a generator, you have everything?

Exactly. And this is more expensive.

This is more profitable?

Exactly, yeah.

OK.

Nick leaves in two days,

but without a planer,

James seems a long way from

being a self-sufficient business.

A key part of any business

is buying raw materials.

You've got to negotiate.

When they give you a price,

you say, "No, it's too expensive.

"What is your best price?"

And don't be frightened.

Having given James a few tips

on how to negotiate,

they go shopping for wood.

What we want to do,

we're going to buy these 50.

James picks the wood.

50 boards hard, 50 boards soft.

He seems to know what he's doing.

He's certainly measuring every board

that comes out

and he's laying it not

only by width but by quality.

Don't ask me why the width is

important but as long as he knows,

that's the key thing.

He's the boss, that's his job now,

so he can dictate what he wants

and what he doesn't want

from this supplier.

He's driven the price down

from 100,000 leone to 80,000.

He's negotiated free transport.

That's excellent.

I'm pleased to see him

taking control.

Years surviving on the street

appeared to have helped James's

natural business acumen.

Nick is investing 1,500 and insists

on taking over from James

when it comes to handing

over the cash.

When it's loaded,

I pay him 1,000

and when we get to Kissy,

I pay him the rest.

In England, you pay now half,

half when you get there.

I give you 1,000 now,

you get the balance when you deliver.

This is the way we do it here.

Nick's insistence

on doing things his way

requires the police to mediate.

He wants it all now.

I want to see this wood delivered.

I've explained everything to him.

But it's too difficult.

You don't understand

what you are saying.

Will you explain to him?

James manages to calm the situation.

Nick has been saved by his trainee.

Things are going OK.

I think we've got the location right.

What he hasn't got right,

which is my fault,

is he needed a planer in order

to provide an integrated service

to both the building trade

and the carpentry trade.

We can fix that.

The final cash is exchanged

on delivery the way Nick wanted.

When this is up tomorrow afternoon,

you can open for business.

This company is open for business.

Is that good?

Having mastered buying,

tomorrow will be selling.

It's Nick's last day in Freetown.

James has mastered the saw

and buying wood

but can he sell to customers

and make money?

James opens his new business.

The first customer quickly arrives

but equally quickly

asks for a discount.

James strikes a deal

that makes a small profit

on the wood and the cutting.

Each line ripped earns him

1,000 leone, around 15p.

Even without a planer,

James is making some money.

I think that he'll pull it off.

We've already seen him make a sale,

we've already seen him refuse to drop

the price

which is difficult to resist,

particularly when you didn't pay

for the wood in the first place

and you've got a much older bloke

demanding a lower price,

but he held his own.

That was good.

How much profit did you make?

I make about 5,000 profit.

That's good.

Just like this.

This is a survivor day.

Very good.

Are you happy?

You did a good job?

In your heart,

you want your carpentry.

What do you want to make?

I would like to make panel doors,

with the large quantity.

Make all the panel doors,

the money goes very fast.

But the third piece we are missing

in all of this is the planer

and I think we have found

a way of sending you a planer

and then you will have

machinery for cutting wood

and you'll have machinery

for planing wood.

Before leaving Sierra Leone,

Nick is looking forward to seeing

the journalist Simon Akam

one more time.

My thought way back was a guy with a

saw and a generator had a business.

It's sort of true. He has a business

but it's not much of a business

because to rip wood, you only get

1,000 Leon.

It's not very much.

With a planer, you get 6,000

per plank.

You're suddenly beginning

to make money.

He needs a planer.

He needs a planer really so

we're going to get him a planer.

Then he has an operation

which is rounded and complete.

Do you feel that you should perhaps

have done some more research

before coming here?

Yeah.

I think what I've brought

is two thirds of the way.

I'm one piece missing, but I didn't

know that you needed a planer.

Sorry I didn't do the research!

If you were judging your own

performance here by the standards

you have applied to people on The

Apprentice, how would you judge it?

In The Apprentice, it's all

about profit margin, not profit.

But the profit's Le 1,000.

So maybe I'd get fired. Ooh.

Before leaving, Nick helps James

open a bank account.

For the next six months,

he'll pay 50 into James's account

so James can move nearer

his wood yard and pay for diesel.

Can I know your mother's

maiden name?

She doesn't have a middle name.

Maiden. The name she had

before she got married.

Be an honest man.

A month later, back in the UK,

Nick invests another 1,000

on a reconditioned industrial planer

built to deal with African hardwood.

The planer's on its way.

James has got all he needs.

He's got his generator, he's got

his saw, he's got his planer.

The planer weighs a ton and a half.

Nick managed to find a company

willing to cover

the 5,000 shipping costs.

I saw in this young kid

right at the beginning

some sort of entrepreneurial spirit

but at some stage, he's got to say,

"I've got all I need.

"I'll take it on from here,

thank you very much."

Charity is often accused of creating

a dependency culture

but Nick's mission to help James

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