Category: Women In Business

The annual business summit powered by the Thriving Business Women Fellowship, an arm of the Victorious Praying Women Ministry, starts this week. It will hold all through the month. Now in its 13th edition, the Business Summit 2021 will be hybrid (both physical and online). Themed “Reposition,” this year’s summit aims at helping businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic regain their strength, refocus and reposition for the new normal. Assistant Editor CHIKODI OKEREOCHA looks at how the summit that has been grooming the next generation of entrepreneurs has moved a notch higher to helping businesses ride the COVID-19 storm.

The Creative Director, Delightsome Boxes, a company that makes gift boxes, Oyeniran Oluwatoyin, owes her rise to fame and fortune to her participation at the June 2017 edition of the annual business summit of the Thriving Business Women Fellowship (TBWF), the business fellowship arm of the Victorious Praying Women Ministry. Although she joined TBWF in 2016, it was the Fellowship’s Business Summit platform, the following year, that birthed Delightsome Boxes in 2017.

“Today, we churn out boxes in hundreds and we are doing powerfully well,” Oluwatoyin said.

She couldn’t have imagined that Delightsome Boxes would grow in leaps and bounds, but the opportunity of mentorship and experience sharing during the 2017 business summit made that possible.

“One of the speakers that came to the summit when I was in attendance was into boxes. She makes gift boxes. Somehow, I got interested and I went after her to learn. She thought me and also became my mentor. I was assigned to her at the post-summit event so, she took me by the hand; she opened her doors to me and from time to time I could go to her and now I am on my own,” Oluwatoyin narrated.

Held all through the month of June every year, the TBWF business summit is the most-sought-after annual business summit for start-ups and aspiring women entrepreneurs, including sit-at-home mothers, fresh graduates as well as people in paid employment. The summit gathers successful business people to share their stories and experiences, talk about their challenges and how they were able to overcome them so that other women would learn from them. The summit was an offshoot of TBWF’s Inspirational Tuesdays, with Pastor Mayokun Oreofe as the convener.

Oluwatoyin is, however, not the only budding entrepreneur that rode on the back of TBWF’s business summits to carve a niche for herself in the world of business. The Chief Executive Officer, Tiwa Hair Vitamins, a hair care line, Dolapo Ogunwale, is also counting herself lucky for participating at the 2019 business summit. “It gave birth to my hair care line, which is still running till date. After the sessions, I was greatly motivated by Oreofe, and the Holy Spirit laid it in my heart to start a hair care treatment range,” she said.

Oluwatoyin and Ogunwale are just two of the several success stories of start-ups and aspiring women entrepreneurs that have blossomed into vibrant business owners by riding on the back of the summit. And their testimonies and exploits must be responsible for the great anticipation by aspiring women entrepreneurs from diverse vocational backgrounds for this year’s edition of the summit, which begins next month.

The anticipation is not without justification considering the timing and choice of theme for the Business Summit 2021, which holds every Tuesday. Coming at the time of COVID-19 pandemic, the summit, now in its 13th edition, is themed “Reposition” and it will be hybrid (both physical and online).

The Team Lead, TBWF Business Summit, Olamide Agbalaja, explained that the theme was chosen to reflect the reality of the time and the need to help businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic regain their strength, refocus and reposition for the new normal.

“The choice of the theme was informed by the Holy Spirit. Secondly, as a result of what we have in our present world today, many people didn’t know that there is going to be COVID-19; that a lot of things will change. And you know because of this pandemic, a lot of businesses have been affected. So, the whole essence of the theme “Reposition” is to help you reposition your business and become a better person in your industry, to help you use this pandemic as an opportunity to come out strong and do greater exploits,” Agbalaja said.

She expressed optimism that with this edition, businesses would rise again, plant more businesses and be able to affect the world. She hinged her optimism on the success of the summit’s previous editions, which, according to her, not only birthed many businesses but also saw many at the point of crumbling rise again.

“If something is not working, people will not come again. If you go to our website, you will see peoples’ testimonies; you will see businesses move from ground level to big businesses,” the Team Lead said.

Agbalaja said reposition dealt with how businesses are going to cope in the new normal.

“We are repositioning for the new normal,” she stated, pointing out that this year’s summit will be a hybrid session. “We will have people coming in to be live with the speakers, then we will now do broadcast on Facebook, YouTube and other social media platforms as well. So, there is going to be physical and virtual,” she explained, adding that the conference would bring people from all walks of life to talk to business owners about their businesses and how they can expand.

Agbalaja further said: “We are also giving them (start-ups and aspiring women entrepreneurs) mentors that will hold them by their hands. Speakers will come to share their grass-to-grace stories so that participants can identify with such stories. So, we are also assigning mentors who are successful in their own field to them. If you are a caterer, for instance, you have a successful caterer come to tell you how to run your business better and also open your eyes to opportunities that will help you climb the ladder of success.”

The Business Summit 2021 is free for participants, but registration is compulsory. Although over time, the number of participants has risen to 3, 000 each year, Agbalaja said TBWF expected between 5,000 and 6,000 participants this year, since the summit was not just physical, but also online.

“The beautiful thing is that we will have the summit on Facebook and YouTube, so, you can always go back and watch it.  So, we are targeting like 5,000 to 6,000 participants this years. The summit is free and anybody can go back and watch it,” she stated.

It will also have plenary sessions that are industry focused.

“We have the agric industry; we have education; we have catering, fashion, and events. The whole essence is having a mentor talk to you about your business and how you should go in this new normal, how you can reposition, how you can expand your business,” Agbalaja said, pointing out that, although, TBWF did not give participants money to start businesses, “having people that you can depend on to help you bring your ideas into fruition, overall, will make you do well.”

The Team Lead was emphatic that with an array of speakers, cutting across several industries with high-level wealth of experiences and expertise, this year’s edition, which would build on the success of previous editions, would be game-changing. And the icing on the cake for prospective participants is, perhaps, the post-summit event during which some speakers will be attached to mentees for a period of time.

Apart from Oreofe, who is the convener, others in the line up of speakers include Business Strategist and MD of Bubez Foods, a competitive player in Nigeria’s food processing & packaging industry, Ijeoma Ndukwe; Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Executive Director of SAS Textiles Ltd, Oluwatoyin Bakare; General Manager, Mars Multiconcepts Limited, Ijeoma Nwakuche.

Nwakuche will bring her 16 years’ experience working across various sectors of the oil & gas industry to hone the entrepreneurial skills of participants, while Ndukwe’s passion for business, beginning in her undergraduate days, with the sale of products such as Mary Kay and Senegalese etc, will come in handy for aspiring start-ups. Bakare, on the other hand, is a seasoned entrepreneur and an alumnus of several renowned business schools. She also sits on the board of several companies and foundations.

Other confirmed speakers include the Managing Director, Delightful Toyshop, an organisation that specialises in children’s toys and early learning materials, Omotola Lawson; and Manager, Teelonis. a personal shopping and gift consulting services in Nigeria, Temitope Olonilua.

Under Lawson’s leadership, Delightful Toyshop became the distributor for leading global toy brands and is the sole Nigerian distributor of Little Tikes and LOL surprise brands, among many others.

Olonilua is an accomplished entrepreneur with over a decade experience running a proudly Nigerian company that serves other countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States of America. She is a pioneer of personal shopping and gift consulting services in Nigeria and has successfully built a cache of individual and corporate clientele.

PhysioCraft Allied Health Services, a private physical therapy practice, works with a team of qualified rehabilitation specialists to support clients during their recovery journey. Its founder, Tinu Okebukola, a physiotherapist, says  her dream is to transform PhysioCraft into a profitable trans-generational healthcare practice that supports families and individuals. She is also working with young talents, empowering and challenging them to use their skills to improve Nigeria’s healthcare indices. She shares the intriguing story of her push to redefine the rehabilitation segment of the health sector with Assistant Editor CHIKODI OKEREOCHA.

Her choice of career as a physiotherapist was influenced by her mom who was a Physical Education teacher. So, from the outset of her entrepreneurial journey, the founder, PhysioCraft Allied Health Services, a private physical therapy practice, Tinu Okebukola, was fascinated by the idea that movement and activity have healing properties; that there is empirical evidence that exercise reverses aging, and helps with brain development, among other benefits.

Her realisation of these facts, coupled with the hard work and remarkable dynamism she brought into her career, when she set out as a physiotherapist, must be why she has recorded tremendous successes in over a decade working in several countries and with multiple clients. The 2008 graduate of Physiotherapy from the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, has positioned PhysioCraft as the go-to-place for anything movement and recovery of function for clients.

Established in 2013, PhysioCraft Allied Health Services is a one-stop physical rehabilitation centre. It offers rehabilitation services with a team of physiotherapists, occupational therapist, hydrotherapist and speech and language specialist. With three locations in Lagos, one in Abuja, and plans to hit more locations soon, Tinu said: “The big dream is to have a profitable trans-generational healthcare practice that supports families and individuals in their movement journey.”

Tinu, who earned M.Sc. ( Physiotherapy) from the University of Nottingham, England, in 2012, said her plan in the next five years was to replicate PhysioCraft’s model across various locations where it works with young talents and empower them to make impact in patients’ lives, while also challenging themselves as individuals to use their skills to improve the healthcare indices for Nigerians.

PhysioCraft’s model utilises a specialist physiotherapist who leads clients’ care. For example, a stroke patient’s rehab would be led by a neuro-physiotherapist; a knee surgery patient would be led by a sports/orthopaedic physiotherapist and a child’s rehab by a paediatric physiotherapist. PhysioCraft is a conglomerate of physiotherapists with various specialty areas.

Expectedly, the dynamism and innovation Tinu has brought into her practice has not gone unnoticed. In recognition of the work PhysioCraft has been doing as a female-owned business, it received N5 million grant from the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The grant, she said, was used to expand the business and acquire state-of-the-art equipment to help clients in getting better.

This isn’t the only shot in the physiotherapist’s arm. On the strength of a $.1million fully-funded scholarship, Tinu is pursuing a PhD in Rehabilitation Science at the University of Florida, Gainesville, United States. “The $100,000 scholarship is funding towards my acquiring a PhD in Rehabilitation Science where I am deepening my expertise in advanced neurology rehabilitation and leveraging technology to improve health indices in resource poor region,” she said.

But it is not so much the funded research position in the university that has made Tinu the rave of the moment in her field. Rather, it is the intriguing, inspiring and, of course, patriotic story of what she did that earned her the highly coveted funding. It was the story of a 16-year-old boy who had a stroke and lost his ability to sit, eat, talk, walk and function when PhysioCraft first met him.

And working with him, despite limited resources then, Tinu was able to get the therapists the boy needed in one location, and to the glory of God, the company made excellent progress with him. “Yes, he (the 16-year-old boy) is a Nigerian. He had sudden headache that kept getting worse for three days while in school. Eventually, a scan showed some blood vessels had burst so, he had emergency surgery, and because of the parts of the brain that were affected, he lost a lot of function such as ability to eat, talk, sit move and use his hands,” she narrated.

It was at this point Tinu’s multiple roles in the boy’s rehab became visible. First, she had to support the boy’s family by helping them navigate all the complex healthcare situations, arranging transportation to Abuja from Lagos, discussing with the medical team to let him have a Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastronomy (PED). This was to ensure that he was getting adequate nutrition since he wasn’t able to swallow enough food.

She also provided him with the specialists in the company’s location such as physiotherapist, occupational therapist and speech therapist. “The occupational therapist worked with him to write again, including self-care activities like feeding, and bathing. I had to also arrange for specialised equipment that they didn’t have in Nigeria at the time,” Tinu explained.

Noting that the boy had intense daily rehab for five months and then still had to undergo further rehab, Tinu confirmed: “The boy is back home and to the glory of God hale and hearty.”

The budding entrepreneur’s professional accomplishments did not stop there. In 2016, she secured funding from a private organisation, CrusaderSterling, to produce an exercise video for older adults as a social responsibility project for the firm. The idea was to provide interventions which can be cost-effective and used at home.

She is also a certified project manager by the Project Management International, U.S. By this, Tinu is certified to plan, schedule, execute, monitor and evaluate projects under constraints of scope, time and cost. She also earned the Basic Life Support (BLS) Certification in the U.S.

The BLS certification teaches medical workers how to perform life-saving techniques on infants, children, and adults. BLS essentially aims to keep individuals suffering from life-threatening medical conditions alive in the interim of being transported to the hospital or during transfers to more advanced treatment centres.

With an MSc in Physical Therapy in England, PhD in U.S., as well as membership of several international professional bodies, including the Health Care Professional Council (England), among her exposures, Tinu, like most of her peers, would probably have stayed back and practised abroad where the pasture is believed to be greener.

But she would have none of that. “It was tempting to stay back, to be honest,” Tinu, who is also a member of the Nigeria Society of Physiotherapy and the Nigeria Institute of Management, admitted. Her sense of patriotism did not allow her give in to the temptation to stay back.

“I looked at home and saw there is a big gap and a real need there. So, I want to be a bridge, a connector,” she declared, adding: “By being here and establishing a practice, I am able to bring the most current treatment and strategies and also work with world-renowned experts in the rehabilitation field, helping clients and families in their recovery.”

Tinu has not looked back in her resolve to leverage her expertise, resources and energy to help redefine the rehabilitation segment of the health sector. She does this by supporting clients and families with movement-related healthcare needs in Nigeria. By so doing, those lucky to benefit from her services have no need to travel for international standard rehab. “We believe Nigerians deserve better healthcare,” she asserted.

PhysioCraft has 14 workers on its payroll. It was 20 before COVID-19 pandemic forced it to downsize to 14. And since its establishment, the response by Nigerians has been overwhelming, especially considering that Nigerians’ awareness of physiotherapy is relatively lower than what obtains abroad.

Tinu confirmed this much when she said “Response has been gradually changing. Before, people would wait for physicians to send them to physiotherapist, but nowadays, with Internet, people Google information about their condition and find us online.”

Mentoring youth, women entrepreneurs

In line with her avowed commitment to adding value to the health sector and women and youth entrepreneurship, Tinu has turned her attention to grooming the next generation of women and youth professionals and entrepreneurs.

Aside organising one-on-one mentoring programmes where she advises young girls, she recently hosted a free zoom chat where she shared some of the mistakes she made in her entrepreneurial journey. The free zoom, which she entitled: “Mistakes I made during my Entrepreneurial Journey,” was held on May 15.

The zoom chat, which targeted service industry professionals, was hugely successful and, according to Tinu, it has birthed something bigger — a podcast called the “Anonymous Mistakes Podcast. “It is a podcast where we would chat with successful individuals who would tell us about mistakes they have made, anonymously.

“I’m doing this because young people put themselves under pressure benchmarking against outstandingly successful people. So, what if you can see the other side, you’ll be more forgiving of yourself and learn from their mistakes while also leveraging their experience,” she explained, adding that the initiative would be launched on June 12, 2021, to coincide with her birthday.

Explaining further, she said during her career of over a decade across several countries and multiple clients, she noticed the mistakes family members make with their loved ones, especially elderly parents, people living with disabilities or long-term illnesses or even sports injury.

“So, I’m hosting a free virtual session to highlight that. It would help people avoid thdse mistakes and also save money in the long run when it comes to care of their loved ones,” she stated.

Intelligent, savvy, and humorous (an attribute that bodes well for her field) Tinu, who described her job schedule as “Incredibly tough,” however, said she drew strength from the “Amazing support system” of her family. “First, my husband supports and encourages me to be all that I can,” she said.

She also said she did not joke with nanny care. “It’s very important to me to have someone who helps with the kids. My mental health is also important. I speak with my family members frequently because they love me wholeheartedly. And I also try to take afternoon naps or walk at least three times a week,” she stated.

O’della Food Hub is an agro-processing and food packaging company. It produces Monosodium Glutamate (MSG)-free condiments and spices such as ginger powder, garlic, hibiscus powder mix, and curry powder. The company also packages foods sourced directly from the farm. With distributors across 18 states in the country and still counting, its Director, Ololade Adewunmi, said her goal is to reach the global market with quality herbs, spices and other natural food products that promote healthy living and by so doing, provide jobs for both young and old, especially women. AMBROSE NNAJI reports.

The is one of those in the frontline of the growing campaign to promote healthy leaving by avoiding processed foods and opting instead for natural or organic foods. But, unlike other campaigners, the Director, O’della Food Hub, an agro-processing and food packaging company, Ololade Adewunmi has since transformed her campaign for healthy living through the use of spices, herbs and other organic foods into a vibrant business that now eyes the number one spot in the burgeoning food processing and packaging industry.

“I am an advocate of healthy living. I promote healthy living with the use of spices and herbs, encouraging people to go back to the roots,”Adewunmi, a Computer Engineering graduate of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Oyo State, declared. While adding: “I believe that we have had enough of Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) products and processed foods that are causing a lot of dangers to health such as cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes and so on,” she said O’della Food Hub serves as a ‘route to market’ for many under-served rural farmers and processors (mostly women).

Though launched last year, after getting the necessary accreditation from the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and other relevant regulatory bodies, O’della Food Hub has been in the agro-processing and food packaging business for four years. The company, according to Adewunmi, produces MSG-free condiments, spices (ginger powder, garlic, hibiscus powder mix, curry powder, and mixed spices). It is also into food packaging such as Ofada rice, plantain flour, and palm oil, which is sourced from the farm.

Adewunmi, who is also an educationist, fitness and health coach, said her mission is to help reduce childhood and adult deadly illnesses caused by chemical and processed foods. She said apart from the fact that products from O’della Food Hub are produced in a hygienic environment and also traceable, 99 per cent of the raw materials are sourced directly from the farm.

Besides, the company’s workers, she said, have undergone a lot of trainings to ensure the production of well packaged food and spices products that are fit for the Nigerian market as well as the international market.

Articulating O’della Food Hub’s mission, the budding entrepreneur, said: “We want to leverage the vast opportunities in the food processing and packaging industry to contribute our quota in growing the nigerian economy and Africa generally, in national food production and also to export processed and well–packaged foods from Nigeria to other countries. Above all, we want to promote healthy living and reduce the high rate of terminal diseases in children and adults.”

The company works with farmers, especially women to get its raw materials. At the last count, over 20 women are engaged in picking, cleaning, sorting and overall packaging. It also has distributors in 18 states across Nigeria, with plans to spread its tentacles to more states soon. However, despite making significant inroad into the food processing and packaging industry, Adewunmi admitted that she is yet to break even, as the company is investing a lot of money into the business.

“Yes, it (the business) has been successful as we all can see, but the need for more investments is paramount at this point in time. We can’t stop investing because people are calling for more and more. The market gets wider by the day. And you know we need more money for production to meet up with demand,” Adewunmi told The Nation, adding, however, that her company’s products are already growing to become household names.

“We have ground ginger, ground cinnamon, dried oregano, bay leaves, cumin, and hibiscus powder. Our products are 100 per cent natural and MSG free. They are used for tasty meals; people dealing with health issues like diabetes, high blood pressure. Our products promote healthy living,” she said, adding: “We want to launch a standard foodand spices production company whose products will not only be sold in Nigeria or Africa, but in the global market, in order to provide job opportunities for both young and old especially Women.”

Adewunmi’s promising venture into the food processing and packaging industry is hardly surprising. For one, she started out early. “I started business early. I have been selling since my secondary school days because I love making my own money. I enjoyed selling lolly pop, ice cream and popcorn back then. I didn’t stop at that. When I got to the university, I had the intention of opening a beauty salon, but my mother discouraged me,” she said.

That was not the only indication that Adewunmi was business inclined even before O’della Food Hub came on stream. “I love doing business,” she reiterated, adding: “I recall that a friend of mine whose brother came home from Switzerland back then brought back different wristwatches. I told him I was interested in helping to sell. But I didn’t sell them to my colleagues in school; instead I took them to my dad’s office to sell. And I was making cool cash. Back then, I was selling gold jewelries and so on.”

Smooth sailing as her entrepreneurial journey may have so far been, it hasn’t been without challenges. One of them, Adewunmi said, is that people suddenly appear to be averse to quality products. “I don’t know why it is suddenly like this, people don’t seem to appreciate quality any longer. People seem to be just contented getting any food. No, it shouldn’t be like that. We should eat right. We should eat what our body needs to be healthy so that we can be healthy and sound all the time,” she said.

She also lamented the high cost of transportation and bad roads. “This is certainly a big issue for us because we source our products locally and direct from the farms,” Adewunmi pointed out, adding that there are also government policies some of which appear to burden or even strangulate young entrepreneurs’ businesses, and then of course, the high cost of equipment.

Mrs. Aramide Adeyoye, an engineer, is the Special Adviser, Works and Infrastructure to Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo­Olu. Since her appointment in August 2019, the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN)-registered engineer has brought her wealth of experience in the construction industry to bear on the administration’s push to transform the state into a smart city and make her economy 21st century compliant. Assistant Editor OKWY IROEGBU­CHIKEZIE looks at some of the projects that may have earned her a pride of place in the state.

Her doggedness, diligence, and commitment to work have continued to buoy the hopes of residents of Lagos State that the transformation of the state into a smart city with a 21st Century compliant economy will be achieved.

Since her appointment as Special Adviser (Works & Infrastructure) to the Governor of Lagos State,  Babajide Sanwo-Olu, in August 2019, Mrs. Aramide Adeyoye, an engineer, has been working assiduously to ensure that works and infrastructure upon which the administration anchored its ‘Lagos Smart City Project’ are sufficiently galvanised to help realise that vision.

The Lagos State Government under Sanwo­Olu’s administration has never hidden its intension to transform the state into a smart city and make her economy 21st Century compliant.

Originally conceptualised in June 2016, the ‘Lagos State Smart Initiatives’ was designed to connect human and social capital with Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure. The idea was to deploy this to address lapses in public services, while achieving a more sustainable development and increasing the quality of life of citizens within the shortest possible time.

Accordingly, the project was hinged on improved transportation, security and surveillance, implementation of a metro-fibre network and e-governance, for instance. And the responsibility of putting the necessary infrastructure in place fell on Mrs Adeyoye, who, as Special Adviser (Works & Infrastructure), has since rolled up her sleeves and gone to work on several infrastructure projects across the state. For instance, under her watch, the construction of the New Massey Street Children’s Hospital, Rehabilitation/Upgrading of Adeniji Adeele and Oke Popo/Tapa Streets is in the works.

According to Mrs Adeyoye, the Lagos State Government has jump-started its urban renewal scheme in the Island Central Business District with the commencement of road and health infrastructure in Adeniji Adele and its environs.

She said the proposed project includes a 150-bed new Massey Street Children Pediatrics Hospital, reconstruction and upgrade of Adeniji Adele and Tapa/Oke Popo streets roads.

Massey Hospital was established in 1914 as the first General Outpatient Clinic and Referral Centre in Lagos State and was converted to a full-fledged Pediatrics Hospital in 1961. As a result of the steady and increasing number of patients, who throng the hospital daily to access medical services, the capacity has been overstretched and needs to be upgraded to provide quality service to patients.

The seven-storey hospital project would be completed in 24 months and would allow the state to provide medical care to children, a first-class facility for training doctors and other medical caregivers. To complement the edifice, the roads are to be upgraded to semi-rigid pavement with reinforced concrete drains, culverts and median barrier, service ducts and powered street lighting.

The score of works include four-floor main building to accommodate, outpatient department, accident and emergency department, four operating theatres, Radiology Department with two CT Scan, MRI and X-Ray rooms, General Ward, Private Wards, Physiotherapy Department and multi-storey car park with 213 parking capacity.

Other ancillary features are Water Treatment Plants, Medical Gas Tank, Water Feature/ Fountain. Adeyoye said the contract for the urban renewal has been awarded to Messrs Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, which undertook the initial construction of Adeniji Adele Road.

She added that the regeneration of the axis started with the Northern axis,  with the state setting up an inter-ministerial committee comprising, Ministries of Physical Planning and Urban Development, Works and Infrastructure, Environment and Water Resources, Transportation with a consultancy firm of urban and regional planners.

Mrs Adeyoye’s footprint has also been visible in the strategic link road within the Ojo Local Government (LG), home to Alaba International Market, the Ariyo-Tedi link road and bridge. She said in line with the Sanwo-Olu’s agenda, which aims to address the challenge of traffic gridlock, the government strategically thought it through to complete the Ariyo (Mile 10)-Ira-Muwo-Tedi-Abule Oshun Road alignment with reinforced concrete bridges.

She explained that the completion of Ariyo (Mile 10) Ira Muwo-Tedi- Abule Oshun Road alignment with link bridges seeks to provide a functional by-pass to the Lagos-Badagry

Expressway between Ojo Alaba- Volks and Trade Fair Bus Stop. The inaugurated project, Ira-Muwo Bridge, with a length of 450 metres and 11 metres in width is redefining in terms of the solution it brings to the congestion and gridlock within the residential and commercial axis.

The Special Adviser, however, highlighted the challenges encountered during the construction, noting, for instance, that the peculiarity of the swampy terrain to the lagoon made provision of alternative routes virtually difficult. “Thus, it was quite a challenge to control vehicular and pedestrian traffic during the critical stages,” she said, noting that on Pen Cinema, the idea was to resolve  the perennial traffic gridlock in Agege and its environs.

Mrs Adeyoye listed other works carried out by the Ministry to include continuation of projects embarked upon by the immediate past administration such as the Agric-Isawo Road, Igbogbo-Igbe Road, completion of 31 network of roads in Ojokoro LCDA, network of roads in Badagry and Alimosho Council areas, as well as maintenance of existing infrastructure across the state.

She said the administration also embarked on new projects, including the Ijede Road, the 10km three-lane Lekki regional road and the Fourth Mainland Road. On the proposed Fourth Mainland Bridge, Mrs Adeyoye said the bridge project had been in the pipe-works for about 20 years and intended to provide a useful additional link between the Lagos Mainland (Ikorodu) and the Eti-Osa corridor.

Mrs Adeyoye pointed out that most of the new projects embarked upon were in tandem with the THEMES agenda of the administration and also in line with the Lagos strategic development master plan.

On the multi-level car park in Onikan, the Special Adviser said the facility, which was designed to accommodate 384 cars, is a six-floor edifice with offices and two banquet rooms. “It has an auditorium sitting 800 guests complete with an elevator, fire alarm system, CCTV and a mini- grid solar power system. The project is at 83 per cent completion,” she added.

She said the proposed construction of the bridge was in consonance with the State Transport Master Plan (STMP) and the Eti-Osa/Ikorodu Master Plan, with the adoption of Public Private Partnerships (PPP) as the procurement model.

“The project procurement process has commenced with the successful completion of the Expression of Interest (EoI) Stage, which had 52 Proponents/bidders show interest and 32 compliant responses. The Request for Qualification (RFQ) stage is nearing completion, and this is expected to lead to the next stage, which is “Request for Proposal” (RFP) stage,” she stated.

Mrs Adeyoye recalled with nostalgia the early days when Lagos had parks and walk ­ways in Surulere and Yaba, pointing out that the administration was in a hurry to restore the lost glory of Eko as Lagos is popularly called. She said her passion for infrastructure renewal and growth stems from her childhood experience.

Asked how this could be possible with the menace of commercial motor cycle riders, popularly called Okada, the Special Adviser said in the Lagos of the future and plan for a smart city, there would be no room for Okada, adding that the state government was working on replacing them with a modern mode of transportation.

“The blue and red lines will be operational and while the big buses will transport people en masse, the smaller and modern buses will take residents to the inner streets,” Adeyoye said, adding that her passion for orderliness and for Lagos to be restored to her former glory drives her.

Beyond her avowed passion, Mrs Adeyoye came into the office with requisite experience. An alumnus of the Civil Engineering Department, University of Lagos, she began her career with Julius Berger Nigeria PLC in 1987, where her love, consistency and passion for the profession saw her work there till August 2019.

Mrs Adeyoye’s stewardship with the construction giant spurred the firm to employ and retain more female engineers where she consistently encouraged upcoming ones to excel. A trail blazer, she rose to the post of a Project Co-coordinator in July 2018 from where she meritoriously retired a year later.

A Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN)-registered engineer, she is a member of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Nigerian Institution of Civil Engineers (NICE), Association of Professional Women Engineers (APWEN), Chartered Institute of Arbitrators of Nigeria (CIArb) and Institute of Management Consultants (IMC).

Mrs. Adeyoye is a versatile engineer with proven contracting, procurement, practical field construction/supervision and project management expertise for over 30 years. She has had the privilege of being involved in the design, supervision, construction and contract administration of projects centered on provision of buildings, estate infrastructure, highways, roads and bridges in the Lagos in the last three decades.

Notable projects in which she was involved include Third Mainland Bridge, Lekki-Ikoyi Bridge, Adeola Odeku Road, Victoria Island, Bourdillon+Awolowo Road, Ikoyi Marwa Gardens Estate Road Network, Lagos-Badagry Expressway Lot 1, Rehabilitation of Gaskiya-Sari Iganmu Road, Apapa Central Business District Road, numerous pedestrian bridges, and several private residential development.

Mrs Adeyoye, an alumnus of the prestigious Lagos Business School, having bagged a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the institution in 2005, is a 2020 recipient of Excellence in Leadership award of the National Productivity Centre and several others.

A Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, Nigerian Institution of Civil Engineers, Nigerian Institute of Building and the Institute of Management Consultants, she is a World Bank/International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (I.C.S.I.D)-trained Investment Arbitrator and has attended several training conferences home and abroad.

Forty women drawn from 20 host communities in Abia, Akwa Ibom and Rivers States, have been handed starter packs after being trained in five different vocations by the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) Limited, a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

The 40 lucky women, who were participants of the NGC’s ‘Women Empowerment Programme,’ were presented the starter packs at a handover ceremony held at Golden Tulip Hotel, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, during the week.

Although, the women were trained in various vocations such as makeup artistry, fashion and design, computer, catering and hair dressing in 2016, they were not given their starter packs due to some unforeseen circumstances.

The Managing Director, NGC, Engr. Seyi Omotowa, said the empowerment workshop was organised for the company’s host communities because it strongly believes in the development of its host communities.

Omotowa, who was represented by the Executive Director, Support Services, NGC, Mrs. Uche Ossai, said the structure and intent of the workshop was to train and empower women between 20 and 40 to be self-reliant in all facets of their lives, providing support to their families and by extension, the community in which they belong.

He added that the handover of the starter packs to the participants of the programme was a reality and a testimony of NGC’S commitment to actualising it’s promises despite the time lag, largely due to budgetary constraints and restructuring exercise within the corporation.

“On our part, we shall continue to solicit for your cooperation and assistance in the maintenance of peace and support for our business growth aspirations, in the interest of our people in these host communities and Nigeria in general,” Engr. Omotowa said.

Speaking for the beneficiaries, Mrs. Ugoeze Sandra from Abia State thanked the management and staff of NGC for training and empowering the women with various skills as well as handing over starter packs to them.

She assured the NGC that the starter packs will be put into good use.

The Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) has intensified efforts to support women and youth in the export value chain through the recent launch of its “Women & Youth Export Fund (WAYEF).”

The facility’s objective was to stimulate and increase deliberate funding to indigenous women and youth towards broadening Nigeria’s export basket and facilitating regional industrialisation for value added exports.

It was also aimed at improving access of women and youths to concessionary finance in a bid to expand and diversify the non-oil export baskets, while also supporting women and youth towards up-scaling and expanding their export operational capacities.

The Head, Strategic Planning, NEXIM, Mr. Tayo Omidiji, however, said WAYEF, launched late last month targeting women and youths in the non-oil export sector, was one of several financing instruments to encourage exporters.

Omidiji, who spoke at the Quarterly Workshop of Association of Business Editors in Nigeria (ABEN), in Lagos, last week, listed the other financing instrument by NEXIM to boost export to include the N500 Billion Export Stimulation Facility (ESF) managed in collaboration with the CBN to support export oriented projects.

He said there is also the N100 billion Export Development Fund (EDF) provided to NEXIM by CBN and targeted mostly at the Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

The theme of the workshop was “Strengthening economic recovery in a  pandemic through aggressive non-oil export drive: Prospects and challenges.”

Omidiji, in his paper on ‘Financing Nigerian non-oil exporters to

penetrate global markets in a pandemic,’ said as an Export Credit

Agency (ECA) and Nigeria’s Trade Policy Bank, NEXIM’s objective was to implement initiatives aimed at mitigating the impact of the pandemic on the non-oil export sector.

Eligible borrowers/beneficiaries of the WAYEF include duly registered/incorporated export-oriented Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria with women or youth as promoters.

They must also be structured organisations with the mandate to empower women or youth along the export value chain, as well as registered export-oriented co-operative societies, associations, clusters for women or youth.

Eligible projects/transactions include projects or transactions in thenon-oil export sectors that impact women and youth employment and projects with deliberate focus on women and youth empowerment programs in the export value chain.

Transactions connected with export of goods wholly or partly processed/manufactured are also eligible.

For fashion entrepreneurs and other creative professionals, these are promising times. From capacity development and ideation, to production, market access and growth, 360 Creative Innovation Hub, one of Nigeria’s fashion hubs, is living up to its billing as a co-working space dedicated to nurturing and expanding emerging creative and fashion entrepreneurs. Through mentorship, management, investment and equipment support, its Managing Director/Chief Executive, Blessing Ebere Achu, has created a robust ecosystem that aids the success of creative ventures that plug into it. DANIEL ESSIET reports.

It was an intervention borne out of research and engagement with various operators in the creative community. And when that research and extensive engagement birthed 360 Creative Innovation Hub, one of Nigeria’s fashion hubs, it sure met the yearnings of fashion entrepreneurs and other creative professionals for the creation of a robust ecosystem to aid the success of their creative ventures.

360 Creative Innovation Hub is a vertically-integrated fashion accelerator, with a co-working space dedicated to nurturing, expanding and accelerating emerging fashion creatives.The hub’s co-sewing space helps designers find inspiration and create their own designs with access to sewing machines and workshop tools with ease.

It is also a platform for creative brands and fashion-focused entrepreneurs to come together to create, collaborate and successfully achieve their dreams. Through mentorship, management, investment and equipment support, the hub supports the growth of creative and fashion entrepreneurs and positions them for global exploits.

The Managing Director/Chief Executive of 360 Creative Innovation Hub, Blessing Ebere Achu, has projected that by 2025, “We see 360 Creative Hub producing, at least, 50 global fashion and creative brands from local communities throughout Africa, who can compete in the global market.

The promise of drawing sufficient strength from the hub to become globally competitive is as exciting as the realities that necessitated the creation of the hub. For instance, Blessing said a research found that while there were many co-working spaces that catered to the needs of start-ups in the Information Technology (IT) space, for instance, not many were centered around the creative industry.

Also, responses by some fashion designers engaged by Blessing to know what their major challenges were indicated that poor power supply, lack of access to equipment, unskilled tailors, lack of access to funding, and a general lack of conducive environment for creativity, among other forms of support, were pain in the neck.

She said that was when she started asking the respondents if they would be willing to use a facility that solves these problems for them. And as it turned out, their responses, which were in the affirmative, birthed 360 Innovation Creative Hub. She also learnt about co-working spaces in depth, while touring with the ‘StartupBus Europe’ in 2016.

Founded by Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur Elias Bizannes, StartupBus is an annual technological start-up competition and entrepreneurship boot camp, described as an Hackathon. The competition is held across a three-day bus ride where contestants or “buspreneurs” compete to conceive the best technology start-up. The ‘buspreneurs’ break into teams and create prototype products to pitch at an event at the end, where a winner is decided.

Blessing participated in the ‘StartupBus Europe’ in 2016. While on the competition, she began to understand that beyond space sharing, its economy was a huge paradigm shift. She also began to realise that many local designers did not understand what it meant to build a brand or run a scalable business.

She attributed this partly to the low-level of skills imparted at the various fashion training schools, which are about making clothes. “As a result of this, many designers start their businesses knowing little or nothing about marketing, brand building and other elements of the business of fashion,” she told The Nation.

Pointing out, she said: “This is a big part of what we have set-out to correct for as many designers across Africa as possible.” Blessing indicated that her mandate was very simple: “Make fashion business easy for Africans.” She said she has pursued this objective over the last four years.

With the goal of educating young and potential creative entrepreneurs on how to adopt effective branding, cost-effective digital media platforms, as well as financial and business skills in developing and growing their small-scale business, the Hub has been offering a range of services that support fashion creatives to start their businesses.

From capacity development and ideation, to production, market access and growth, the good times are indeed here for fashion and other creative entrepreneurs. “We have the most beautiful purpose-built creative spaces for fashion designers, jewelers, shoe makers, models, photographers, and other creative professionals to call their own,” Blessing said.

She added that there is also the Fashion Acceleration Programme, an intensive program aimed at accelerating emerging fashion designers; setting them on the right path to becoming the next big brands in fashion. According to her, there is a huge opportunity for savvy entrepreneurs with innovative products and services across the fashion value chain.

However, even before establishing 360 Creative Innovation Hub, Blessing had always been involved in the burgeoning fashion and creative industry. As she said: “I have been involved in the fashion value chain working with local textile artisans and traders. From those earlier years, I had developed a desire to play bigger in the fashion space whenever I had the opportunity.”

But it wasn’t until she toured parts of Europe in 2016 on a start-up series that the much-anticipated opportunity eventually came. “Not until then did my eyes begin to open to the huge gap in the Nigerian fashion industry, and the need for more work to be done towards enabling creative enterprise, suitable for the international market,” she said.

With the quantum of work she has done in the past four years, Blessing, who started out in business development and enterprise sales in the telecommunications sector, is in a position to declare with so much confidence that “I am a fashion ecosystem builder.”

It wasn’t an empty claim. As part of building a robust ecosystem for fashion, she said: “Recently, we launched Idozi Collective, our market access brand focused on discovering and showcasing new and established designers across Africa that are sustainable and ethical, who possess high quality in design, and are easily accessible.”

That’s not all. “In addition, we have created other specialised services which we call ‘add-ons’, designed to help brands who require various forms of support and expertise in building towards their goals; brand development, concept development, product development, manufacturing support,” she added.

So far, the Hub has been able to support the founding and growth of about 60 fashion brands. It has also been involved in the training of over 1000 creatives to build their capacity in the fashion ecosystem.

Through the years, it has also created jobs across various fashion supply chain through  services, partnerships with local and international organisations.

An entrepreneur with business ideas, Blessing is a strong believer in enterprise, originality and sustainability. And the first step to achieving sustainability in enterprise, according to her, is: “Finding out what is really true to you; what is original to you, then executing around that.”

She also said she believes that people should not just do things because they seem to fit. “I believe every action and decision should be done with the long-term gain in view. Ask yourself, in 10 years, will I still be able to put my name on this brand or product confidently?” she said.

To Blessing, success is the ability to positively impact another human being. “This is what I set out to achieve, even on a greater and global scale,” she declared, attributing her success to tenacity, the right team, as well as a support system of excellent business leaders, thinkers and doers who have been strategic to her growth.

Participation in some international or regional incubator or accelerator programmes also helped. “I was part of the CC Hub’s Next Economy Accelerator here in Lagos. I was also in the Enpact Entrepreneurship Mentoring Programme, Germany; Texinova Accelerator, Spain; and African Women Entrepreneurship Cooperative (AWEC) – a pan African women entrepreneurship and management training program. I have also been part of the Cherie Blair Mentoring Programme, UK,” she said.

A self-motivated entrepreneur, much of the funding for Blessing’s venture, according to her, came from family and friends. She said what motivates her is the privilege of observing various entrepreneurs in Nigeria and abroad, and the inspiration she draws from their stories; the hard work that goes into building and laying the foundations for the success that people admire on the outside.

“Since we started 360 Creative Hub, I am excited every time a member is able to grow from ‘idea’ to ‘market’, building a viable business around their craft, through our services,” Blessing stated.