Category: Women In Business

By Chikodi Okereocha

The growth of women-owned businesses has been on the upswing in Nigeria, but Africa’s largest and most populous economy still trails behind its peers, the ‘Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs (MIWE) 2020 Report’ has shown.

This year’s MIWE ranked the less developed economies of Uganda (39.6per cent), Botswana (38.5 per cent) and Ghana 36.5 per cent) as having the most women business ownership rates.

Each year, Mastercard offers vital insights into the enablers and constraints of women’s progress as business owners across 58 world economies, representing nearly 80 per cent of the world’s female labor force, in the Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs.

Through the report, now in its fourth year, Mastercard is committed to providing a bedrock of information that enables governments, businesses and individuals to take decisive action in implementing targeted gender-specific support, resulting in greater gender parity in the world of work.

In examining the working environments of 58 economies, representing almost 80 per cent of the world’s female labor force, the MIWE drew on data sources from leading academic institutions, including the International Labour Organisation (ILO), GEM, World Bank, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), World Economic Forum (WEF), Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The 58 economies so examined by the report, which was accessed by The Nation, include eight countries across Sub-Saharan Africa, namely Angola, Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda.

Through a unique methodology – involving in-depth analysis across 12 indicators and 25 sub-indicators spanning Advancement Outcomes, Knowledge Assets & Financial Access, and Supporting Entrepreneurial Conditions – the Index ranks each economy according to its performance over the past year.

The Index benchmark is calculated as a percentage of total business owners, and Botswana, Uganda and Ghana have grown their percentages since 2019.

All but one (Botswana) of the Sub-Saharan African countries captured in the report showed improved MIWE scores since the last edition.

South Africa displayed the biggest growth with a seven per cent increase from (60.2 score to 64.4). Botswana, according to the report, has also grown the number women entrepreneurs since last year (36 per cent in 2019 to 38.5 per cent in 2020), earning her the second spot globally and displacing Ghana, now in third position.

MIWE 2020 also pointed to a strong representation of women business owners in Malawi, Angola and Nigeria, despite the economic and social challenges facing their entrepreneurial ecosystems.

According to the report, the high scores were spurred by a low fear of business failure, an absence of alternate income sources, and an eager commitment to contribute to their communities.

“Notwithstanding the lack of underlying supporting entrepreneurial conditions, the cultural perception of entrepreneurship is quite positive,” the report said.

For example, it stated: “Society’s acceptance and regard for risk taking, innovativeness and individuality and creativeness in entrepreneurship is high in Uganda, Nigeria and Angola.

“Given that women are disproportionately more vulnerable due to their exposure in highly impacted sectors, such positive cultural mindset and regard for risk taking and innovativeness will be paramount in motivating women to step up to pursue new business opportunities.”

However, globally, Israel, for the first time in the MIWE’s four-year history, topped the MIWE chart, advancing from fourth place in 2019, largely driven by a focused institutional support for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

With an ambition to double the number of female entrepreneurs within two years, Israel has rolled out targeted initiatives focused on funding and advancing networking opportunities. This has seen its support for SMEs ranking jump from 42nd place in 2019, to first just one year later.

Similarly, Switzerland has advanced from 11th position in 2019, to third overall in 2020, buoyed by a sharp improvement in government-led support for SMEs (up 37 per cent from 2019), and a significant uptick in cultural perceptions of entrepreneurialism (up 45 per cent from 2019).

Last year’s strong performers, the US and New Zealand – although dropping from first to second, and second to fourth places – demonstrate that economies with mature gender focused initiatives still out-perform on the global stage through continued focus on advancing conditions for women in business.

In these economies, favourable cultural perceptions of entrepreneurism, the high visibility female leaders that provide role models for aspiring entrepreneurs and supportive entrepreneurial conditions play a crucial role in their success.

“Examining the successes in each of these leading economies provides a valuable blueprint for economies positioned at the lower end of the rankings.

“For example, in Japan, India, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia and Turkey, women represent only six to 15 per cent of business leaders. In the Philippines, Belgium and Japan, supportive SME initiatives have been significantly scaled back,” the report said.

The report, however, noted the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women entrepreneurs around the globe; that regardless of an a economy’s wealth, level of development, size, and geographic location, women are disproportionately more vulnerable to the whole scale disruption caused by the pandemic.

According to the report, there are two broad factors at work here. Firstly, the over representation of women in the jobs and sectors that have been hit the hardest such as tourism, travel and transport, retail, food services, accommodation, entertainment and recreation, and manufacturing.

Secondly, the pre-existing gender disparity in business spanning inferior digital skills, financial marginalisation, lack of access to education and disproportionate domestic duties, to name only some of the most salient factors.

The report, however, said although the pandemic has presented new business opportunities for women, especially in terms of online shopping and services, the lack of access to technology or digital solutions, prohibitive data costs and inadequacies in modern trade readiness or resources in some economies make it challenging for women to tap onto these opportunities.

“This is particularly testing for women in societies where the access to financial services and products are restrictive, underlying entrepreneurial conditions and cultural norms are unfavourable, and physical infrastructure and quality of governance are poor,” it said.

In conclusion, the report said: “Our findings beckon us to consider the cost of untapped potential in women as contributors in our lives, not just in business and society, but on the national and global scale as the key backbone to the path of recovery post COVID-19.

“The long-awaited call for governments, institutions, and organisations to close the gender gap has never been more urgent.”

Africa Oil and Power (AOP), a leading investment platform in the energy sector, has appointed Olatorera (Tori) Abiola as its International Conference Director.

Abiola is an Economic and Politics graduate of SOAS (University of London), with over 24 years’ experience in training, conference, events and marketing with Euromoney, Pfizer, Montgomery West Africa, Institute of Chartered Accountants England and Wales.

Last December, Tori secured support for AOP Exhibition slated for October 26 to 27, 2021 at Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos, from Ministry of Petroleum, Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) and key stakeholders in the energy sector for the launch of AOP 2021 conference.

The conference was aimed at building capacity for the energy sector in Nigeria, with high level round table discussions for Chief Finance Officers (CFOs), General Legal Counsels, women in leadership, risk managements and security leads within the energy sector.

Tori brings to AOP her wealth of experience earned at Euromoney, where, with others, she grew the business in Africa by 75 per cent.

As Managing Director at Montgomery West Africa, she was instrumental to the success of over 75 corporate conferences in Africa, Europe and Middle East, which include SECUREX W/A, Propak and Women of West Africa (WOWE), among others.

Abiola is also a founding member of Women’s Entrepreneurship Day in Nigeria, an initiative supported by the United Nations, geared at  empowering women as entrepreneurs and poverty alleviation tools to achieve SDG’ s  and MDG’S.

Abiola is well suited to lead and launch AOP Conference and Exhibition, which focuses on energy, gas monetisation and local content development in Nigeria.

Her role as International Conference Director will feature the launch of AOP TV, a web-based server, which will profile and interview leaders in an energy sector in Nigeria, international investors, development finance institutions, government agencies and key stakeholders in energy infrastructure development and investment.

AOP enjoys support and endorsement from the Africa Energy Chamber and partnership from Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries(OPEC), UN, leading International Oil Companies (IOC), and National Oil Companies (NOCs).

AOP Conference and Exhibition 2021 will serve as a platform to move forward on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), support industrialisation and energy investment.

The United Nations (UN) Women, in partnership with the UN Volunteers (UNV) Programme, last week, announced the introduction of the UN Women “Young Women Leaders” (YWL) initiative.

The YWL initiative will engage a diverse cohort of young women from the Global South who are committed to gender equality and women’s empowerment and to the mission and work of the UN.

It will also allow the sharing of experiences among young leaders from diverse backgrounds across the UN.

As part of the YWL initiative, the first cohort of 10 young, talented and dedicated women will be recruited by UN Women and UNV to serve at UN Women’s headquarters as UN Youth Volunteers.

The first cohort of 10 young women to be selected will participate in a structured professional development programme, and will be mentored by leaders in their respective fields of expertise. They will also have the opportunity to contribute to gender equality and women’s empowerment and become part of a network of young leaders at UN Women.

Under-Secretary-General of the UN and Executive Director of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, said: “The recent global mobilisation for racial justice has shown how systems that perpetuate inequality can be easily disrupted’’.

“We are looking to young people to continue disrupting the status quo and to lead the way in building back more equal, unified and resilient societies for all.”

Mlambo-Ngcuka said UNV will facilitate the recruitment of motivated young women from the Global South who have demonstrated a commitment to gender equality through their academic, extra-curricular, or volunteer activities, and with diverse educational interests, including management, administration, international relations, communication, advocacy, human rights, gender studies or international development.

Senior Advisor on Diversity, Inclusion and Shared Leadership, Muthoni Muriu, noted that diversity is also about opportunities and this is an important first step to increasing UN Women’s professional outreach.

Those eligible to apply include women under the age of 29 (between 18 – 29 years), women from the Global South, as well as women passionate about volunteering for gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Women with disabilities, LGBTQI, gender non-conforming individuals, and other groups are especially encouraged to apply.

 

 

 

 

Fehintoluwa Dada is the Creative Director/Chief Executive Officer of Purple Stripes, the popular and hugely successful footwear and accessories manufacturing/retailing brand. Her company, which uses indigenous materials to produce quality, bespoke handmade footwear and accessories, is the toast of well-heeled customers, mostly working class males and females. The Oyo State-born Pure and Applied Mathematics graduate-turned shoe maker says her dream is to make the brand a household name in the footwear industry in Africa and, ultimately, the globe. Assistant Editor CHIKODI OKEREOCHA reports.

 

She is calm, cute and unassuming. But, behind the veneer of her cool demeanour is a steely woman entrepreneur with an uncommon resolve to carve a niche for herself in the world of business, despite the odds. And by chosing footwear making, a largely male-dominated vocation, to give men a run for their skills, the Creative Director/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Purple Stripes, a footwear and accessories manufacturing/retailing brand, Fehintoluwa Dada, exemplifies the cliché that “what men can do, women can do even better.’’

Indeed, since 2014 when Dada launched her Purple Stripes brand of footwear and accessories, the business has been growing in leaps and bounds, becoming the label of choice for customers in search of quality, bespoke footwear and accessories.

From first using quality leather as raw material, Dada moved a notch higher, leveraging innovation and creativity to make her brand unique and different from other footwear brands by using indigenous materials like Aso-Oke, Tiny Cord and so on.

The innovation was an instant hit, as Purple Stripes became one the most sought-after brands by customers, mostly working class males and females desirous of unique and classy footwear and accessories for various occasions.

“Our footwear are designed to make life easier and pleasant no matter the activity; whether you are wearing it to work, or for your next presentation with a prospective client, or even your social events, we’ve got you covered,” the budding entrepreneur cum shoemaker declared.

But, it is not so much the fact that Dada appears to have dwarfed the exploits of her male counterparts in the footwear industry that makes her the rave of the moment in the shoe making industry. Rather, it is the amazing and inspiring story of how she single-handedly started Purple Stripes from scratch and transformed it into a flourishing footwear brand.

Even before she established the company, the graduate of Pure and Applied Mathematics from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomosho, Oyo State, had been a passionate lover of handcraft. In fact, it was actually to feed her passion for handcraft that made her first start Kids Entrepreneurial Club (KEC) where she thought kids from age four handcraft.

“I started with KEC with kids from age four and above. I went to few schools to train their students. I believe in catch them young. We taught them on handcraft like bead making, bag making, using old ‘T’ shirt to make bags without sewing, making flip-flops and so on,” she said.

But, the actual footwear-making business started about five years ago when Dada’s United Kingdom (UK)-based sister visit Nigeria. Her story: “My sister came with different gifts for my children. One of the gifts for my daughter was a pair of flat shoe from Clarks.

“My daughter loved the shoe so much that she refused to part with it. I had to promise her another brand new shoe before she finally parted with the UK Clarks shoe. However, before I gave out the shoe, I was curious to know more about the shoe.”

Founded by brothers Cyrus and James Clark in 1825 and headquartered in Somerset, England, C&J Clark International Limited, trading as Clarks, is an international shoe manufacturer and retailer.

The company, which is 84 per cent owned by the Clark family, with the remaining 16 per cent held by employees and related institutions, has over 1,000 branded stores and franchises around the world and also sells through third-party distribution. Clarks is known all over the world for its quality footwear brands.

Dada said aside the comfort the Clarks shoe gave to her daughter’s feet, its durability was what particularly got her attention quite closely to the shoe.

“I noticed that the leather was of high quality. This curiosity made me begin to do a research on Clarks’ shoes and other top brands and to compare them with our made-in-Nigeria shoes, even though we have some good ones then. I came to the conclusion that they don’t compromise quality over there and they are very creative in their design,” she narrated.

It was that whole experience that got Dada on a quest to replicate that same story of quality, comfort and durability with an African texture and an indigenous touch and feel.

“I thought about how to create something that reflects our identity which our people will be proud to wear anywhere in the world and not easily let go of it, just like my daughter struggled to let go of the Clarks shoes purchased in the UK,” she told The Nation, noting that the next thing she did was to go to Ajegunle, Lagos, to learn how to make shoes herself.

Dada said after her training, she hired two shoe cobblers who were quite ready to learn and the trio began to work together using quality leather as raw material. Apart from being self-thought, relying on her inbuilt creativity, she also attended several footwear workshops to further hone her skill.

Interestingly, the first customer to order slippers from her was one of the parents of her student in the KEC Club. She still runs the Club alongside the footwear business that has now blossomed into a formidable brand employing eight non-regular staff, even as Dada said plans were underway to engage four full-time workers.

The entrepreneur has in barely five years of throwing her hat in the footwear-making ring positioned Purple Stripes as a label to beat. Daily, customers from far and near throng her workshop at home and two others outside her home.

“My major customers are working class people. I have footwear for both young and adult male and female,” Dada said, adding that she is working on having her production centre in a single location because of logistics.

Encouraged by Purple Stripes’ remarkable strides in such an incredibly short time of about five years, Dada said her ultimate goal was to make the brand a household name in the footwear industry in Africa and gradually move it to the global market. And one of her sure ways to making this happen is by refusing to compromise on quality.

“Customer feedbacks are very important to us, so based on these feedbacks, we make sure we don’t compromise on quality and that has really helped in retaining our customers and even getting referrals from them,” she stated, noting that many institutions such as Access Bank and Learntor were part of the success of her entrepreneurial journey.

For instance, Dada expressed gratitude to Access Bank for giving her the opportunity to be one of the first 50 women to participate in the first edition of its Mini-MBA programme, in conjunction with International Finance Corporation (IFC), in 2019. It was during the programme that she met wonderful entrepreneurs, one of who was the acclaimed Digital Strategist Mercy George-Igbafe.

According to Dada, Mercy, who is the founder, Learntor, a digital consultancy company, has been doing incredible work, especially for women entrepreneurs to make sure they come to lamplight via media and technology. She has been equipping women, including men, with digital skills to achieve competitive edge.

The Purple Stripes boss also benefited from several training, empowerment and outreach programmes. For instance, she participated at the “Take a Girl Child to Work Project,” a LiveWell Initiative (LWI), in partnership with the South African Embassy in Nigeria. The Project exposed the “girl student” to how an organisation is managed and also provided her positive role models.

The goal of LWI is to increase the life expectancy of Africans, especially Nigerians to age 70 by 2030 through its unique health empowerment programmes. To achieve this, LWI has created a programme for every Nigerian and every citizen of the world, rich or poor, young or old, illiterate or literate.

LWI also co-hosted the OXFAM National Female Food Hero (FFH) Award, where Dada was an active participant. Tagged “Ogbonge Woman,” the FFH Award was an initiative of the GROW project from the stable of OXFAM, an international NGO with presence in Nigeria, which aims to eradicate poverty and promote gender equality.

The initiative was designed to highlight the works done by 12 selected finalists – women farmers from all over the nation who have emerged as winners in Nigeria. The award was also to reward entrepreneurship among low literacy vocational women, while also promoting gender equality in the agriculture sector.

However, Dada’s entrepreneurial journey to building a formidable footwear brand has not been without challenges. Her major challenge thus far, according to her, is getting people with the right skills set, ready to learn and patient to work with. She also lamented that the cost of production in Nigeria is rather too high.

She, therefore, called on the government to support entrepreneurs by reducing the cost of production and addressing issues around access to raw materials for production.

Purple Stripes sources 90 per cent of its raw materials locally, but getting the materials to buy, according to Dada, is sometimes an issue. She also wants the awareness and campaign on made-in-Nigeria products, especially footwear to be stepped up.

How does the industrialist combine her tedious and demanding work as Creative Director for Purple Stripes with running the home as a mother? Her response: “I work mostly mornings and nights; afternoon for homework and studying with the children. I also have a wonderful husband who is very supportive.”

As Dada added: “I believe in hard work and being financially stable as a woman and still keeping a stable home. I prioritise my work and organise my day. It’s not easy, but it is doable.”

Will other existing and aspiring women entrepreneurs draw strength from Dada’s ‘can-do- spirit’? Will they, like her, build their businesses on a track record of quality that is gradually propelling her brand to the global stage? Will they ride the storm of the high cost operating environment and still emerge formidable?

More importantly, will women entrepreneurs shrug off gender biases and stereotypes that appear to reserve some categories of businesses and vocations for men? Will they unleash their in-born creativity and innovation to create more indigenous brands that can hold their own in the local and global market?

These are natural questions evoked by Dada’s exciting and inspiring entrepreneurial journey.

 

JD Recycling specialises in converting vehicles’ used tyres to furniture, interior decors and playground items. Its founder/Managing Director, Ayodele Olaide Adeyemi, ditched her career in banking and turned to waste recycling to feed her passion for furniture making. Today, she has 26 employees on her payroll and rakes in over N10 million from the business yearly. The banker-turned entrepreneur says Nigeria’s huge, but largely untapped waste recycling market is capable of dislodging oil, if fully exploited. Assistant Editor CHIKODI OKEREOCHA reports.

 

The exudes the confidence of an entrepreneur schooled in the dynamics of the industry she operates in. So, when the founder/Managing Director of JD Recycling, a company specialising in converting vehicles’used tyres to furniture, interior decors and playground items, Ayodele Olaide Adeyemi, said waste recycling is Nigeria’s next oil, she spoke from her vantage position as a knowledgeable industry operator.

According to Ayodele, who, on her own volition, resigned from her banking job to pursue her passion for waste recycling, the market for recycling and waste conversion is huge and lucrative, and with more people becoming aware of the business as a money spinner, “I see recycling/waste conversion as the next oil business if people can open their eyes to it.”

Ayodele’s projection was based on her experience in recycling and the successes so far recorded. Indeed, since 2013, when she resigned her job as a banker after working for 10 years and becoming an entrepreneur, JD Recycling, which she founded, has been growing.

For instance, the business she started, first as a dry cleaning  and later, JD Recycling, which she registered in 2017, employs 26 workers. She also makes over N10 million yearly, even as plans are afoot to expand the business by establishing a minimum of six branches in five years.

For Ayodele, furniture making was home coming and a dream come true. This is because her passion has always been to make furniture from recycled waste. “It’s what I love doing; I love making furniture, I love recycling. So, it’s a passion for me, something I love to do,” she told The Nation.

Already, she has even expanded the business from just recycling to regular furniture making. She said she has always known that she is not a career person hence, she only needed the experience she got from her career in banking to launch her own business, be an employer of labour and also provide a source of livelihood to as many people as possible in her own little way.

The story of how Ayodele activated her innate passion for recycling and furniture making is interesting. It all started in 2016 when her Physician, upon confirming her pregnant, left instruction that she should be on bed rest until she put to bed. At that time, her pregnancy was just a month, meaning that for the rest eight months, she wasn’t going to do anything.

“In fact, the medical doctor said even cooking was out of it,” she recalled. But as it turned out, it was during her long period of bed rest that the idea of starting her business was fine-tuned. “I am somebody who doesn’t know how to relax. So, while I was on bed rest, I was still trying to look for something to do.

‘’So, I was discussing with my sister and she said God has actually given you this time to think about what you wanted to do before. So, I was just thinking and I remembered that most times when you go to social events (Owambe) parties and even Lagos State drainages, you see lots of water bottles in the dustbin, on the ground, and in the drainages,” she narrated.

While on bed rest, Ayodele’s creativity and natural inclination for craftsmanship was on full swing. She was contemplating what she could use the discarded plastic bottles to do. Eventually, a research she carried out opened her eyes to various waste materials that could be used or recycled to produce a lot of things.

However, instead of bottle recycling, she said in her research, she saw tyres and fell in love with tyre recycling. “That was how I started,” she said, adding that apart from registering JD Recycling in 2017, with the cleaning business still running, she also used the opportunity of her bed rest to            set up her company’s website while at home.

Her first big break in the business came when, while still on bed rest, one of her clients, a man, placed order for 10 different tyre furniture, including tables, chairs and wall decorations. Being her first order, Ayodele said she had to get in touch with her regular carpenter as well as a friend who is knowledgeable about furniture construction.

“That was how we did our first supply,” she said, noting that  she and her client were excited by the quality and sheer esthetics of the final products. “I didn’t know such beauty could actually come out of waste. It was a surprise that we were able to do that and since then, we had started and it’s been a wonderful journey, she said, gleefully.

But, before her stint in banking, Ayodele, who studied Accounting in Yaba College of Technology, had worked in the Account Section of Ikoyi Club 1938 for five years. She joined the banking industry in 2003 and worked as a marketer and later, as an operations staff member for 10 years. She, however, resigned from the job in 2013.

Ayodele was one of the 3,000 lucky Nigerian women entrepreneurs that got the Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria (YouWin) grant by the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

The YouWin programme is a private and public initiative that finances outstanding business plans for the young, aspiring entrepreneurs in Nigeria. Ayodele said it was YouWin that actually gave her the confidence to step out of banking and face her cleaning business before veering into recycling.

Since then, there is no stopping the banker-turned entrepreneur. The customer who placed the first order for furniture made from tyres had his virtual office in Lekki, but has since opened another one in Yaba, with JD Recycling also supplying furniture for him too. He also opened another one in Abuja and still retained JD Recycling as his supplier.

About two months ago, the same client also opened another outlet in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, placed another order. Again, it was JD Recycling that made furniture for him. The company has also been making furniture for television stations, individuals and corporates. “People are beginning to realise that there is beauty in waste hence our slogan: “Exhibiting the Beauty in Waste,” Ayodele said.

Encouraged by her achievements in such a remarkably short time, Ayodele has moved a notch higher, venturing into wine bottles also. “We started using wine bottles to make things like flower verses and bottle light. We also use tyres to make chandeliers. A lot of people have been placing requests,” she told The Nation.

 

Soaring in a male-dominated industry

According to Ayodele, people were surprised when they realised that a woman was spear-heading the innovation. “A lot of people were surprised when they discovered that a woman owns the company. I am the creative manager and also the MD and the founder. So, it’s been a very interesting journey,” she said, noting that although, all her members of staff are men, she is the only woman among them.

Throwing more light on how she manages to cope in such a largely male-dominated industry, Ayodele said: “Sometimes when we are trying to come up with a new product or a new concept, I tell them (furniture makers) this is what we want, how do we achieve it?

“When they are explaining it and I am a little bit confused, they will say madam! you won’t understand. I will say explain it, I will know it; just take it as if you are talking to a primary school child. Sometimes when they want to say something, they will purse; they will feel that I will not understand, but I will say go ahead.”

Another factor that may have been working in her favour is that she works from the comfort of her home, in a three bedroom apartment nestled in very big and a spacious compound in Ojodu area of Lagos. “The beauty of my job is that I work from home. My workshop is in my compoun. So, I am able to manage my family and my work,” she said.

 

Catching them young

“My dream is also to train children because I believe in catching them young. If they are small and you are able to train and give them a mindset, that’s how you can really change a country,” Ayodele declared. And to give force to such profound declaration, the accountant and recycler has since already kicked off a training programme for children in schools, especially public schools.

The training programme, which was part of JD Recycling’s “Train A Child – Let’s Recycle” initiative, has just been approved to train 32 primary schools in Ikeja Local Government Area of Lagos State. “Once we are done with the 32 schools in Ikeja, we will also approach other local governments too to train the students.

“And it’s not just training them; we also train them on how to change waste into things that they can use. We hope that from there we will be able to get future entrepreneurs who will be interested in the recycling business because it is actually a very big market. So, we are hoping that the more we have more people into recycling the better, especially in the future,” she said

The Nation learnt that under the company’s “Train A Child – Let’s Recycle” initiative, its representatives visit public schools and host a fun and informative one-hour workshop that teaches children all about waste generation, waste management and recycling.

“We improve the livelihood of school children rural areas by donating our uniquely and beautifully made chairs and tables made with used tyres. After all, no one deserves to learn in discomfort. We also train the pupils in such schools how they can make these chairs and tables by themselves so that none would learn in discomfort,” Ayodele stated.

Perhaps, to underscore her resolve to catch them young, her 21-year old son, despite being more interested in photography, is involved in the business, though not fully because he is still studying in University of Lagos (UNILAG). She is also grooming her four-year old daughter to take up a career in waste recycling.

 

Women, youths also

The company has also been encouraging women whom it believes are influences. Ayodele’s words: “Woman who have no jobs or have no idea of what to do, we organise trainings for them. We bring in other recyclers that use other waste because it’s not everybody that has interest in using tyre as waste.

“There are some other wastes that can be used like the pure water sachet. I have a friend that uses it to make flowers. She also uses old magazines to make flowers. She uses pure water sachet to make foot mat. She is based in Port Harcourt.

“We also train women on how to push their product in the market to get customers, to get clients that can buy it from them because if you are making a product and nobody is buying you will get discouraged.” The company trains women and youths about recycling for as low as N10, 000.

 

Eyeing the African market

Ayodele said JD Recycling also goes to other African countries to teach them how to make products from waste materials. “Part of what we do is go outside Nigeria to train people. We have been to Togo for youth empowerment. We were there for three days to train the youths there about recycling and how to make some of our products,” she explained.

But for the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, JD Recycling would have also been in Gambia in September, this year. “We couldn’t go to Gambia in September as planned because of the pandemic. We had to put everything on hold until COVID-19 is under control,” she said

Although the company, for now, is in Lagos, it has concluded arrangements to expand its operations to Abuja, for instance.  As part of its expansion plan, it has also entered into an international partnership with Thistlerock Enterprises, a Scottish company, as well as DBA Bature Brewery, a company that is into brewery and entertainment.

The partnership with the brewery firm, according to Ayodele, allows JD Recycling put up its showroom in Bature Brewery’s office premises at Etim Inyang Crescent, Victoria Island, Lagos.

The company, she added, is also looking at partnering other furniture showrooms so that it can display its array of eye-popping products made from recycled tyres. Already, her products are some of the sought after by individuals, companies, hotels, restaurants, governments, parks, schools etc.

 

Saving the environment

Although, Ayodele’s foray into recycling was profit-oriented, she, however, said JD Recycling is an environment and human caring company. “We focus on solving climate issues, saving our environment from wastes while at the same time improving people’s lives through what we can create using used tires,” she emphasised.

The budding entrepreneur insisted that waste management should not be left for the government alone; that the private sector has a role to play. Her words: “The government can’t do it alone. There are some things that we private sector operators should be responsible for.”

She said if people are actually concerned about waste, those who said there is no employment and that government is not providing employment would be creating employment.

“In this time and age, you don’t wait for government to provide employment; you look for the job yourself. You become an entrepreneur and then provide the job, and that’s what we have decided to do, employ people,” she stated.

While reiterating that waste recycling is “A big industry,” Ayodele said she is looking forward to bringing a lot of people on board -women, youths, and children. She also said she sees JD Recycling having a minimum of six branches in five years’ time.