Category: Women In Business

Our Reporter

 

OGUN State Deputy Governor Mrs Noimot Salako-Oyedele has called on successful women in politics to sponsor and raise other women as part of efforts to build a better nation.

She spoke at a webinar organised by Emerging Africa Capacity Building, an arm of Emerging Africa, a leading African Investment banking group.

The webinar, which held during the week, was themed: “Women Who Lead 2.0–The role of Women in Governance and Nation-building.”

The event was designed for African women leaders with distinguished records in governance and leadership at the highest level to mentor the next generation of leaders, sharing their personal leadership journey, challenges surmounted, and lessons learned. It also shared specific tips for women seeking governance and leadership positions especially in the public sector.

Delivering the keynote address, Salako-Oyedele shared some important tips such as the need for female candidates to combine electability and competence, to be articulate, and to demonstrate their ability to aid their parties in winning elections.

Nigeria’s first female Minister of Industry and Group Chairman, Emerging Africa, Dr. Nike Akande, said  it was worthy of note that women have lately been occupying top positions of responsibilities domestically, continentally, and globally and  have brought enormous value to both corporate and political governance.

“While there are clear economic and social advantages to having more women in the corporate and political governance levels, we still must contend with issues of culture and traditions.  Therefore, there is need for a complete reorientation to reduce discriminatory practices in society.

Read Also: ‘My passion for women, less-privileged’

“As reports have shown, investing in women has a distinct multiplier effect on a society. When women are empowered, they are able to provide better lives for their children, they are able to contribute to the national economy; and they are better able to stand beside men to solve the long-standing problems of our time,” Akande said. The host and Group CEO, Emerging Africa Capital Group, Mrs Toyin Sanni, spoke on the imperative of funding access for women to pursue elective positions and on the need for Nigerian women to adopt globally successful models and technology to achieve this objective.

She also emphasised how the involvement of more women in leadership and governance would help to bridge current gaps between leaders and the governed, particularly the youths which make up the majority of the population.

Other speakers at the event were President/GCEO, Transcorp Nigeria Plc, Ms Owen Omogiafo; General Manager, Legal and Regulatory Commission Secretary, National Identity Management Commission, Hajia Hadiza Ali – Dagabana and Chairman, Africa Prudential Plc, Mrs Eniola Fadayomi.

 

The Chief Executive Officer, Time-Tell Nigeria Limited, a corporate gift and branding company, and owner of ‘Afrikoncept’, an Afro-centric clothing line, Mrs Obianuju Violet Abdulkadir, is leveraging her creativity to build a flourishing business empire. The steady stream of contracts and referrals coming her way attest to her growing fame and fortune. They are also an indication that she is inching closer to achieving her goal of becoming a national and global change maker, reports AMBROSE NNAJI.

 

SHE is the toast of big players in telecoms, energy and banking industries. Propelled by her innate creativity, the Chief Executive Officer of Time-Tell Nigeria Limited, a corporate gift and branding company, Mrs Obianuju Violet Abdulkadir, has become a household name in the delivery of cutting-edge, tailor-made branded promotional products for corporate clients in diverse sectors.

Some of her high networth clients include Airtel, MTN, Halliburton Energy Services, Fidelity Bank, Diamond Bank, and Union Bank.

Essentially a business-to-business (B2B) services company, Time-Tell Nigeria Limited, which Mrs Abdulkadir floated in 2007, has been working with telecoms giants such as MTN and Airtel mostly, and also Etisalat before it became 9Mobile, helping them design and implement their retail channels across the country.

Time-Tell brands their (telecoms companies’) buses, offices, retail outlets and cafes across the country, giving them that unique design and colour that appeal to their customers. Mrs Abdulkadir gave more details: “In the retail solution aspect of the business, what we do is create the designs, build and then set them up; we build and set up kiosks and retail outlets for companies.

“We work mostly with the telecoms companies. We have the mobile point of sales and we have the stationary point of sales. We have a lot of trade partners that we work with, so in working with those trade partners we always ensure that there’s consistency of ambience and a brand you can feel.”

The Delta State-born entrepreneur, married to her husband from Okene, Kogi State, said the other aspect of her thriving business involved creating and converting clients’ normal buses into fully functional mobile offices with office demarcation electrified with inverter, sound system and others.

“This helps them penetrate into the interior areas where they don’t have stationary offices. So, what the distribution channels do is that they deploy them into far interior areas to meet the need of their subscribers,” she told The Nation, last week.

For Mrs Abdulkadir, the business was a product of creativity meeting a market yearning for tailor-made services to fill it. “Naturally, I’m a very creative person, and one thing with me is that I think deep, I analyze things from different angles. I don’t think in a one direction,” she said.

The astute entrepreneur added that even in her gifting business, companies she served loved her so much because they see her as a partner. “I don’t do business, take my money and go. Rather, I build relationships, create solutions for my partners and for the people I work with,” she emphasized.

Indeed, Mrs Abdulkadir’s ability to create solutions for her clients has ensured her rise to fame and fortune. She has already become a dependable partner for her clients’ businesses. In fact, it has been a mutually beneficial relationship.

“Any time I travel to source for things for my gifting business, I have my customers at the back of my mind such that every item I see I always think around it, how can this add value to my customers? How can I use this to also help them improve their business and improve my own business?” she said.

The results of her unique approach to business are evident. One of them is the sustainability of her enterprise. Her words: “When you have that view it keeps you evolving and it helps you to be very sustainable in your business, because when you’re a credible and valuable partner, your customers will keep coming.

“I keep getting referrals. Referrals have kept my business going. Even in the face of challenges, I keep getting referrals. That’s what gives me joy, the fact that I have proven to be a professional who adds value to my customers’ businesses.”

Throwing her hat in the fashion ring

Perhaps, more importantly, Mrs Abdulkadir’s emphasis on adding value to her customers contributed in birthing another business, which is fashion. From servicing the telecommunications community and providing materials for their marketing and sales, she has branched out, establishing ‘Afrikoncept’, an Afro-centric clothing line, in January 2017.

Afrikoncept is a brand of Afro-centric smart casual wears that is a social investment targeted at impacting the local tie and dye industry and improving the lives of young tailors engaged in the value chain.

The designs are created by infusing African Ankara fabrics into 100 per cent cotton shirts as well as integrating the tie and dye concept into T shirts, polo’s, hoodies, face caps and other casual accessories and making them more globally acceptable.

According to Mrs Abdulkadir, the idea of setting up Afrikoncept came while she was at the prestigious Lagos Business School (LBS), Pan Atlantic University, where she earned an MBA in Business Management.

She said even before she got into LBS, she was already thinking of re-jigging her business, which tilted towards importation, to begin to earn Foreign Exchange (forex). The opportunity finally came when, during her entrepreneurship class, “We were challenged to set up a business that we would start right there.”

“I told myself that rather than wait till I finish the program, I could as well start this business. That was how I became the distributor of ‘Fruit of the Loom’ product in Nigeria. Fruit of the Loom is an American brand that’s over 120 years old worldwide, I’m their distributor in Nigeria, that’s an imported product, and it’s a quality product,” Mrs Abdulkadir narrated.

At this point, her ingenuity and creativity again came handy. Rather than just importing, she decided to try her hands on making things here. “So, I started to create the fashion line that will go from here to the outside world, earn forex and then extend my business beyond the Nigerian shores,” Mrs Abdulkadir said.

She reiterated that the foundation of the Afrikoncept brand was on earning forex, making social impact and also considering the environment, ensuring that it does not generate any waste. “So, in producing our Afrikoncept range of products, we do not generate any single waste, every single cut off is reused to produce something new either a decorative item or fashion accessory,” she explained.

By not generating any waste, the company’s model of production aligns with the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of poverty alleviation and climate action. This is because by protecting the environment, the company has lined its system into the climate action by the UN.

Prioritising women empowerment

Beyond being an environment-friendly company, the company also ensures gender equality by empowering women and also employing and working with more women-owned businesses. That way, the business is not just tied to SDGs goals, but also helping to lift as many women entrepreneurs as possible to become business leaders.

Indeed, Mrs Abdulkadir’s gender bias in favour of women is not without proof. For instance, as an organisation that supports women empowerment, the frontline woman entrepreneur deliberately ensured that her employee gender employment ration is 70:30, meaning 70 per cent women and 30 per cent men.

She has also gone a notch higher by deliberately ensuring that her companies source from women-owned businesses as vendors and suppliers. “Once they have that capacity, we give them (women) that advantage because we believe that when you empower a woman you empower a whole family and you empower a whole generation,” she stated.

While reiterating her passion to empower women entrepreneurs, Mrs Abdulkadir said veering into the fashion industry also has the social economic impact of empowering and training women to integrate them into the value chain of her clothing line thereby helping to reduce poverty.

She put the impact of such intervention on the nation’s economy in perspective, saying, “In Nigeria, the average family size is a minimum of six, comprising father, mother and four children. Some are more than that, but on the average we are assuming that we have six people in a family. So, if I empower just one woman, I have actually empowered six people indirectly.”

While noting that she has so far empowered more than 50 women, Mrs Abdulkadir said if this number is multiplied by six, it means she has already empowered about 600 families directly. Indirectly, it also means that the ones that are part of her company’s value chain are unquantifiable.

Even at that, the expert in Business and Strategic Management is not slowing down. She told The Nation that from next year, she is going to be working with two non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that train women.

“We’re going to integrate our programme into what the two NGOs are doing by supporting them to train those women thereby increasing the scale and it’s going to keep going,” she assured, noting that the training will be in the production of accessories, as well as in using generated wastes to produce other things.

Explaining further, she said, “We train them, we integrate them into our value chain so when there’s an order we give them. It’s not just training them, but also keeping them consistently engaged and continue to earn a living from what we do and at the same time ensure the business is sustainable and also having social impact.

The chain is actually increasing, and another wonderful thing that we have done is that for every woman that we train, she is mandated to train at least one other person that is not directly from us. So, it’s like a pyramid, it keeps growing.”

Mrs Abdulkadir holds a Bachelor of Science (BSc) and Master of Science (MSc) in Microbiology. She also acquired a Master’s in Business Administration, which, according to her, she needed to hone her financial, managerial and leadership skills to run an enduring business.

She also earned a Certificate in Cross Cultural Negotiations from the distinguished (IESE) Business School, Barcelona, Spain. (IESE, in Spanish, is ‘Instituto de Estudios Superiores de la Empresa or ‘Institute of higher business studies’, in English).

Mrs Abdulkadir currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors at the Nigeria America Chamber of Commerce, and doubles as the Chairman Trade Mission Committee of the Chamber. She is married with five children.

Although, she said her dream is to build a business empire that is run on a foundation of ethical leadership and social impact, while meeting international standard and best practices, Mrs Abdulkadir, however, said government should create the enabling environment for businesses particularly Small and Medium Enterprise (SMEs) to thrive.

Describing SMEs as “economy drivers,” she said the entrepreneurs who run them are the “bedrock of any economy.” “The average Nigerian business man or woman is very resilient in the sense that irrespective of all the challenges they face, they still focus on the business and a lot of them are doing well in the sense that we are employing a whole lot.

“The SMEs are employing people, if the SMEs actually have to be able to take more people into employment, it will go a long way.