Motivated to provide quality products that stands out among similarly priced, high-quality items, Tessy Akpu, CEO and founder of The Collection Merchant (TCM) brand has reveals those who has inspired her since she started her fashion and entrepreneurship journey.
“I will say I’ve always been like that, my Dad is an entrepreneur so I watched him run his business while growing up. Since then, I’ve always wanted to create my own thing so I always knew right from when I was growing up that I’ll be an entrepreneur,” she says.
Tessy began her educational journey at Uwa Nursery and Primary School after being born and raised in Port Harcourt. She attended the Model Girls Secondary School in Rumueme for her secondary education. She graduated with a BSc in economics in 2015 from the International University in Benin Republic.
Since its inception in 2019 The Collection Merchant (TCM) has successfully managed to position itself as one of Africa’s fast-rising fashion/beauty lines in Nigeria. The brand was born out of the desire to provide affordable and quality products for individuals and businesses, especially in the fashion retail and wholesale space. “I was inspired to create a brand that caters for every woman’s fashion needs. Be it clothes, shoes, bags, hairs, any fashion item you can possibly think of, we wanted to be the one stop shop for every woman for all things fashion. Hence the birth of the TCM brand” she says.
Although Nigeria-based entrepreneurs and creatives operate in a market facing longstanding challenges such as political instability, poor infrastructure and high levels of poverty, inequality and unemployment, Tessy does not let that deter her. “I started in year 2019 , with just a phone, in the corner of my room after several trials, travails and struggle, my husband invested half a million naira into the business that’s how the business started gaining momentum and ever since it’s been an upward spiral.
Tagging Folorunso Alakija as her role model, Tessy concludes, “My Biggest role model is Folorunso Alakija, she’s a power house when it comes to business dynamics and that has helped me navigate my business properly. “My motivations come from the fact that we are gradually changing the Nigerian fashion space through quality and affordable fashion and great customer service. The desire to want to do better keeps growing.”