Hand woven local fabric, a choice business to undertake

Business

Production of hand woven local fabrics is no doubt a good way for the patient hands to earn good profit from a job well done. Ezinne Akparanta, chief executive, The Zyn Designs Limited, notes that the brand of local fabric indigenous to the part of the country she comes from is a choice delight of buyers who can afford it any day.

Process
Speaking on the production, she says: “The only tool we use is the wooden vertical loom. The entire process is manually done, nothing mechanised for now, but we are looking at how we can mechanise some bit of the production process, but only to the extent that it would not tamper with the indigenous nature of the materials.”

Custom-made
The ability to customise the hand woven local fabrics is another means of increasing profit in the business. Akparanta says: “The uniqueness is that it can be customised to the clients’ tastes and requests for accessories to go with it. For instance, I can weave a wrapper, and using the fabric I can produce shoes and handbag to match. Also on request, hats and belts can be made to match these traditional wear using the same material.”

Growth
As a result of demand, the small firm is beginning to branch out. Akparanta says: “Our headquarters is in Abia State, we also have a little factory in Abuja.”
On when she started, she says: “This craft is age-long; I started producing these hand-woven fabrics at age seven years. It was my mum’s business. I decided to take it up as a business a few years ago.”

Employment
The business has been providing alternative source of income to rural women, particularly because the production involves a lot of patience. Akparanta says: “We engage rural women because this work involves a lot of patience, it is only those women in the rural areas that have that kind of patience. It takes like a week to produce some items if one is to get the best result.”

Market
Though the business is small, the demand for the product is high in every part of the country and internationally. She says: “I do portfolio export, because we have clients who send us requests from other countries stating what they want, we then make and send to them. But we want to go beyond that and become serious contenders in the international markets.”

Competition
There are other tribes producing similar local fabrics, such as the aso oke, but we have an edge because after weaving, aso oke is still sewn together but this one is woven throughout. “Aso oke is similar, but aso oke is joined after weaving. We also have the Hand Weavers Guild of America. We are holding discussions with them to have a competition. They will come with their products and we would come with ours and see who has something better to offer, but more importantly, we can exchange ideas so we can grow,” she says.

Challenges
The business, like any other, has its own fair share of challenges. “The business environment in Nigeria is unfriendly,” she says. “For instance, we want to acquire machinery to mechanise an aspect of the business, but getting the funds is at very high interest rate that will not favour us,” Akparanta adds.

OLUYINKA ALAWODE