The Power of money: How N10m loan lifted two entrepreneurs
Nigerian entrepreneurs are respected across Africa due to their resilience and ability to think out big solutions for emerging problems.
With their power of ideas, the entrepreneurs in technology, fashion, manufacturing, entertainment and education, among others, are increasingly changing the faces of their industries.
However, one of the major challenges they face is limited funding to expand their operations to affect their generations more positively and explore opportunities lying latent.
Two entrepreneurs in Lagos have proved that with a loan as low as N5 million or N10 million, they can create more values, employ many more unemployed people and change their society.
Uchechukwu Abiakam runs a fashion business, which she started in 1996 as an undergraduate.
After her university education, Uchechukwu proceeded to work in one of the leading telecoms firms in the country while also running the small fashion shop. Uchechukwu was not satisfied with getting monthly salaries as she knew she could do more as a full-fledged entrepreneur.
In 2015, she found a gold mine, realising that Nigeria did not have a sportswear brand. Uchechukwu and her team developed a Nigerian sportswear brand, which has so far been well received.
By the first half of this year, she had only developed about 100 brands, some of which she manufactured locally in Nigeria.
However, she was limited by funds and needed to meet more local needs and expand export operations.
“We were looking to export more of our products outside Nigeria, so we needed funds,” Uchechukwu tells Start-Up Digest in an interview.
“I must tell you it was amazing how that happened. I approached the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) few weeks before October this year. I submitted my application and it was as if everything was timed. After a couple of weeks, I was contacted and they came to inspect my premises. After some time, they told me to come for training. After the training, they asked me to come and take my offer letter. In October this year, they told me the fund would be disbursed at a certain time and it was done,” she says.
Apart from the seamless process, Uchechukwu believes that she got the loan owing to the kind of business she does and how structured it is.
“I think they saw the kind of business we are doing. We have a proper structure. We showed them our track record and they saw the products displayed on online stores. They also saw what we already had without funding,” she explains.
How has the loan impacted her business? Uchechukwu, who owns the Joagh Athletics, featuring classic pieces such as lightweight sweatpants, joggers, leggings, capri pants and polo, says the N5 million has helped expand her operations.
“Before we got the money, we had about 100 products, but we have developed about 300 products in terms of type,” she discloses.
“That is a massive expansion and customers now have a wider range of choices,” she says.
“Before we got the fund, we had employed three people directly, but now we have added 12 more people directly and over 50 indirectly,” she reveals.
“Around 2015, we were just on few platforms. Now, we are on over 20 platforms. We just opened one shop at Jakande in Lagos. This would not have been possible without funding to run it,” she states.
She explains that her products are on Jumia Nigeria, Jumia Ghana, Jumia Kenya, Konga Nigeria, Dressmeoutlet.com and many others, adding that she makes some of the sports brands herself.
“The sportswear brands we have are affordable, unlike the ones imported. We have prices from N900 upwards. The brands that are currently in Nigeria are very expensive, so we are trying to bring ours closer to Nigerians,” she adds.
She says that despite not coming from Lagos, the state recognised that she was adding value by supporting her business with funds.
“We have been able to move outside Nigeria. We are looking at moving to six countries by the next quarter of next year,” she adds.
Another entrepreneur who has been moved up by funding is Nonso Azazi, chief operating officer of Posh Potties.
Ngozi is in the business of providing toilet facilities to Nigerians during big events.
Trained in Public Health in the United States, Ngozi came back to Nigeria in 2010 and found an untapped opportunity the following year.
“I came back to Lagos from the United States and realised that entering the public office was not as easy as it seemed. So I thought I should do something in the interim. I got to a wedding in early 2011 at Tafawa Balewa Square(TBS) in Lagos. It was a very big wedding, a Lagos wedding. I realised it was so crowded, but when I wanted to use the bathroom, I noticed there was no toilet. So I had to leave the wedding,” she explains.
“I asked, how can we be in such an advanced society and we didn’t have a toilet? I realised that the plastics ones were there but nobody liked it. So we thought we needed to bring the nice ones, the luxury brands into Nigeria,” she says.
She and her partner spent about $40,000 importing one set of bathroom facilities.
From one unit, she grew to have three. However, demand was rising as the number of people she served grew from 200 in the whole of 2010 to 20,000 per day today. But she needed to procure another set of the facilities to serve more Nigerians better.
“So when I heard about this loan this year, I thought I should apply. I applied and they sent me a text to come for an interview. I was very sceptical. I knew I was consistent in paying taxes but I was still sceptical. So when we got to the interview, they asked me what I wanted. I told them I needed to buy a new set, which cost about N10 million.
“After a few weeks, a bank called me to come and open an account for the loan. I said, ‘No, I haven’t heard from LSETF’. I had to go to the LSETF and I told them that I got a call from my bank. There, they had to give me an offer letter. That day, I submitted my acceptance letter and few weeks later, I got the money,” she stated.
“It’s a three-year loan and I am already paying back. You have one month moratorium and I am OK with that,” she says.
She explains that she expects to procure these facilities locally, but laments that there is still lack of skills and personnel to fabricate the facilities she needs.
“Every day, I go out looking for engineers to do it to the quality and standards that I want. They say they could do it but would later run away. I won’t like to lower my standards as that would be a slap on me, my clients and my company,” she says.
She points out her services have touched the lives of many people in Lagos.
“I am really convinced that if you could do what we are doing on a bigger scale, we would even be happier. When I go out normally, I see a lot of people urinating on the road. It is common culture now. When I was growing up, I never saw these things,” she says.
She says she is surprised of getting the loans despite not coming from Lagos State.
“I appreciate Lagos, because they see you adding value and they are willing to support it. I am happy that it was a seamless process,” she stated.
She says there is a huge need for her services in the country, saying that she often provides water, generators and air conditioner to satisfy her clients.
She further says that she will create tens of jobs as her business expands more.
ODINAKA ANUDU