Adaobi Frances Udegbunam, taking Ferago beyond Africa
Adaobi Frances Udegbunam, is a young lady from Adazi Nnukwu in Anambra state. She is the last child and only girl from a family of 4 children. She graduated from Nnamdi Azikwe University with a B.Sc in Mass Communication though she has always had an inherent flare for entrepreneurship.
Ada’s admirable creative juice shows in the beauty of her shoes that can stand beside popular international designs. Interestingly, she was never a fashion savvy girl but as fate would have it, she is thriving in an area she never thought she could. In her words, “I grew up as a tomboy and wasn’t into fashion and getting all dressed up. When I got into the University, I developed a love for fashion in general but my specific flare was shoes because I believe a lovely pair of shoes can change a plain looking outfit into a show stopping outfit. I started out selling other brands of shoes but felt the designs were not creative and fashionable enough for my taste hence I decided to start FERAGO”. She tells me.
On starting off, she has this to say “I went to my hometown to spend the Christmas holiday, when the idea of starting my own brand of shoes took shape and I had to come with a name so I picked random letters from my name and kept mixing and matching letters till I came up with the name FERAGO Fer-Frances, AG-Udegbunam, O- Adaobi”.
When Adaobi started creating her designs, sourcing the fabrics and making the shoes were all done in Nigeria however, along the line, she found it difficult to get the kind of materials she needed for her shoes and the local manufacturers could not meet up with the standards she wanted for her brand so she had to outsource the production beyond the shores of Nigeria.
She shares on where she sources her materials from “I get them from Turkey and China and I make use of genuine leather and synthetic leather” Adaobi stated.
Wondering how she comes up with her designs? Well, her response says it all “My designs are spontaneous, for instance, once I see a fabric I like, I just imagine what it would look like as a pair of pumps and that’s it. So different things inspire me”.
Getting people to patronise her hasn’t been much of a hassle because her works speaks for itself however, she says she uses social media as a means of communication on various platforms and the response has been amazing.
I asked her what her desire for her brand is and she optimistically gives it away when she says “I want Ferago to be an affordable luxury shoe brand all over Africa and beyond”.
With every business come its challenges. Ada shares hers with me. “Starting up a business in Nigeria is not easy, there is no access to loans and you have to save up every penny you can get just to get your start-up capital. The lack of capital has limited the quantity of shoes designs that can be made readily available” Ada laments.
Perhaps you are one of those people who fails to patronise the Nigerian brand, Ada has an advice for you “As a Nigerian, when you patronize an indigenous brand, you help its growth. The bigger a brand gets, the more it needs people to help with the day to day running and that creates employment.”
On the part of the government, she proposes that “The Nigerian Government needs to first make the environment conducive for production before requesting for made in Nigeria products because, the cost of production for small scale industries in Nigeria is overwhelming and it’s causing a lot of businesses to shut down. Basic amenities like electricity need to be provided first. Government also needs to make loans easily accessible for small scale industries as banks are not willing to give out loans”.
To any youth out there saying there is no job, Ada has this to say “As a Youth Corper, I had to work for my brother Stephen Udegbunam, CEO Sebuftech Ventures as a messenger for N25,000, which was a plus when added to my N19,800. He would send me on all sorts of errands and I won’t lie, I didn’t like the job but then my mum made me realise that it was an opportunity for me to learn vital information needed to be an entrepreneur. Sometimes, you need to earn a little to get the much needed experience that will take you to the next level.
Concluding the interview, she says “As humans, we are afraid to make mistakes. As an entrepreneur, you need to understand that mistakes are bound to happen; you should see mistakes as a ladder to success. Don’t give up persistence is needed to succeed”
Kemi Ajumobi