20th November, 2013
Mrs. Joy Odugbemi, a polytechnic graduate, has no regret resigning her lucrative white collar job for fashion designing
At a time several people, especially young graduates in Nigeria, are craving the elusive white-collar job, Mrs. Joy Odugbemi resigned her plum job as a computer operator at the University of Ilorin for fashion designing. That decision, to many, was insane because it was leaving certainty for uncertainty in view of the gloomy economic situation in the country. But today, Odugbemi has every reason to appreciate God for taking that bold decision, which has transformed her life and fetched her fortune. Today, she stands tall among her peers. Controlling over 20 apprentices, she is the Chief Executive Officer, CEO, Matrona Prima Fashions in Ilorin, Kwara State capital, having an array of clients among the high and low, not only in Ilorin metropolis and Kwara State but also beyond.
In an interview Mrs. Odugbemi granted this magazine, she said: “After my marriage, I came to Ilorin with my husband, got employment as a Computer Operator with the University of Ilorin at their computer centre, but I was also doing part-time sewing and when I realised that I had more clients, I resigned to fully face the fashion design business.”
Aside holding a Higher National Diploma in Secretariat Administration of the Institute of Management Technology, IMT, Enugu, the woman later went to do a computer course at a privately-owned computer school in Yaba, Lagos. To her, education is very important for anyone that intends to make a career in fashion designing or dress making. “My education gives me an edge; with one’s education, one will be able to meet high calibre people, interact and freely associate with them and with God on one’s side, the sky is not the limit,” she said with an air of satisfaction.
She has been encouraging a lot of school girls to come into sewing, which she describes as a lucrative business. She is also unrelenting in urging young people, particularly girls who are out of school, to take fashion designing as a vocation if they cannot take it on full-time basis. She believes that women can take care of the emergency tailoring needs of their children if they know how to sew. To her, instead of young girls waiting for white collar jobs that may never come, thinking of becoming self-employed as fashion designers would save the day and make them less dependent on men for survival.
Odugbemi lamented that most youths now play about, wasting their precious time on mundane things or leisure. While not believing that there should be too much leisure time, her idea is, “Struggle now, have a source of livelihood before resting.” The fashion industry, she maintains, doesn’t have sufficient graduates. She urges young, unemployed graduates to explore the gold mine which fashion business is. “Come learn fashion designing, it will fetch you a living and make you stand tall among your idle friends and even place you on a pedestal of success,” she admonished.Mama Gbenro, as Odugbemi is fondly called, claimed she started sewing as a child, and has a good number of high society women as clients. They include Omolewa Ahmed, wife of Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed; Mrs. Toyin Saraki, wife of Senator Bukola Saraki; Mrs. Lola Olabayo, Hajia Bola Shagaya and Mrs. Jumoke Faysal Harb, among others.
Attracting and maintaining the patronage of such women is largely due to quality service she offers her clients, both high and low. According to her, she dreams designs, reads a lot of literature and related documents, and watches television to know more about fashion and put what she sees into practice. “The day one stops learning,” she says, “that day one starts to become irrelevant.” Formerly using sewing machines, she now adopts sequins for her designs.
It is therefore not surprising that her products have gone international. According to her, there was a time one of her high-profile clients, Hajia Shagaya, requested her to make a lot of dresses for her, not knowing that she was going to sell them outside the country. Besides, the client told her about a fashion show in Chicago where her designs were showcased. “Mrs. Shagaya told me that she made brisk business with the clothes I made for her outside the country and I am very happy that my designs finally made their way into international markets,” she enthused.
Mrs. Odugbemi is not threatened by the proliferation of fashion houses in town. Rather, she prays for more of them and other designers to spring up to enable them segment their market and target markets, based on the categories they fit in.
The rosy picture, however, is not to say that there are no challenges fashion designers face. The major challenge, Odugbemi says, is finance. According to her, until she came in contact with KCMB Micro Finance Bank, which came to her rescue, expansion was pretty difficult. While appreciating the Kwara State government for the recent N100 million loans to artisans in the state, she implores the local government councils to take a cue by assisting them with a view to expanding: “When we expand, we would be able to employ more hands and thereby reduce the number of people in the unemployment market.”
—Stephen Oni/Ilorin