By Jewell Dafinone
Tailoring was not her dream profession. The informal know-how she had acquired was just a complementing domestic tool that mothers in most Delta households do possess. Perhaps from serving neighbourhood needs Insignificant cash rewards may drop in but far from commercial level.
Today, the story has dramatically changed for Mrs Faith Voke Egwede. She is now a full-blown fashion designer and clothier with a growing brand name, JAZZ STITCHES.
The outfit started in a one-room shop, spread to two in a few weeks and by the fifth month had annexed an adjoining two-bedroom flat. Now this space has become inadequate, JAZZ STITCHES is expanding with a target of at least a five-room complex in her Ughelli base.
The story change for Egwede began with her enrolment in the Delta State Skills Training and Entrepreneurship Programme (STEP).
Narrating her experience a fortnight ago at the new and magnificent Delta State Government Secretariat in Asaba, she said her participation in the 2017/2018 training group took her beyond limits ever contemplated.
“It all started in December that year, my peers and I were first camped for one week. The period was dedicated to rigorous tutoring in business management. It was strenuous but also exciting and rewarding,” she said.
When the camping period ended, the skill acquisition training began. Participants were then posted to various relevant centres. “As for me, because of my prior know how, I was drafted to the six-week training category. Others with zero knowledge were assigned to the six months programme,” she affirmed.
At the end of the training, she said they were each given a starter’s pack: two sewing machines, a threading machine, a pressing board, a pressing iron, a power generating set and a handsome N50,000.
According to her, “With all this, I was challenged to face the world.”
Egwede’s story is like that of the anointed. JAZZ STITCHES was an instant success. Hear her: I started in a single room. A few weeks after I added another room and five months later, I added the adjoining two-bedroom flat. Today, I am rearing to acquire a five-room complex to accommodate my operations adequately”.
Egwede was one of the 14 STEP beneficiaries that unveiled their scorecards at the occasion: Nwankwo Chinweike, Stephen Ezediunor, Agboje Helen, Mercy Esienakerien, China Emmanuel, and others. From them were stories of success in all their endeavours, fish farming, electrical works, decoration and more.
Egwede has also transformed from a beneficiary to a benefactor to succeeding STEP participants.
In an exclusive interview, the mother of three boys told TheNewsGuru that 92 participants have passed through JAZZ STITCHES, 23 others via women’s affairs ministry and a host of other projects. Her clientele base is large and growing.
JAZZ STITCHES and other beneficiaries are a product of the Delta State administration of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s policy on job and wealth creation.
So far, the programme counts 14075 new youth entrepreneurs produced directly since its inception in 2015. The ancillary and multiplier effects of this programme will go much further than imagined with positives to individuals, families, communities and the state as revenue continues to regenerate.
As Egwede affirmed to TheNewsGuru, her living status now basks in the comfort zone. And the many other thousands too.