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For ages, the African culture has limited the activities of women and conditioned, to a large extent the mentality of most African countries about the place and positioning of women in the society. The mass media have been used as a tool in this.
Meet Oluwannishola Okusanwo, a twenty three year old brilliant Nigerian student who makes shoes.
Oluwannishola who hails from Ogun State is the brain behind Sholafunmi Cuttings, a shoe-making enterprise.
On how she started the business, the youngster said: ”I think I started having passion for the craft when I was in school. My course of study, Fashion made me more interested in it. At that time, I was selling foot-wears. I had someone who produced for me so I sell to my friends just to make ends meet”.
So when I was done with my OND, my aunt told me about a friend of hers that make footwear, stating that I could go there to learn about footwear making . That was how it all began”
Speaking further, the budding entrepreneur stated that she wasn’t stereotyped when she started.
“This is 21st century nobody sees any job as being odd. “What a man can do, a woman can do better” .I just get words of encouragement instead so”.
Asked about her biggest business challenge, Oluwannishola said: “ I think when I started as a brand ,it was quite difficult trying to set things up for myself knowing fully well I wasn’t financially buoyant .I was always dreaming big”.
“I was being hard on myself trying to figure what to start with. In terms of packaging, advertising and the likes was also another challenge, because no one wants to order something from you and you deliver with black nylon. Money was a big issue but we thank God things a re different now”.
Expressing her thoughts on getting government funding , she stated: ”I have benefited once from the government’s intervention. I think that was when the Vice President, Osinbajo slashed the price for business name registration to 6,000 which was usually 30,000 naira before. This helped my business get registered”.
Oluwannishola said she hasn’t experienced sexual harassment in the course of doing her job.
“Sexual harassment is normal to paedophiles. I have experienced such, however, I don’t do self -delivery to people. So this can’t happen to me physically.”
Sharing her plans for the future, she said: ”If it’s God’s will, yes I would keep doing this . I love my career and it gets me cool money. I have met a lot of people doing this. I am here to stay”.