For international businesswoman Abimbola Omotosho, the nitty gritty of fashion importation has only made her stronger.  Running her business for twenty three years for her has been a journey full of challenges, rewards, privileges, successes and short comings too. In this interview with Woman’s Own, she shares more.

By Anino Aganbi &Dolapo Majekodunmi

HOW did you get started? I started out with a shop at home. At that point, I was working with Texaco. But then being a US citizen, I had my children abroad and on one of the trips when I came to Nigeria, I decided to buy things and within two days everything was gone.  That is how my eyes opened to the fact that I could run a business. My husband did not want his children with nannies until they were able to talk. I started with 300 dollars and the business began to multiply itself. I get along with people easily. I am flexible and I make sure my customers are happy. Referral has been our biggest advertisement because of the good experiences that customers have had.

Between when you started and now, how has the market been?

Abimbola Omotosho

It has been a world of change. Then, the economy was booming. I was able to sell to people. I was very flexible. You could buy now and pay twice, the dollar was consistent with the exchange rate so there was no fear of loss. Then I could say buy now, pay twice, that encouraged a lot of people to buy. I had a high turn around, business wise. But now, because I don’t know what the dollar is going to be in another month or two, I cannot take a post dated payment in naira. Over the past year and a half, the naira has been devalued by over 200%.

Calculation of today’s rate

In October 2013, the naira was N166 to a dollar, today it is N355 to a dollar, that’s way over 200% . So if I buy something now and say pay back in two months and I use the calculation of today’s rate, by the time I pay back I would be running at a loss. I actually fell into that trap once. I invested a certain amount in dollars and I was buying less back. I should have just left my dollars  because at the end of the day I was running at a loss.

You do a lot of importing, with the current trend in market how do you cope?

It’s only God, because there is no profit margin any more. Everything has been closed up. Purchasing power has gone down. People  who had money before are managing their funds, they are laying off, our customers are bankers, they are blue collar people, some of whom are being laid off and the rate of the dollar is going up. Let’s say I bought a shirt for 10 dollars which in 2013 was N1,600 and I was selling for N3,000 calculating shipping rate, custom duty and all, now that 10 dollars is N3,550 not to talk about the shipping, clearing, customs duty and all, so even if I sell at N5000, it’s probably going to be like a cost price for me.

Somebody that was buying a shirt for N3,000 before and its now N5,000, it’s almost twice the price and the salary of that person has not changed. Nothing balances out. There is a challenge, instead of things improving, they are  not.   People don’t have the money and we cannot increase the price like we should. What I hear all the time is; increase your price after all it is what you buy you will sell. It does not work like that otherwise you will be looking at your merchandise. There are a lot of people who have not travelled this year or who have not done any business this year because it just does not make any sense.

With the buy Nigeria slogan going on, how do we encourage people to buy Nigerian products if we are not manufacturing things?

That leads me to the point that I am not sure what is going on. There is no country that can run on just their products. The whole idea of trading started by trade by barter. You have what I want, I have what you want, lets exchange and we both get what we want. In the United States, they have made in China, made in Italy, made in UK, they have all countries represented. You just have to pay for what you want. And the quality is different. We are talking about buy Nigeria; we don’t have the raw materials. We don’t have the right expertise. Our finishing is not the same. How do you explain a pair of shoes that you buy, wear once and its gone?

Or a dress that you wear, wash and it’s gone. If you buy that dress or shirt for 2,000, you wear it once and it’s gone and you buy a top quality one which is not Nigerian that you bought and you wear it forever, which one would you think is a better option? So I think the government should give us an option or opportunity and make it easy for us  to trade.

 Better option

I agree with the fact that we have to promote our goods and we have to be patriotic towards our own merchandise but also we have to think about the consumer. Everybody wants value for their money. When the chips are down, we have to be really realistic about what is going on.

Encouraging the government can step in and encourage manufacturers to produce these things within Nigeria, thereby cutting off a lot of unwanted cost………

The good thing about that is, Nigeria has a large population and there ae unlikely to be labour shortgage. There are other factors of manufacturing that we lack such as lack of power, no water; there are so many resources that manufacturing uses which are not readily available. Most of the raw materials we use for buy Nigeria are imported. A perfect example is our oil. We are blessed and endowed in this country and we are importing oil. That says it all in a nut shell. I don’t have a problem with inviting an international brand to come and start making their wears here but the truth of the matter is that most of these manufacturers are already on ground and moving out.

But Nigeria used to have some of these things produced within, what went wrong?

I would say lack of power, high maintenance of the manufacturing industry, to run a factory, you need electricity. When there is no electricity, you have to buy diesel and all of these are reasons for manufacturing companies going down.

Tell us your definition of 21st century woman

That woman who has successfully acquired the most important accessory of all. She has complete confidence in her clothes. We have upped our game by having our online shopping mall. I am a very good communicator and as such I relate well with my customers.