By Ebele Orakpo

Miss Victoria Yetunde Odeyemi, is the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Ibadan-based Ovy ‘n’ Freddies, an outfit that is into manufacturing of shoes and bags with locally sourced materials. In this interview with Vanguard,  Odeyemi tells the story of how she ventured into a terrain seen as the exclusive preserve of men and the challenges. Excerpts:

On completion of her secondary school education, Victoria Odeyemi, discovered her talent and decided to use it to make a living for herself and for others.

According to Odeyemi, she never learnt bag-making from anywhere. She simply followed her heart and developed what God deposited in her. Although she started with bag-making but before she knew it, people were asking for shoes to go with the bags.

“It was when I started making bags that people who buy the bags ask me for matching shoes. Initially, I was giving it to a cobbler to make for me but I later discovered that the finishing was not up to the standard I really wanted so I said to myself that if I could learn this thing, I will do it better.”

That was how she went into shoe-making. “In 2007, I went to learn shoe-making,” she said.

Motivation:

“One thing with me is that anytime I see a good work, I will be so determined to know more about it so when I see slippers and shoes on people, I begin to imagine how they were made. You know, when I started, if I am walking on the street and I see a spoilt shoe, I will look round and if nobody was looking, I will quickly pick it up and when I get home, I pull it apart to see how it was made.

When I started learning to make shoes, my boss, the person that taught me, usually took me to the market to purchase materials for the shoes. I was not comfortable with the type of materials he was using. When we go to the market together, he will be picking low quality materials and I will ask him why he prefers such low quality materials instead of going for better materials and he will say that people will not buy, but I later discovered that when you make something of good quality with very good finishing, people will definitely buy.

*Miss Victoria Yetunde Odeyemi

At a point, I advised him to buy quality material and then we can sell the slippers for N3,000. He said to me that nobody will buy. But since I started my own, I have not sold my slippers anything less than N1,500. Now, I don’t sell less than N3,000 and people are really patronising me. They like good quality things,” she stated.

When asked how much she started the business with, she replied; “I cannot say precisely. There is no amount you cannot start with, even N1,000. Just buy few materials. I started by making souvenir bags. With N1, 000, you can start once you have a sewing machine. Then, one yard of the material was going for between N180 and N200. So if you can buy half a yard of the material and you have your sewing machine, you can make the bag you want.”

Odeyemi who has five people in her employ, said she has trained so many people, mostly graduates, who are today self-employed and also trains youth corpers.

Challenges;

On the challenges, she said the major challenge is funds.

“The only challenge I can say I am facing right now is funds because I need to expand the business. I need more machines and a very big place so I can accommodate more trainees and workers.

I started very little and to the glory of God, He has been helping me.

I don’t like going to people for help but there are people that God has been laying it in their hearts to do one or two things for me. I get a lot of encouragement from people. Some will see the shoes and bags and say ‘wow, are you the one making these?’ Are you sure you are really the one making them?

They are lovely,’ and I will say yes. Sometimes when I go to the market to buy my materials, I see cobblers and they ask if I am a cobbler, I tell them ‘no, I am not a cobbler but a designer.’ They say whether designer or cobbler, it is still the same, and the next question is; ‘are you sure you are the one doing these and I say yes, I do them myself and they ask me to show them my hands and when they see that the back of my hand is like theirs, they go; “Ah it is true, you are the one making the shoes.” The back of the hands of all the people that do this type of job is rough.”

Odeyemi strongly believes that she will get to the top one day. “I will get to the top where God really destined this business to be. I know He has a very good plan for the business. He has been helping me. It is a God-given business and I know that He who has given it to me will surely take it to where He wants to take it,” she said.