Mrs. Ezinne Kufre-Ekanem is the Chief Executive Officer of Rosemary’s Soft  Furnishing Company. She’s an optimist who believes in seeing the positive side of every negative situation. To prove ths, her company braved the odds of the current economic climate in Nigeria and flung open its doors in Abuja at the weekend, exhibiting a galaxy of soft furnishing products to Nigerians.

In this interview, Mrs. Kufre-Ekanem says that she is motivated to invest in the turbulent waters of business given her strong belief that the current economic climate in Nigeria could create opportunities for entrepreneurs. Excerpts:

By Imanuel Jannah

How did you get into home furnishing business?

I once forgot my child in school…. Oh, never mind! That’s an old long story. Anyway, at that point in my life, I knew I could not continue working in corporate Nigeria. So, I decided to follow the path of passion.

Mrs. Ezinne Kufre-Ekanem

Soft furnishing is what I’m passionate about. That’s how I started Rosemary’s.

What has kept you motivated for so long in the soft furnishing business?

I just simply love interiors. I love making places beautiful. I believe in the aphorism that says:“Home is where a person’s heart is. I love people coming home and being happy that they are home.” I’m also passionate about families and how they live. Frankly, one spends so much time in life working to be able to buy a house with the hope of being able to furnish it properly and enjoy.

It brings so much pleasure to have a good house. It makes entertaining easy. There’s a status angle to it, and one feels accomplished to tell that one hustles. I like being able to help others tell that story with what I do. That’s what gets me up in the morning and keeps me moving.

As you pursue the dream of helping others enjoy the interior of their homes, what challenges do you encounter in trying to achieve that goal daily?

As at today, the biggest challenge is the current economic recession partly due to the dollar… (Laughs). The value of dollar to Naira has soared. So it’s difficult to import the things one needs. But, that seemingly negative situation is also forcing us to look within and ask ourselves: What else can we do? You can see, today, we have on display duvet made out of ankara. You can see entrepreneurs like me are beginning to ask themselves; “What do we have locally that we can use to achieve the same top quality results that we want to achieve through the importation of certain products?”

It appears to be yielding positive results as more Made-in-Nigeria goods are churned out every day in Aba and Lagos, some of which possess superior quality than the ones we used to import from overseas. Another big challenge would be getting people that have the right knowledge. One knowing what it is he or she wants to do and one being able to find the right hands is important,because most of what we do; we do with artisans, and they are fantastic people to work with.

So if one can manage human resources and one is also passionate about what he or she does, I think no challenge is insurmountable. Of course, the Nigerian challenge is there. No steady power supply, while banks are unwilling to give loans on terms that will favour businesses etc. But, it’s okay.

Interesting! So, what exactly stands you out from the rest of the competition?

The fact that we offer a total package stands us out. We are unique in the sense that we do the whole thing. You don’t just come in here and buy stuff and go away. We are not just about selling items. We consult for our clients as well. We think about you. We think about your space. We try to merge the life that you have now to fit the space that you have and even sometimes translate to who you’ll become in the future.

So we offer a total package to our clients. Another thing that stands us out is the fact that we don’t do same jobs for people. We understand that no two people are the same. So we believe in creating unique spaces for each client. There’s nothing like a signature style with Rosemary’s. That’s our unique sellingpoint.

In the next couple of years, where do you see Rosemary’s operating from?

The dream has always been to become Africa’s classiest brand in soft furnishing. What we want to do is to serve Africa. We are not content with serving Nigeria only. It is just that like the African saying that goes; “A child has to crawl before walking; and, walk before running.” So far, in the last 14 years, we have steadily been moving towards that dream. I believe that with God on our side, we’ll achieve it. When we spread to 10 more cities, we’ll start opening outlets outside Nigeria. Already, we have multiple outlets in Lagos and Abuja.

Talking about spreading beyond Nigeria into the African market, how have you adapted technology to your business?

You are going to be surprised at what is going to happen, because we are trying to build an online platform. We are currently working on the back-end now and fixing the logistics. Really, it is not about mere building and launching a website. It is being able to deliver on the promises you make to the people who click and buy.

So once that is all sorted out, the web is the way to go. With the web, entrepreneurs can shrink the whole world and be able to export everywhere. We are also looking at how to do our stuff so that they reach our clients as knock-down furnishing products that they can assemble by themselves when they receive them.