Chinyere Ihegworo is a pharmacist and an interior designer. Although a graduate of Pharmacy from Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, she delved into the world of interior designing and has been able to explore the space fully.
She is the chief executive officer of Modern Design & Interior Limited, a company which creates timeless designs and delivers choice pieces to clients. The firm supplies interior accessories and offers trainings.
She started this business in 2007 while in her fourth year at the university and registered it in 2009. To give her academic work undivided attention and manage her interim job as a pharmacist at the Lagos State Teaching Hospital, she decided to suspend her business. But she returned to it in 2014, after her degree.
Ihegworo was inspired to start the business due to her love for colours, fabrics and her flair for arranging things.
She started with N300,000, which was raised through her savings, profits from jobs she did and help from her husband. Since its establishment, her business has grown in leaps and bounds as she has on her clientele, various companies and important personalities. Currently, she has five permanent staff members on paid employment and engages many on temporary basis while doing major projects.
She works with quality materials and sources most of her raw materials from Turkey, China and Dubai, although she still gets some of them locally.
Ihegworo encounters challenges in her business, including an overregulated business environment laced with various taxes, logistics problems, lack of premium machines and infrastructure deficit.
Our major challenge is the need for an enabling environment that can sustain local production of furniture and other interior accessories at very low cost.
“To produce high quality furniture that can compete internationally, some level of machinery and power supply is required for sustainability,” she says.
“All we ask is for the government to provide an enabling environment, where machines and power supply are available to enable local production of furniture, fabrics and interior accessories that can compete globally,” Ihegworo says.
Juggling the active role of a wife, mother, pharmacist and business owner, she says that although it is tasking her family helps her to ameliorate the burden and she makes out time for each role effectively.
Although the interior design space is over populated, Ihegworo is able to remain unique from her competitors through her uncompromising quality, affordable services and outstanding designs which correspond with clients’ needs.
For business and self-development purposes, she has actively participated in various trainings, webinars, seminars and workshops. She has a certification from London-based Trendihomes Interior Company.
For business expansion purposes, the pharmacist cum designer intends to establish and become a producer of the raw materials she uses.
“I intend to design a line of products that are relevant and globally accepted. I am also working on interior design as a channel or approach to improving the health and quality of lives of Nigerians, considering the stressful nature of our environment,” she says.
She advises entrepreneurs to provide valued services and maintain uncompromising habits that will endear clients. She adds that “continuous personal development is extremely important. It is important to acquire more knowledge while embracing networking and consistency to hit the desired result.”
Gbemi Faminu
