INTELS Nigeria Limited provides comprehensive integrated logistics services to oil and gas companies. It also manages the Oil and Gas Free Zone in Onne, Lagos and Warri Ports. To give back to its communities in the Niger-Delta, it started a Corporate Social Responsibility Project known as Women Empowerment Programme Scheme Synergy (WEPSS). In this interview with AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE, Nancy Freeborn, WEPSS project head, speaks on the impact of the project on Niger-Delta women.
WEPSS clocked five recently. Would you say its objectives have been achieved?
Yes, this centre was set up in 2013 to empower women in host communities where INTELS operates. The goal was to empower 5,000 women over a 20-year period through the acquisition of tailoring skills.
So far, we have been able to empower over 1,000 women. We reach out to people from the grassroots by creating opportunities for those who really need this skill. You only need to be able to read and write. It is like coming from the farm to factory and they are the people we want to empower.
Every year, we have two training sessions, which last for four and a half months each. The age range for the trainees is between 17 to 45 years. Prior to this time, we used to take in 50 trainees per session; that is 100 trainees in a year. Currently we take a minimum of 200 trainees every year.
The day-to-day running of WEPSS is solely funded by INTELS, down to the smallest needle, including the materials used to train our students. Once the trainees come to WEPSS, they are not only taught the practical aspects of tailoring, there are some theoretical aspects, which they learn. For example, a common part of tailoring that is popping up lately is garment illustration and how to sketch fashion figures. We also teach them the basics of sewing; how to use a measuring tape and even get them to run on paper before they begin to sew on actual fabric.
The women are taught how to use different specialised machines. They must be able to sew four basic garments, cut and sew, before they leave here. The kind of training our trainees receive here is comparable to international standards.
They also get soft skill training on personal hygiene, how to handle their businesses better, social ethics and responsibility. When some of them come here, the way they dress isn’t good but at the end of the training, they leave as distinguished ladies who know how to carry themselves. This is because we take the extra time to teach them how to carry themselves. If you do not represent your brand well as a tailor, people will not come and make clothes with you. You have to make nice looking clothes for me to be interested; that is where it starts.
When the women have completed their training, we still keep in touch through regular follow-ups. Anytime there is a graduation ceremony, we invite our alumni to come over. We know the progress that they have made and we know who to invite and who to showcase.
How would you describe WEPSS’s journey till date?
As a pioneer member, I got to see this place grow. I came in 2013 as a trainee. At the time, this place was practically under construction. I have seen it evolve and grow from being a little training centre to a garment-manufacturing factory and then back to a training centre again.
About 300 rural women were taken in the pioneer set for the training. We came in batches and were trained by Indians and Italians, and they retained all 300 of us, as factory hands to work in our garment-producing factory here. Back then, we produced as much as 300 garments daily. These garments – for instance coveralls – were being produced for companies at the Onne Oil and Gas Free Zone. Most of my trainers and cutters were also part of those 300 rural women.
We had a consultant from India. They introduced the programme to us and left. INTELS ensured that the knowledge was handed down from the expatriates to us; it is now a core community project because it is handled by people who are from the Niger-Delta region. After my training, I started as a trainee, became a trainer, then head trainer, production supervisor, head production supervisor, before I finally became project head. I have learned so much in the process. Every other person you see working at the WEPSS centre was trained here, including the technicians. INTELS has given back to both the trainees and the people who work here.
What has your experience as Project Head been like?
I have worked here as project head for seven months. It has been fun; it is just an added responsibility, which is fun to handle. It has its ups and downs but that is the beauty of life. Every batch of trainees comes with its own peculiarities. Some come here very heady but at the end of the day, we still get them to learn and they leave here happy.
The training is about moulding them in character and in learning. With this particular set of trainees, the biggest challenge was their dressing because we had so many young girls among them. You tell them not to wear something, the very next day they will do that exact thing. It was pretty challenging getting them to understand that they are ladies who have to carry themselves in such a manner that they can handle a business of their own.
How many sets of trainees has WEPSS graduated since its inception?
A total of six; the second set for 2018 graduated a few weeks ago. This set just like the one before it, was very competitive. We have this star chart we created for every assessment. We can tell how competitive each set has been by looking at how many times a trainee gets to appear as a star on the chart. In this set, we had just one person appear more than once. The rest were knocked off after just one appearance.
The best graduating trainee in this last set is 18 years old but we have had a winner in the past that was younger than her. I noticed that this time around we had a lot of young trainees. Perhaps, it is the success of the project that is attracting young women from their various communities to WEPSS. They get to hear of other women who have acquired the skill and are able to do something with it. So, many young girls are now interested in getting the skill.
When our trainees leave, we keep in touch with them to know how they are doing. A couple of them use the skills to better their lives. I am particularly excited about one of them who graduated in 2017 because she now sews Ankara shoes, bags and accessories with the help of the sewing machine she was given by INTELS. Most of the women would normally focus on clothes but she decided to do something different. We have also received requests from other fashion designers who ask for our trainees to come work for them.
A friend of mine contacted me recently about starting a garment factory that would produce men’s shirts in Rivers State. He was asking to see if he could hire some of the women. When such opportunities come, we make them open to our trainees. The younger trainees might still have some aspirations; we don’t discourage them from aspiring for other things but we always encourage them to use the skills they have acquired from WEPSS. Some of them might want to further their education.
However, having been trained on fashion designing and tailoring, they can use the skills to fund their education.
