With the untold hardship facing the country and young graduates roaming the streets with no hope of survival, an entrepreneur has advised the Federal Government to include fashion and designing as a course in the nation’s tertiary institutions.
Olufunke Ayotunde, CEO, Oge FunFun Coutre and Service, made the appeal in Lokoja while interacting with BDSUNDAY, pointing out that Federal Government should equally encourage up-and-coming designers, adding that fashion and designing is profitable and promising.
Ayotunde, a BSc holder in Mathematics-turned fashion designer, has also urged up-and-coming entrepreneurs, especially ladies not to just jump into a trade because they have money or somebody into it is successful but should first learn a trade before opening an outlet.
She pointed out that learning the traditions of a giving trade before opening an outlet pays handsomely.
Ayotunde also explained that she grew up with fashion and designing, as her mother was into the trade, adding that fashion and designing was something she admired from child hood and wanted to do it in life.
She also disclosed that even before she entered higher institution, she had already made up her mind to be a designer upon graduation, pointing out that her husband also insisted that his wife would be an entrepreneur and would do no office job, which she noted, is not even easy to get these days.
The CEO, Oge FunFun Coutre and Service, also hinted that while in secondary school she was making dresses for herself which people admired, and that upon graduation from higher institution she decided to go full blast into the business.
She however, lamented that lack of constant power supply has been a major challenge as her business consistently runs on generator.
Advising youths who want to go into the trade, she said: “Don’t wait until you get a shop; don’t wait until you get all the materials; don’t wait; start with one person’s cloth.”
According to her, “If you start the little way you can and before you know it, it becomes something big in your hand. So, you do not have to be stagnant; be diligent in anything you do. Do not hold your certificate and wait for white color jobs. Anything you want to do just start up and do it well’.
Victoria Nnakaike, Lokoja
