BusinessDay 01 Apr 2018
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Sunday <strong>01</strong> <strong>Apr</strong>il 2<strong>01</strong>8<br />
C002D5556<br />
43<br />
Women’sWorld<br />
‘I hope to instill African values in parents,<br />
children through Little Weavers’<br />
Ini Obinna-Onunkwo is the CEO of Little Weavers, a flourishing couture brand that makes Afrocentric attire for children.<br />
She also channels her energy and creativity on how to impact the lives of people especially the youths. She is on a<br />
quest to use her brand to steer back the consciousness of society to their culture and traditional heritage. In this<br />
interview with IFEOMA OKEKE, she speaks about the various structures she put together to achieve this feat, and<br />
how she was emboldened to switch from a juicy corporate profession into the dicey terrain of cloth-making. Excerpt:<br />
We have so many cloth makingcompanies<br />
in Nigeria, what makes<br />
your own brand unique?<br />
Little Weavers is an Afrocentric<br />
couture brand for<br />
kids. I focused on children<br />
because when many parents<br />
go for traditional ceremonies,<br />
they wear beautiful native<br />
attires. They look sharp and regal,<br />
but you see their children wearing<br />
denim to the event. I want to fill<br />
that niche by making lovely native<br />
attires for children so that they too<br />
can look chic in African wears. That<br />
is what Little Weavers is all about?<br />
How long have you been in business<br />
and what prompted you to<br />
start it?<br />
I was actually inspired by my children.<br />
It all started when I designed<br />
and made some clothes that they<br />
would wear to a traditional wedding.<br />
I didn’t follow them to the wedding,<br />
but the feedback I got was that<br />
the father was a bit embarrassed.<br />
According to what he told me, our<br />
children attracted so much attention<br />
with the Afrocentric clothes<br />
that they wore. Many people that<br />
came to the wedding were trooping<br />
to take pictures of my children and<br />
asking questions about where they<br />
bought the clothes.<br />
So that was where the idea<br />
came because we realized that<br />
there was a market for parents<br />
that want their children to wear<br />
Afrocentric attires. So to fully understand<br />
the market, I did a feasibility<br />
study. We brought 32 outfits at<br />
school funfair, and sold 22 clothes.<br />
I wasn’t too happy because I had<br />
expected to sell all. But my husband<br />
was impressed; he encouraged me,<br />
I need to launch out a brand that<br />
would fill that niche for parents<br />
that want to see their child wear<br />
native attires. That was how we<br />
started Little Weavers, and we<br />
have been five on for more than<br />
five years.<br />
What were you doing before you<br />
started up your venture?<br />
I studied Economics. And I worked<br />
Ini Obinna-Onunkwo<br />
in the financial industry, as a stockbroker<br />
for six years before I now<br />
bade them farewell and established<br />
Little Weavers.<br />
When you wanted to switch from<br />
the financial sector to cloth-making,<br />
did people try to dissuade you<br />
and how were you able to handle<br />
such discouragements?<br />
Yes a lot of my friends advised me<br />
against doing native attires for children.<br />
Many of them preferred that<br />
I do clothes for adults. Honestly, it<br />
wasn’t easy with all the discouraging<br />
comments. But I refused to be<br />
discouraged because those comments<br />
challenged me. I wanted<br />
to focus on children and youths<br />
because they are the future.<br />
You exhibit so much love for the<br />
African tradition, how do intend to<br />
merge running your business with<br />
your strong passion for culture?<br />
When I started Little Weavers, I noticed<br />
that our various cultures as Nigerians<br />
are fast becoming eroded. I<br />
noticed that the millennium parents<br />
don’t bother to educate children of<br />
the cultural origins. I was worried<br />
because we’re fast losing our heritage.<br />
I don’t want to sound racists,<br />
but I feel we’re been brainwashed<br />
to accepting the urban lifestyles of<br />
the Caucasians. And we are very<br />
confident in celebrating the African<br />
culture especially in our children.<br />
We need to educate our children<br />
about the African culture. We need<br />
to bring their minds back.<br />
So I felt that I must go beyond<br />
starting up a business to adding<br />
value to society. So I came up with<br />
the campaign called Heritage Education<br />
for Youths (HEY). The objective<br />
is to educate, empower and<br />
revolutionize. We seek to change<br />
the cultural perception. We want<br />
to empower youths, and we’re<br />
building a lot of content. We want<br />
to bring people’s mind to Africa, so<br />
they can appreciate their heritage.<br />
It is a fresh objective and we want<br />
to teach them basic skills in craftwork,<br />
arts, sewing, and fashion<br />
kidprenuership and at the end we<br />
have a market where they can sell it.<br />
Theses would go a long way in building<br />
their confidence and became<br />
culturally aware about Africa and<br />
Africans. And each time they wear<br />
it, they show so much pride and are<br />
enthralled by it. We want to educate<br />
them on the various tourists sites<br />
like the Ogbunike cave in Anambra<br />
state and many others scattered all<br />
over the country and in Africa.<br />
What packages have you lined up<br />
to actualize this objective?<br />
I have a couple of programmes<br />
that I’ve lined up. And one of them<br />
is the Mini-me Collection. It is a<br />
programme where the mothers<br />
and their children would wear the<br />
same outfit. The idea is to have a<br />
merge between the young and old.<br />
We want to celebrate mothers and<br />
children, and get them to show their<br />
knowledge about African culture.<br />
The Arabs, Europeans and Indians<br />
show and talk proudly about their<br />
culture, so what happens to our own<br />
cultural heritage? Why are we not<br />
passing it unto our children? So the<br />
idea for the Mini-me programme is<br />
to inspire the next generation to be<br />
better, than what we imbibe from<br />
our colonial masters.<br />
What is kidpreneurship about?<br />
It is about catching kids young,<br />
and grooming their interests in<br />
entrepreneurship and harnessing<br />
the potentials to become great<br />
entrepreneurs. This is a drive that<br />
every SME should adopt as their<br />
corporate social responsibility.<br />
Whenever I’m in midst of foreigners,<br />
I try so well to show my<br />
identity. I’m clad in my Afrocentric<br />
outfit, and I hear them compliment<br />
that I look beautiful, regal and<br />
colourful. They celebrate me and<br />
want to identify with me. So why<br />
wont I be proud I be proud of who<br />
I am? Women should not copy the<br />
whites and ignore their own cultural<br />
heritage.<br />
So many youths are more engrossed<br />
in social media, how do<br />
you intend to use the social media<br />
influence in steering their attention<br />
back to knowing about their<br />
culture?<br />
We aim to flood the social media<br />
with highly educative and<br />
entertaining pictures on great<br />
African personalities. Has anyone<br />
thought of shooting cartoons on<br />
iconic personalities like Queen<br />
Amina, Wole Soyinka, Imotan,<br />
Chimamanda Adichie and so<br />
many others? We’ll find graphic<br />
animators to make animations<br />
and movies series on them and<br />
many other notable Africans.<br />
And then these videos will be<br />
uploaded on Youtube, Instagram<br />
and Facebook.<br />
Then we will go to schools<br />
to engage both the children and<br />
their teachers. We target primary<br />
schools because I believe education<br />
is key, especially at that level.<br />
Because by the time we educate<br />
and empower them, then social<br />
media won’t influence them so<br />
much anymore. We also intend<br />
having an academy for them<br />
where they would undergo language<br />
classes, art illustrations,<br />
pattern cutting, sewing and so<br />
much more. It is a total package,<br />
and we have schools that are<br />
interested. And we also aim to<br />
talk to the ministry of education<br />
to have some of these packages<br />
in school curriculums.<br />
Also we have other projects<br />
aiming to educate the community<br />
and empower the African woman<br />
and youths.<br />
Group rolls out programmes to boost confidence among girls<br />
Lack of confidence has been<br />
identified as the biggest factor<br />
that could hamper the<br />
womenfolk from excelling<br />
in life. Hence in a quest to tackle this<br />
impediment, a group has arranged a<br />
programme that would teach and<br />
groom girls on how to navigate<br />
through life, and how they can<br />
handle the many issues they would<br />
confront in the fast-evolving world.<br />
According to Rita Okoye, the<br />
founder and convener of Raising<br />
Confidence Girls (RCG), their<br />
quest is to provide a platform to support<br />
and give solutions to the challenges<br />
that young girls face. “We<br />
want to have an engaging forum<br />
for both mothers and girls,” she said.<br />
“Our aim is to build a nation<br />
where every girl no matter the<br />
status is confident. When you’re<br />
confident, you know your worth<br />
as a human being and can achieve.<br />
“I am passionate about this because<br />
it is an issue I dealt with as<br />
a child. And I’ve come to notice<br />
that in Nigeria, one needs the confidence<br />
to survive and excel in<br />
whatever you do. Confidence is<br />
the key if you want to stand out<br />
and get ahead. “Also grooming<br />
confident girls would curb sexual<br />
abuses because they would be bold<br />
and brave enough to speak out or<br />
report to their parents when they<br />
molested or abused physically and<br />
psychologically.”<br />
Okoye disclosed that this median<br />
programme, which is tagged<br />
‘we grow together’, is slated to take<br />
place on Saturday 7 <strong>Apr</strong>il 2<strong>01</strong>8, from<br />
9 am to 2 pm at the Teeky Arena, 19<br />
Kusenla Ikate Lekki axis of Lagos<br />
metropolis, and that the event is<br />
for mothers and their girls between<br />
seven to 14 years old.<br />
Disclosing some of the program<br />
packaged for the event, Okoye<br />
said that RCG aims to hold a one of<br />
its kind annual conference where<br />
mothers and daughters can sit together<br />
and have specific confidential<br />
conversations. She hinted that<br />
seasoned speakers and psychologists<br />
would also be there to discuss<br />
various incisive and educative topics<br />
that would engage and provide<br />
useful tips for all participants.<br />
“RCG just wants to add value<br />
to the society because we believe<br />
in the bidder picture where we will<br />
groom confident girls that would<br />
grow up to be great women and<br />
good leaders,” she added.
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