Seye Joseph
At her age, what many young lass think and do is totally different from what Oluwatosin Omotola is doing. Omotola 22, is an entrepreneur and a graduate of Ekiti State University where she studied Biology Education. She has decided to create the future for herself rather than waiting for government systems and policies to create it for her. With just three month as an apprentice learning shoe making with one of her school mates, she’s had built a brand for herself in making of quality shoes of any size to her clients with the brand name “Leryour Footrock”
In what she described as God’s gift in her life, Omotola said that her passion for shoe started when she was in Ekiti State Government College, Oye Ekiti.
According to her, “I have had this competitive spirit, I always want to be the best in everything that I do, the only thing that differentiate us in my secondary school was our sandals so I always want my sandals to be the best, we all wear the same uniform, we went to the same class, lived in the same hostel but I always want to feel special and distinct with my shoe and that got my love for nice foot wear”, she said.
With that interest, she said she has been telling her mum of her passion for shoes and to be making them, “when I tell people, they will laugh at me that it is not female’s job but from the onset my parents has been encouraging, they were telling me that I will be unique when I start, their encouragement was an inspiration for me”, she said.
Omotolani recalled that she had wanted to start learning shoe making during the Academic Staff University Union’s strike in 2013 but her fear of calling off the strike at any time delayed her for not starting but started during her first semester in the final year when she realized that her workload was lighter.
She said going to school to spend four years doing nothing will be a waste of time. It was at this point she connected herself to a good shoe maker who was a new occupant in her hostel and a student in another Department of the institution.
“Initially, he taught I was joking so he said I was going to pay and I told him that I was going to pay. The next day, I paid him seven thousand naira he requested for. I told my parents that I saw an opportunity and I have embrace it and payed for it”
“He was training me at time, he would not call me, he was a very good boss to me though we were in the same level, he used to tell me that if indeed I have passion for this thing I need not to be called to learn this work, he was challenging me and I was eager to learn under him”
After sitting at home doing nothing after graduation, she informed her parents to get a machine and all the instruments that were needed to start on her own which they could not provide because of the economic depression in the country but they promised her.
Weeks after telling her parents, she said that she never knew that her dad had talked to a shoe maker who could help her get the machine.
“On my own, I made enquiries on how much they sell the machine and it was 23,000 naira. In sourcing for the money to buy the machine, I spoke to people who I thought could help me with fund but none of them came up, a man even told me that I should come to Lagos, making advances that if I can’t come to Lagos that she can’t help me, so things like that came on my way”, she recalled.
“One day I was at home and my dad brought the machine home, I was very happy and it was the best gift I have ever received in my life. My mum told me she was going to give me a lone of 10,000 naira. She gave me the money and followed me to the market to buy materials and I started doing the work”
For those that have been calling her cobbler, Omotolani said she had to be correction them that she’s not a cobbler but shoe maker.
In her words, “someone asked if I actually made the shoes, I told him yes, he said he felt I was marketing it for someone”
She said that was what prompted her to put the pictures of her work went viral on social media. “I asked my sister to take the pictures of the shoes, post it on Facebook to convince people that I made the shoes myself. And since the day that I put the posts on social media, the whole thing has gone viral. People have started calling me that they saw my pictures on Instagram, Nairaland. If I am not wrong, over 500 people have started calling me, local and international calls.
According to her, she said a man called her from Europe who said he would want to be supplying her leather she’s ready and told her that whenever he’s sending the next products, he will send to his brother to give me to give her.
On how she will ensure quality control of her work, she said with the little resources she has, and with people that have seen and used her work will testify to it that she has given them the best to the best of her capacity. “The money and the gain I am getting from the product is not what matter to me, what matter is my fulfilment, I’m going to be fulfilled doing it but the truth is with time, it will pronounce me to the world for greatness.”, she mentioned.
Omotola said from the beginning, she has never been interested in white collar job. “This is Nigeria where getting just cleaning job is difficult, let alone, getting a multinational job. I don’t believe in looking for job, it is not something that is bad if anybody get a white collar job. Since nobody is ready to create job for me, I think I should just create my job”, she said.
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