The Managing Director, Precious Design, a company that specialises in made-in-Nigeria shoes, Mrs. Olukemi Onakoya, has said that Nigeria’s locally made shoes are better in quality, durable and more comfortable to wear than the imported ones.
Onakoya, who has been in the business for more than five years, said environmental factor and capital have been major challenges because of the economic situation of the country.
Speaking with The Point in Lagos, Onakoya said, “Our company specialises in producing palm slippers and sandals, handbags, shoes, souvenir bags, school and lunch bags, basically leather products. The quality is of high standards, suitable for our environment – durable and affordable. It may not look pretty, much attractive like the imported ones, but they are more durable because of our roads and weather.”
On patronage, she said, “People who know the value of made-in-Nigeria products have been patronising us consistently. People believe that imported shoes are of high standards, compared to locally made ones but that is not true. There are some made-in-Nigeria products, apart from shoes, that are of good quality. It all depends on the materials that they use. There are inferior materials as well as standard and expensive ones too. It only depends on the quality of materials, your style of production and how the brand is being packaged.”
Onakoya, who also spoke on what to expect from the company in the near future said, “We look forward to satisfying our customers more with best designs of our shoes. For now, our products are done based on referrals but this year, by God’s grace, we’ll do more of social media marketing to create more awareness and increase our scope of production with ready-made products to market online and we’ll do more of shoes and other products.”
Narrating some of the challenges relating to ease of doing business, the female shoe expert said sourcing for raw material is one of the biggest challenges confronting her organisation.
“It is not easy getting raw materials. Nigeria is a consuming nation, most of the raw materials we use for production are sometimes imported and this is where the issue of exchange rate comes in. When you put all these factors into consideration, one cannot but ask the Federal Government to hasten on the implementation of ease of doing business in the country,” she said.
