Entrepreneur intimates youths with shoe, bag materials business
By Sunday Ogundiran
A small scale entrepreneur, Uchenna Ogbonnaya, has hinted the unemployed youths on the sale of shoes and leather materials which he said they can venture into to make their living.
Ogbonnaya, who deals in all kinds of shoes and leather materials and other shoe making tools such as needle, gum, thread and foot wear souls, disclosed that if monitored well, the business is highly lucrative and could serve as alternative to any other job.
“I have been into this business for twenty six years learning how to sell the market and how to bring in new products. What I have learnt during the years as a trader that deal in shoe materials is that the business is lucrative and highly successful because it deals with human consumption. Everybody has to put on shoes of different designs and what is trending in the market,” explained Ogbonnaya.
Enlightening a would-be entrepreneur, he explained that the products could be sourced from Odulanan market, Mushin or from Lagos Island, where a retailer could buy in bulk just as he does and transport down to where his business is seated in Ejigbo.
He said although getting the products such as foot wear souls, fancy palm rope, gum, polish, nail and brush down to remote area may be a little difficult as one needs to pay some amount to the Task Force to be allowed to carry the products.
“The business is a very good one to do, it is also diverse and interwoven in nature in the sense that you can get to know other products that are close or similar to it. For instance, when you go to get materials for making shoes, from there you can see and get material use in making belt, cap and hand bangle,” he said.
He added: “I sell according to what I buy from the market. For example, a material bought for N5,000 in the market can be sold for N5,500 or N6,000 depending on the location where I sell and sometimes price do escalate due to inflation in the economy of the country. That is why the amount I get my products determines how much I sell. I can’t buy for higher price and sell less than the market price.”
