Mrs. Folake Oyemade’s sojourn into the exciting world of fashion is dated back to 1986 two years after she graduated from the University of Lagos. She has however transformed that passion into a multi-billion naira business empire with two state-of-the-art garment manufacturing outfits; Sam and Sara and the Omoluabi Garment Factories, Osun State making her the Numero Uno in the industry.
Sam & Sara’s flagship brand IMPREZA has gone on to become a household name in the areas of corporate wear, promotional wear, school uniforms, hospitality uniforms, paramilitary/security uniforms, professional wear, robes and academic gown with high-end clientele list like GTB, Bristow Helicopters, Nacho Aviance, Lafarge Cement, The Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) The Nigeria Police and so many others.
The New Diplomat duo of Associate Editor, LAOLU ADEYEMI and Business/Public Policy Editor, OKEOWO OLAMILEKAN engaged Oyemade on how she has managed to keep the brand on top of the garmenting industry, challenges facing the textile industry and how government can diversify the economy through the textile industry. EXCERPTS
What informed your decision to go into the fashion industry?
I like fashion, like every other woman. My very strong sense of fashion and style is really my area of interest, I like to express myself. I actually resigned from an employment to start what I am doing. After my first degree, I was to go back to school to get a second degree in law which I eventually did not do. My mother, having seen what I could probably not see then advised me to go to a fashion school, but because I thought I didn’t have the patience to stitch and sew I didn’t listen to her. With benefit of hindsight, I wish I had listened to her.
How will you rate the Nigerian fashion industry?
In terms of quality, I will say that the Nigeria fashion industry has come of age because we have a lot of designers who are actually very gifted and innovative. The quality of their stitching, cutting and finishing are very top-notch. The glitch, however, is that they are yet to master the art of mass production. This is where we come in. We have the expertise and wherewithal to fit in into the world fashion stage.
What are the challenges facing the textile industry and how do you break even?
Breaking even for most manufacturers in Nigeria today is actually a dream because, in reality, we are not breaking even. In my line of business, people give us orders, we don’t just make things and sell and decide at what price. Before we are able to secure an order we might have been pursuing the job for three months and you have already quoted them a particular price, but by the time the company finally gives you the go-ahead to do the product you are probably doing the job above the price you quoted. And with the naira practically floating, you might end up even incurring debts as some of the materials being used in the textile company are still being imported. Even when you are buying your fabrics from local manufacturers, their yarns are still being imported, so the prices change. Both locally made and imported materials change in prices. In the desperation to stay afloat, you still take the job.
But I believe the Nigerian government has some very good policies in place to cushion the effect of all these troubles on the manufacturers, the problem is in the implementation has been slow —- which is really not good for the economy.
I will also like to use this opportunity to appeal to the government to look into the textile industry better because we are the highest employers of labour. The industry is very people-oriented. If we operate at full capacity, we have the potential to employ more than 3,000 people because they can work two shifts both at Sam and Sara and The Omoluabi Garment Factory.
The government should also support the industry by ensuring that government bodies give us jobs. It might interest you to know that a lot of uniforms of some government agencies are still being made abroad.
In the spirit of patriotism, they should give us jobs as the quality we have on offer is the same with what they are going to get from Dubai or wherever. There is still this “colonial mentality” that if it is from Nigeria, the quality might not be good, but a lot of us have evolved and stepped up our game above the level of mediocrity.
There is nothing they are doing abroad that we haven’t incorporated into our factories here. From time to time, I go to China, Bangladesh; it will interest you to know that Bangladesh is making so much money from garmenting, yet they don’t make the fabrics. They import all the fabrics from China, they only stitch, we can also get to that stage. But, we need a lot of support from our governments by giving us these jobs, we can execute properly.
As you also know, technology is dynamic and always evolving; some of the equipment I brought in some five years ago are already obsolete. When you go to Chinese factories, you see new ones. But, have I even finished paying the loans used in procuring them? How can I go back and tell them I need further loans to acquire the latest ones for cutting, or the latest ones for pattern-drafting.
There are some machines that the computer just does everything for you. Then there is the challenge of the manpower that will service these machines when you bring them in. But if the jobs were there and the government is patronizing us, we will bring in people who can handle these machines if our local people cannot handle them and in the process, they train people in-house who can take over from them. This is an advantage in technology transfer. For example, the Chinese people I have in my factories as pattern masters in the last five years have trained quite a lot of Nigerians who can do the same job now. When we are talking about government helping the industry, it is not only by giving us loans but by also giving us jobs to do so we can make money and not continue to borrow.
And what is the Chambers of Commerce and Industry doing to help manufacturers?
I must commend the current Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Okechukwu Enelamah and The Honourable Minister of State, Mrs. Aisha Abubakar. They are actually round pegs in round holes. The textile industry is directly under Mrs. Aisha Abubakar; she recently organized a made-in-Nigeria workshop in conjunction with the Bank of Industry (BoI)for all stakeholders in the textile industry that wear uniforms and anybody that has something to do with the textile industry where we had an exhibition.
We had a stand where we exhibited our wares and those who came to the exhibition attested to the quality of our products with promises to patronize and do business with us.
With such programmes in place and if the ministers can live up to expectations in all the other sectors of the economy and do the same, I believe Nigeria will be a better place and the economy will come out of recession. We have been hearing “we want to diversify the economy” but we need to see the action.
I believe the textile industry and the solid minerals industry are two industries capable of boosting the economy bringing the country out of recession. If the textile industry can maintain this momentum, in about two year’s time we can get out of the recession. The population of Bangladesh is about 156.6 million which is similar to that of Nigeria, yet, they make their money from garmenting. We can also use our teeming population to do the same thing; the difference is that they get a lot of support from their government. The Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and The Bank of Industry are doing their best, but, they need a lot of support from the government.
How do you give back to the society?
We do a lot of giving back to the society. To the motherless babies’ homes, various charities and recently we donated about five thousand garments and food items to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP’s) camp through the Future Assured Project, Mrs. Aisha Buhari’s pet project. Then we have the project in Osun State as all the uniforms given to the students are at give-away prices.
Where do you see Sam and Sara within the next decade?
I see us becoming a household name globally. There was a time we were doing export in terms of uniforms to the United States but we lost a lot of money under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) programme. As you are aware, the cost of production is very high and we were supposed to get Export Expansion Grant (EEG) which we never got up till now. We were the first company to do such a large quantity and our products, made in Nigeria and proudly Nigerian goods were being sold on the shelves of big stores in the United States and we are on the verge of doing that once again.
