I strode into 1436 Sanusi Fafunwa, Victoria Island, on Tuesday afternoon like a soldier. I inquired about how to get to Haowa Bello’s office, but many people around obviously didn’t know her by that name. I described her and was directed to an office upstairs.
“Ah, you are looking for Madame Coquette,” said the security man.
I waited for over 30 minutes before asking a neighbour to help call her. My phone’s screen had earlier been broken by two young men who were fighting at Idowu Taylor Street. As a Good Samaritan, I had gone to separate the two, only to get a big shock. One of them landed a blow on my screen.
Few minutes later, Haowa entered. She had asked me to call her when I was close, but I could not do so owing to the nature of my phone.
She apologised and felt sorry about my phone.
Hoawa is business-like. She is also always willing to explain everything to her customers, who she sees as partners. While sitting down in her office, two young men entered, willing to buy what she describes as ‘meticulously handcrafted handbags’. She went outside twice to get more samples for them. She took time to explain every detail, including the production process, to them.
Hoawa is an exceptionally talented entrepreneur. This may sound hyperbolic, but the proof of the pudding is only in the eating. This 35-year-old entrepreneur produces Madame Coquette (MC), which is a line of handbags and small leather goods. She set up this business 10 years ago.
She uses local raw materials like snakes in making these bags. Yes, she buys snakes and uses them as raw materials! She also uses crocodile skins. Before you cringe away, Hoawa also uses locally available leather, importing some from other countries.
“We use indigenous snake and crocodile skins from Kano and Kaduna. We hand- dye and colour the skins we use in making these products,” she says.
She produces these bags and purses with few machines and traditional tools.
Her products have been sold in North America and Europe.
MC products range from N15, 000 to N55, 000. In the last ten years, the firm has sold over 1800 bags.
“I didn’t start with a lot of capital. I got a N30, 000 loan from my sister to start my business,” she tells Start-Up Digest.
When Hoawa started 10 years ago, patronage of made-in Nigeria goods, especially handbags, was low.
Then, the market was flooded with a variety of imported products, most of which were designer replicas.
“The concept of locally produced bags was not one that was widely known or accepted. I had to work twice as hard and charge half as much to get customers to give the products a chance,” she says.
Today, the story is different. She was awarded best accessories designer in 2013 by Exquisite Magazine, and was featured on CNN’s African Voices in November 2015, giving her business an international exposure.
Hoawa is currently contributing to Nigeria’s dairy development, creating jobs for a number of women who ordinarily would be jobless.
She founded Fula Farms in early 2015. This farm, located in Lekki part of Lagos, boasts of over 50 cows. Hoawa produces milk, cheese and the local ‘fura’. A number of women make both ends meet from Fula Farms.
Her business has taken a new dimension since the CNN interview, she admits.
“Most of the women were home makers and their primary objective was to take care of their children. They didn’t have a source of income and most of their time was spent in their homes. A majority of them were nursing mothers. I decided to change the scope of the business and tailor it to empower the women in the community we work in,” she says.
“We have 90 percent female workforce. The farm stands as one of the few dairy farms in Lagos and it supplies small businesses and individuals with raw (fresh) milk and locally produced cheese,” she discloses.
By extension, Hoawa is providing Nigerians with good nutrients and serves as a raw material supplier to some small dairy firms. She is planning to expand and go into full-scale production of yoghurts in no time.
She works closely with a group of rural women who produce a specific type of cheese popular in Nigeria. The cheese is produced and packaged by the women in surrounding settlements under a cooperative.
“The role of these women in their various communities is highly under-valued. They not only provide physical and emotional support, their contributions feed their families,” he states.
Her work at Fula Farms has been recognised by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Nigeria) and by the African Development Bank. In July 2017, Hoawa was invited to the United Nation’s Food and Agricultural Development (FAO) headquarters in Rome to discuss the role of rural women in agriculture. Later in the year, the entrepreneur sat on panel at the World Food Prize in Des Moines, Iowa, to discuss the benefits of women in agriculture in Africa.
In the first quarter of 2015, she emerged as one of the one 27 recipients of the Youth Employment in Agriculture Programme (YEAP) grant. It was the programme of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, and she won N5 million for her work in Madame Coquette and Fula Farms.
Technology has played and continues to play a huge role in her business. According to Hoawa, marketing the business has become a lot easier as her target market and customer base are reached through online marketing.
“Eighty percent of sales are made from social media, Instagram in particular. We use our online platform to market and sell our dairy products as well,” she states.
Fula Farms faces some peculiar challenges such as access to market, affordable financing, and economic volatility.
Exchange rate fluctuations affect the MC business as all the hardware parts are imported, because the locally available ones do not meet international specifications.
“Our heavy dependence on generators makes our day-to-day operations more expensive, affecting the overall cost of production,” she adds.
Hoawa wants all the young women out there to dream, saying that no dream is too big if they have a plan of execution. Hoawa is a story of grit and shows that a woman can do what a man does.
