A young entrepreneur, Olawale Omotosho, founder of Flair Underwear, has won the Pitch and Prize Presentation, an entrepreneurial contest organised by Culture Communications under its Feed Tonight Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme (FTFEP).
The 26-year-old entrepreneur emerged winner after his pitch was adjudged the best out of 50 contestants’, and made it to the final round where he impressed the judges to win the grand prize of N1 million.
Omotosho, who is the brain behind Flair Underwear, a fashion start-up, said the award would help him upscale productions as the current demand for his brand is more than what they can produce.
“I’m so glad to be winning this. The demand we have for our products is more than the capacity we can do. So this helps us to increase production and reach more customers. My team will be so happy because it’s a step forward for us. This is a show that young people who want to do stuffs, can get support from organisations that makes us get to the next level,” he said.
For Omotosho, the dream is bigger, he told journalists that he wants to move from producing just 1,000 or 5,000 pieces to a million, hence the significance of the prize money.
“We want to have a product that is African rooted and can be available in African retail stores. So, if Flair Underwear can be that, amazing. We want to be available in so many stores, that means more funds will allows us reach that level,” Omotosho, from Ondo said.
Over time, economic experts have argued that entrepreneurs are the drivers of any economy, and efforts should be made to promote and encouraged entrepreneurship, especially in young people.
Therefore, FTFEP was established to empower young Nigerians like Omotosho and support start-up businesses, as well as promote entrepreneurship with the ultimate aim of lifting people out of poverty.
BusinessDay learnt that the foundation started out as a charity programme which merely fed Nigerians, but after some events and considerations, it morphed into an empowerment scheme.
Explaining the origin of the empowerment idea, the managing director of Culture Communication, Yomi Benson said the idea was inspired by a social media post.
“It was just a transition from something to something. The intention was really to feed, but one day we sat back to say why are we just feeding people when you can actually empower people? Then we said, what can we do to make this happen? Along the line I read a post of a lady thanking somebody in South Africa for empowering her with initial amount and it accelerated her business, and that was why we said we too could do it in this country,” he said.
He further said that the intent was not just about empowering people, but for everybody to understand that something like that this could be done. “Imagine 1000 of us doing this is in this country, it’s going to lift people.”
While Benson hoped to have the event yearly, he encouraged other Nigerians to help others come out of poverty, even as he expresses his belief that the government is doing its own part.
“For me, I think the government is trying on its own. Whatever little thing we can do, we should do it. And in the real sense of it, it is the entrepreneurs that drive the economy of a nation, government is only there to give us guidance. So let entrepreneurs stand up and do this…it will change lives,” he said.
Praising the initiative, Eyitemi Taire, managing director, Techno Culture Limited said it the initiative helps youth showcase their ideas and “hopefully get the kind of support that they need to grow themselves to the next level.
“Nigeria is mostly full of young people these days from a population perspective. Things are not that great, the economy is not that strong, young people don’t have enough opportunity to connect themselves into the economy. I think it’s a fantastic initiative,” she said.
She advised that young people should spend more time on getting the data right (an area most contestant flopped), and the facts behind their ideas so they can better articulate it effectively.
“An Idea might seem obvious in and of itself, but you need to spend a lot of time to figure what the idea within the idea is for you. People can have ideas, people can have emotions, but at the end of the day, it is the way that you articulate that idea that would help take it to the next level,” she said.
Desmond Okon
