Good dreams rightly pursued and executed change the world.
While many Nigerians think they cannot be successful entrepreneurs in Nigeria given the challenging operating environment, there are some who believe that opportunities are in abundance in-country, and they are tapping into such opportunities, hugely, to scale their businesses.
While some citizens do not believe they can make progress in their line of businesses by giving their products local flavour, some manufacturers are proud to tap the abundant human resources in the country to produce ‘made-in-Nigeria’ products that are also in high demand outside the country.
When Arthur Uche, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Beyond Clothing Nigeria, had the conviction that he was not cut out to be a practicing lawyer even though he acquired the relevant degrees, and out of pressure put in one year in a law chamber, his passion is to be a garment maker on a global scale.
Although the beginning was small and rough, good times are here for the visionary entrepreneur whose company has become the talk of the town in Aba, Abia State, and beyond.
A recent visit to the headquarters of the garment factory revealed the founder as a man who is diligent in his work.
While conducting the BusinessDay team round the factory, located at 12 Ajagba Street, off Brass Junction, Aba, the Human Resources Manager, Chinwendu Rita Chidi said that the firm creates premium branded T-shirts and polos that turn clients’ team, event, or campaign into a bold brand statement.
About 99 percent of the workforce is made up of young people who were seen hard at work at the time of visit. There were different tasks being performed by different groups. Some were busy with embroidery, designing, sowing of different styles of cloths- gowns, shirts, T-shirts, uniforms, ironing and packaging, and lots of other specialised tasks.
When asked how the company is retaining the youths who are known to be restless, the HR Manager said: “It is quite challenging. The truth is that some would always want to go, while some stay, but we always sell the vision to them and encourage them to be patient. We use the owner of the company as an example to them that he himself started very small, but see where he is today. So, some of them are interested to stay, but some are just doing it for the sake of earning salary.”
On how the company is coping with the issue of electricity, she said: “We wholly depend on generators for our business. We are not hooked on any national grid. This is because if we should depend on electricity from the grid, we will not run our business. So, to avoid any disruption, we are on gen 24/7.”
Speaking on the contribution of the garment factory to the Nigerian economy, Chidi said: “If there is nothing else, the youth empowerment. Most of the people here are not trained tailors. We have many people from different parts of the country. When we are looking for them, we say any part of the country you are, if you are passionate about being a tailor, come. It is our own way of helping the Nigerian economy. We give them stipends at the end of the month initially; but when they master their skills, we place them on salary. We also provide accommodation for them.”
Speaking with BusinessDay in an exclusive interview after the facility tour conducted by the HR, the Founder and CEO of the company, Arthur Uche, corroborated all that the visitors had earlier been told in terms of overcoming the challenge of electricity and how the company is retaining the youths.
“You see, when people ask me this (about electricity), I laugh. I laugh and I say I don’t know about other industries. But this industry that I know, electricity is not our problem. For all the years that we have run Beyond Clothing, 98 percent of the time, we have run on generator. From small generator to Lister engine. As even now, electricity has improved in Aba, but it hasn’t really benefited us at ‘Beyond Clothing’. First, we don’t get as much power that we require and even when it comes, if we are operating at full capacity, we will not be able to use it.
“First reason is that we need to have our own transformer, which we are planning to buy. And because we don’t have our own transformer for now, the transformer that feeds this area is not strong enough to give us consistent 3-phase power. And if we don’t have 3-phase full power we will be unable to use it. So, we will shut it down and use our generator. Even if we get it, electricity now is not cheap. Comparatively, diesel is cheaper to use in Nigeria than outside the country. Let me give you one example, my friend runs a small eatery in the United Kingdom, and he has a maximum of six staff, the place is not so big, it’s a small restaurant and his electricity consumption for a year, if you translate it to Nigeria’s Naira, it’s about ₦6 million. Our diesel consumption, as big as we are is between ₦4 and ₦5 million per month.
“Electricity is not cheap anywhere in the world, it’s a cost; so, you have to figure out how to organise your business and plan it in such a way that you have to cover that cost. Our thought process should be how to systematise our operations so that it will not become a troubling part of our business. Most successful businesses in Nigeria run on generator. For me, power is the least of our problems,” he said.
On the impact of the business on his environment, Uche said: “My neighbour was telling me the other day that when people pass our facility, they get excited about what we are doing here. A lot of people come here everyday in search of work and we take the much we can. We have a hostel for our staff. We have a programme where we take only indigent children. So, if you have somebody in the village or even in Aba that is economically deprived, his parents cannot pay for their education, but he or she wants to learn skill, but also cannot pay, bring such a person to us.
“We will take such a person and start him/her with a stipend of N35,000, provide free accommodation and start training the person. If the fellow is smart and learns how to sew well, in three months we’ll jack up the stipend and if you are okay and you keep improving, we’ll continue to increase the pay. That is an exciting thing for me. And when you calculate the salary of 150 people, you I’ll know the effect on their families.”
Expansion
The entrepreneur, who disclosed that the company has entered into a business partnership with some foreign firms, said that in an effort to meet the standards required by the partners, he had decided to complete the factory, bringing it to international standard. Conducting the team to the additional three floors that are being constructed to meet the standard of factories seen in China, Uche said that all the materials needed for the completion of the project were on ground.
Asked if he had any plan to establish any factory in Abuja or Lagos any time soon, he said that he wanted to saturate Aba, and that if possible, he would like to build more factories in the city, as that is the Chinese model.
“We are expanding now and every floor has what it does. We are currently focused on branded clothes. However, our next floor will be for fashion. So, we already have a team for that segment. Jumia people were here recently. We have a pact with them. They want us to start selling on Jumia, but I told them to wait until we build our capacity,” he said.
Plan for export
Responding to a question on the economic impact of his business to the state, he said: “Talking about the real economic impact on Abia State, we go for exhibitions and in the last exhibition, we got a massive job to supply a company that distributes to brands in the United States of America. We are working on the memorandum of understanding (MoU) and once we are able to meet up with the check list that they gave us and it passes, they intend to be buying one-40ft container every two months from us.
“So, the fabrics are here and we have also brought in some new machines and we are able to meet with international garment factory standards. We are hoping that before the end of the year or at the beginning of 2026, we will start exporting to the US.”
Background
Aba is Nigeria’s innovative and interactive fashion hub, where over the years, fashion products have continued to be churned out and the vibrant entrepreneurial spirit has been sustained. These finished products, such as shoes, belts, leather bags, trousers, shirts, suits, boxers and uncountable others, including accessories, attract buyers from a number of African countries, chiefly Cameroon, Ghana, Togo, among others. The products are also moved beyond Africa to other continents. However, in the last few years, there was a set back occasioned by decrepit infrastructure which drove many entrepreneurs away from the hub. But today, the re-engineering work in Aba, undertaken by the state government has brought the Enyimba City back to its heydays and many who fled are returning in droves. Beyond Clothing has remained strong in Aba even in the thick of the trying moments, which is a testament to the never-say-die entrepreneurial spirit of the visionary..
