Meet undergraduate using ASUU strike to boost his shoemaking business
In wake of the ASUU strike which has brought about youth restiveness and a rise in criminal activities within the society, a young man identified as Olayinka Joseph has decided to maximise the bad situation for good by boosting his shoe making business.
Olayinka, who is an undergraduate at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) revealed in an interview with newsmen that his shoe-making business took a great dimension after a tweet he made went viral days ago.
Explaining how it all began, Olayinka said that he has been making shoes since 2016 after he finished secondary school, and he always had shoemaking in mind before graduation. Olayinka revealed that his first interest was in bag making but that changed when the cost of apprenticeship was high.
He, however said it wasn’t easy to combine undergraduate studies with business, so he makes use of free time, holidays and lecture-free weeks to work more and perfect his craft.
“Yeah, I won’t lie, it’s not easy especially when you’re in session, but it’s a bit easier when we are on holidays, even when we’re in session, I do night shifts to meet up with customers demands and I work on my lecture free days too. I try all my best to balance school and my work, I don’t allow anyone affects the other.”
The UNILAG undergraduate said the tweet he made increased customer patronage and people started giving him more attention.
He said, “It has just been awesome after that post and I hope my next post blows up too. And I hope ASUU calls off the strike soon.”
To determine prices for his hand made shoes, he said that price of the footwears are determined by the materials involved in the making, and though shoe prices may change in the future to reflect economic realities, most of his shoes are selling for N30,000 presently.
Olayinka said it takes 10 working days to get a pair of shoes ready, adding that he doesn’t post his work on social media before because he felt Nigerians prefer foreign brands to homegrown designs.
Similarly, another female shoemaker, Adeosun Goodness Taiye, a 400-level dentistry student of the University of Ibadan (UI) is equally making waves in the shoemaking business
According to her, she started making shoes in 2018 after writing her Cambridge A levels and was quite bored at home. After gaining admission into UI as a 200-level student and showcasing her pieces, her classmates loved her work and started making demands for more designs, which she obliged.
