By Job Osazuwa
The need to promote made-in-Africa brands, particularly for children and expectant mothers, was re-echoed recently in Lagos during a conference and exposition held in Ikeja.
At the one-day programme centred on African brands in childcare, with the theme “Creating an Enabling Future for African Businesses,” the speakers encouraged Nigerians to patronise products made in Africa to boost the continent’s GDP.
Manufacturers and other business owners in the distribution chain were urged to uphold quality and fill the market with products that are locally produced but globally accepted.
The founder and chief executive officer of ChildAfrique Limited, who was also the convener of the conference, Mrs. Aronke Feyi-Emmanuel, said that her online market space was unique because it focuses on only goods produced in Africa for children and mothers-to-be.
She disclosed that she ventured into the business having noticed that expectant and nursing mothers int the low and middle income categories were also patronising home-made products.
She said that the continuous increase in foreign currency against the Naira has little or no effect on her business and her partners because most of the goods were produced in Nigeria.
She said that her platform would continue to improve its brands for mothers and their babies. She said that she was passionate in driving the sales in order to drastically reduce the people of families that patronise imported products for their children.
“Africa has enormous potential that is capable of flattening the unemployment curve that has continued to ravage the continent. If we need to be liberated from the shackles that have held us back for many decades, we need to begin to look within. We are the solution that is needed for growth of the economy of the continent. The commerce and industry is one of the industries that can bring us rapid development.
“We have a mobile application and website that can be navigated easily. At the moment, we have 47 vendors at the moment who are Nigerians and key players in the childcare industry. Over 200 products are listed on the platform. There could have been more but we carry out quality assessment for those who want to come on board.
“We are very deliberate and firm in our quality control mechanism. The fact that the goods are made in Africa doesn’t mean that they are substandard. The goods must be tested and trusted in order to win the buyer’s confidence,” she said.
One of the guest speakers at the event, who is the president of the African Government Stakeholders Engagement Forum, the Association of African Start-ups, Mrs. Just Ibe said Africa needs strategic business revolution to maximise its untapped resources. She emphasised the role collaboration plays in harnessing the endowment that God has bestowed on Africa.
She said that it was high time Africa began to embrace emancipation by taking the bold steps to defile the old ways of doing things and moving away from internal and external forces that have held Africa back from becoming economically viable as it ought to be.
“You and I may be seeing different destinations as far the growth of this continent is concerned. There must be a synergy among us on exactly what we want to achieve and how soon is this possible.
“I warmly welcomed Feyi-Emmanuel’s idea because I want to see a Nigeria whereby the bulk of the basic things we use are manufactured in Africa. We must strive to stop importation of all manner of goods from outside the continent. We must continue to think Africa because no one else can do it better for us.
“For African business to grow rapidly there must be innovation. This is thinking about local ways to solve local problems that is attractive globally. The products must be unique, of high quality and globally competitive.
“I know that there many challenges that confront local manufacturers. But there is no country where there are no unique challenges. The ability to defile all the odds at the gestation period is what makes the difference. Resilience is required to succeed in every business. People around you might not be able to motivate you but you have to motivate yourself to succeed,” Ibe said.