By Lawrence Enyoghasu
Nobody gave George Ayoola, the CEO of Ayu’s Kampala a chance to survive, while growing up. With bleak prospect of being educated or providing for himself as a child of poor parents, he turned what was available into a huge opportunity; he learnt to make Kampala dress from his best friend’s father. And it paid off. Today, George is a household name in the tie-and-dye fabric industry. He dominates the market in the Shitta area, in Surulere, Lagos State. With some success, he later sponsored himself to school.
How did you start?
When I was in Junior Secondary School, JSS 1, my best friend’s father was a tie-and-dye artist; whenever I went to play with him, my interest would always be drawn to his father and I discovered that somehow I am talented in the art. But it was not until my Senior Secondary School that I really focused on it.
Throughout my secondary school I was the one funding myself with the money I made from batik. It was very tough working and earning stipends to foot the cost of my education.
How did you cope doing this with your studies?
I wouldn’t say I was actually learning, it was as if I was playing, because we were having fun at that time. My dad noticed that it was not disturbing my studies. Consequently, he didn’t stop me. I continued doing it. He allowed me to learn mostly during the weekends or vacations.
How did your friends view your taking to the vocation?
They were making jest of me back then. They thought that Kampala was not a really good vocation to learn, but I thank God that I did not make any mistake listening to them and that I made with the right choice.
Is Kampala something one can learn by just hanging around?
Like I said you can learn any trade by hanging around, but what you learn would just be the basics, not the nitty-gritty. When it comes to tailoring, one can look at how they fix button or thread, but when it comes to sewing or cutting, you have to learn it, you have to give your time; hanging around would just give you the basic and nothing more than that.
How much did you save as apprentice while in secondary school?
Then, I was learning, so when customers of my boss came, they always gave me stipends, what I had then was just to play around, but I would say I was living well above my colleagues, they used to ask money from me. While I was in higher institution, I had friends, some I paid their school fees, some I fed.
When did you fully start your own business?
I started fully after I rounded off my NYSC, that was in 2004.
How do you feel as a graduate doing tie-and-dye?
After my HND, I went for a job interview with Standard Chartered Bank. While they were going through my résumé, they saw that I was into Kampala art and they asked: why are you looking for a job? Why don’t you face this? I lied that it was a family job and that I was looking for a more challenging job. They said, go back to it. I thank God for that. I wouldn’t say it went bad, because the output was good for me, if not, I would have been in a not-so-good position, today we have bankers leaving their jobs to come and register for training.
What is the uniqueness and success secret of Ayu’s Venture?
One thing about Kampala is that it is a compilation of so many things. Under Kampala, we have batik, adire, eleko; there is the needle work, the machine work and so on. In order for you to do this job, you have to be creative. Creativity is crucial, because if you depend on what you have been taught alone, then basically, you can’t go far, but the moment you are creative, you do most of your designs, you would definitely be in business.
What is the greatest challenge you’ve faced in this job?
That would be the issue of copyright. I remember years back, when some people came around regularly, got samples from me, at times they bought, then they took it back to their companies and mass produce it, by the time they brought them back, they would be cheaper, because they were not of good quality. People prefer to buy cheaper product, but they soon discovered that it didn’t last and that affected the business then.
You can’t compare handmade works with that of a machine; anything mass produced lacks quality, anything done naturally comes with quality. I’m not saying mass production doesn’t have any quality but the problem is that they are after quick money. Kampala is now expensive, priced almost at the same rate as lace. A piece of Kampala now goes for between N5,000 and N8,000 the same price you can get some yards of lace. Previously, Kampala was sold for N1,500, at the time lace was between N3,000 and N4,000, because lace was deemed to be of better quality. But now, the prices are almost at per.
Can you shed light on the fabric and materials used for Kampala?
They are not made locally, but are imported, so this affects our pricing. For this reason, the exchange rate definitely influences what we are doing. The amount of money we used to buy 30 yards of fabric is what we now use to buy 10 yards. Then, 10 yards was around N1,500. Now we buy 10 yards for about N4,700 or more. Without dyeing at all, 5 yards of the fabric itself is about N2,500, by the time you work on it, definitely you won’t sell less than N5,000.
How do you fare business-wise?
What is really helping me is that I have fashion designers that bring work for me and keep the business running, which is why I’m still in the business and you may say I am doing well.
Has there been any time you were insulted by a client?
Yes, definitely. Clients have different characters. There are some that would be nice to you; they would encourage you, even give you ideas. Also, there are some who are ready to steal your ideas–whatever you do for them, they won’t appreciate it; because they want to get more from you, they keep condemning your designs, but only to take advantage; there are some that are your age mates and some that are even younger than you, but what will you do?
So you just have to be patient. You can’t send them away. What we are after is, let them bring the job and we would do it for them and always avoid problems. Whatever they give us, we do it to their standard.
Clients don’t always come to you. So you go to their offices. They could ask you to wait hours. When you finally meet them, they ignore you with phone calls as if you are not there and, they will still end up talking rudely. Another thing is that they are so busy, they give you a design and after a week or two, they must have forgotten and started shouting, who asked you to do this? You just have to be patient with them.
How do you see the future of Kampala business?
The future is bright, but it has to do with exposure here in Africa and outside Africa, the business is very good.
What can the government do to protect and develop the trade?
I would say the government is far away from us, I won’t lie to you. Like I said, the exchange rate is really affecting us. You can see what is happening with the dollar, it is rising, when President Buhari came in, it was around N200, but now it is close to N400, it is really affecting us.
What is your advice to those thinking of having a paying job?
To be sincere, in Nigeria you have to learn a skill after secondary school, before you gain admission and after your higher education, because the jobs are not there. So, when you learn a skill, it is an added advantage. Even if you can’t do it by yourself alone, there are people who would do it on your behalf; what you have learnt in school, put it into practice. My advice to the young ones is that education is good, but you have to back it up with a trade, you can never tell, maybe, that’s what you would end up doing.