Nigerian girl-child education advocate and filmmaker Zuriel Oduwole spoke alongside Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Ndaba Mandela at an event organised by one of France’s largest social development NGO’s Printemps Solidaire.

The event brought more than 500,000 youths to the Champs Elysees, in celebrating the power of youths in changing the perception of social issues across the globe.

Zuriel shared her experiences as head of Dream Up, Speak Up, Stand Up (DUSUSU) Foundation. She spoke about balancing being a youth, with her interests such as Girl Education advocacy and Filmmaking. Ndaba Mandela, the Grandson of the South African icon Nelson Mandela and head of Africa Rising Foundation, spoke about the importance of a good Legacy, having come from one himself – Mandela.

Melinda Gates commended Zuriel for finding her passion early, and working to make a difference in the lives of girls across the globe. Zuriel shared her idea of building an e-school platform for girls in the rural parts of Africa.

At 27, he is already the CEO of two companies in Nigeria worth millions of naira. His clothing line, Owambe Clothings, is a well-known brand that promotes both indigenous African styles and western styles. 

After graduating from the university, Ola-Abraham Emmanuel, decided to go into fashion designing after picking interest in the business during the mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and has not looked back. He has styled personalities like former Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan, the current Governor of Ogun State, Ibikunle Amosun, and many others. He has about 18 full time staff in his workforce.

His second company is agriculture-based. The young entrepreneur has acquired large acres of land in the South western part of the country, which he subsidises to youths and adults who want to go into farming. He does not only sell the land to would-be farmers, he also has a team that helps the individuals with the farming; all they need to do is acquire the land and his team will do the farming,

In a chat with Olamide Babatunde, he speaks of his engagement in both industries.

Excerpt:

Meeting the man
My name is Ola-Abraham Emmanuel, a 27-year-old Nigerian and I am the CEO of Owambe Clothings. I am one of the few entrepreneurs who changed the face of fashion and agriculture in Nigeria. I am a trained journalist but found love in agriculture at childhood and fashion designing from NYSC orientation camp.

After my NYSC, I established my company, Owambe Clothings, with 18 employees. In less than a year, the company has sewn over 3,000 Nigerian attires. I also design clothes for former President Goodluck Jonathan, Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State, top celebrities, civil servants and government officials. Three years ago, I organised Africa’s largest fashion show, a show where I featured 112 models from Nigeria, Togo, Benin Republic and Ghana to exhibit my designs in one show and one event. That show had more than 800 guests in attendance, and the Governor of Ogun State was represented.

I also initiated an agriculture initiative called “Own a Hectare with 80k.” I have  encouraged over 50 young Nigerians to go into farming by providing lands at affordable rate and instalment  payments.

Entrepreneurship rather than journalism
The media communicates to the people in a bid to change their perceptions. Fashion is the same. Our designs change trends, speak to people’s attention, affection and create attraction or repulsion. My love for fashion is to change the way we see the world and what we wear. I want Nigerians to wear Nigeria Monday to Friday. Therefore, in my fashion, I’m still doing my media work, which is agenda setting. So, as you can see, it is a different field but the same objective.

Start-up capital
I had initially approached one of the Federal Government’s SME funds in 2011 but along the line it stopped. Then I raised money with the most important currency in the world. Integrity! Because I possess a tangible amount of integrity I could get sufficient funds from friends, families and even enemies.

Dealing with omo-nile (land grabbers)
I think the omo-nile issue is worse in Lagos. This is because there are a lot of people and limited land. In other places, it is not like that. Some of our lands are bought from government; some are bought from people who inherited it. We meet them, tell them our passion and make them believe and buy into it, we negotiate and pay. And about the fundraising, before I bought lands, my other business had raised a reasonable amount of money then I also met with friends and families again. Remember, I have never disappointed them. So it was easy for them to part with their money too. Some gave their money as investors, others as loan. Whichever way, we are getting close to our dream.

Response to agric project, especially the youth
The Nigerian youth needs help. Tell them to work, they say no job. Give them job they say it is too difficult and time consuming. 80 per cent of the people who have bought into this idea are adults. The young constitutes only about 20 per cent. They are not ready to do anything. They want quick and fast money. Nothing comes easy. Not even dying.

Managing the workforce
I don’t interact personally with all of them and some of them are not in Lagos. We only get to interact twice in a year at our end of year party and sales/or any other event. To lead them, each department has its head and each head reports to me directly. They all have tasks they execute. From my experience, I learnt that to best deal with staff, you must motivate them, threaten them and also punish them. So that is what I do when necessary.

Since graduation, have you ever worked for anyone?
Since graduation I have not worked for anyone.

Family/business
Marriage has changed my work routine because it has made it better. Before now, it was almost like I live and work in the office because most of the time, I sleep in the office and work round the clock. Getting married made it more effective. I get more organised, get home to think more and effectively with my partner. Then come to work the following day to effect the plans and the thought we had. Aside that, I write a lot and my wife also helps me with the editing. She does that better than I do.

Meet 22year old Oyindamola Omotuyi who is set to convocate on the 24th of january as the Best graduating student for the 2015/2016 session from the department of Systems Engineering with a perfect cgpa of 5.0.

An SS3 art student of Community Staff Schools Asokoro told newsmen that he invented the motorcycle to ease the mode of transportation in Nigeria and Africa at large.

He stated that he has been riding the prototype as a mode of transportation from his house to the school for more than three months without any problems.

His words: “I like things that involve mechanical, assemble and dissemble. This made me perceived I can do something different to better the means for transportation.

“My motor-bike has features that are partly bicycle and partly motorcycle,’’ he said.

On his part, the principal of the school, Sa’idu Ahmed said that it was a thing of joy for such one of the art students to use his talent for such a discovery. “I have gone to his house to encourage him and he later told me that he had finished the project".