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By Enyeribe Ejiogu
Victoria Chinonyerem Ezenachukwu easily comes across as a focused, determined, victorious lady. Her Igbo name, which means, ‘God is with me’ has consistently proven true in her journey of craft mastery and entrepreneurship.
From starting out with making leather slippers (pams) for fellow male students and even lecturers at the Federal University of Technology, FUTO, Owerri, Imo State, where she studied Crop Science and Agriculture, graduating in 2021, she has grown her bespoke shoe-making enterprise, Khal Designs, into a sought-after footwear company that now imports, distributes and sales specialised machines for the leather craft industry which carry her brand name, KHAL. And she does it with a level-headedness, transparent and honest dealing decorated with that warm, friendly, gaped-toothed smile seen in her numerous TikTok and Instagram videos. In this interview, she shares the inspirational story of her start, journey and how the pain of losing her father soon after securing admission into FUTO became a motivation to achieve success and someday immortalise his name.
Tell me a bit about yourself.
I am an indigene of Aguata Local Government Area, Anambra State. I was born in Lagos and I have lived all my life in Lagos. I had my primary and secondary school education here in Lagos before going for further studies at the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Imo State. In addition to speaking Igbo language, I also speak fluent Yoruba.
You studied Crop Science and Agriculture at FUTO. So, how did this switch happen?
Most people no longer do what they studied. It’s one thing to study something. It’s another thing to chase your passion. And the education system in Nigeria usually doesn’t permit people to study what they want to study. What I wanted to study was chemical engineering. But issues with UTME pushed me to Crop Science and Agriculture. In 2016 I lost my father. When I got admission, there was no need to work. I was getting upkeep from my father. But when my father died, my upkeep was slashed. This created the need to work. Then a church, Campus Charismatic Movement (CCM), announced a training session for students on how to revamp Ankara crafts, shoes and bags. When that opportunity came up, I joined. At the end of the training, I was the best graduating student. The trainer employed me immediately and I started to work for her. She paid me for some months. And then she started to owe. That was when I began looking for my own customers. I started posting my craft online and people began to patronise me directly. I stopped working for her. Then we had the ASUU strike in school. Instead of sitting at home, I started to learn how to make Ankara from scratch. I went for further training by a lady online. After the training, I began making Ankara crafts from scratch, and also engaged in physical training. People were coming to my hostel (lodge) in school to learn. I also started holding physical training in Lagos while school was in session. I would come to Lagos, do two weeks training and return to school. I was trying to balance the hustle with my studies. By 2017, my Ankara craft customers gradually started requesting for leatherworks. So I had to go for advanced training.
I came home to Lagos, to attend my first leather craft training at Oyingbo where I learned how to make slippers for two months. I went back to school. I bought my sewing machine. It was the first sewing machine and a filing machine. I got a space along FUTO Road and started making slippers (pams) for male students, indigenes of the community; even lecturers patronised me.
In my 400 Level, in 2019, I went to Port Harcourt for the mandatory industrial training (IT). During that time I undertook further training because I wanted to learn how to make shoes. But my boss didn’t quite know how to do it well. It’s one thing to know something before you are able to pass the knowledge. So his skill was based on guesswork. When you want to make something, there are procedures to follow. He didn’t know the procedures. Though the results were fine, you could tell that he was struggling to make it. So I was not able to learn as much as I wanted. But in Port Harcourt, my slippers-making skills improved and got better. I went back to school, continued working, but still wanted to properly learn how to make shoes. In 2020 I found a place where I could undergo the master class training in Lagos in 2020. But I couldn’t afford the fees at that time, which was N300,000. So I started saving while I was working. I spent one whole year saving money. By this time I was in my final year. After I graduated , with N300,000 saved, I went back to the trainer to start. He told me the amount had increased to N500,000 because one year had passed since I first met him. I had to start looking for how to complete the money. Eventually, I got the complete money. In October 2021, I went for the master class training. This was after COVID-19. I started on October 1, 2021, Nigeria’s Independence Day. When I finished the training, which ran for six months from October to March 2022, I went for national youth service.
So what followed after the training?
After the training, I discussed it with my family. My siblings bought me two machines, which are the flat-bed sewing machine and the skiving machine. They also got me other necessary materials to start.
Are you the youngest?
I’m the seventh child. I have a younger brother. We are eight children.
Did you start in this building?
No, I didn’t start here. I started in my other branch. My elder sister owns a school building. She gave me a classroom. I repainted it, did some setup, and I started working and began posting my products online. I have always been an online person. About 99 per cent of my sales are made online. So I kept on posting. However, in 2022, I struggled a lot with sizing but I just kept pushing. There were a lot of secrets that my trainers didn’t tell me, so I was struggling with the shoe-making craft. You could say that I spent 2022-2023 mastering the craft on my own, learning from my mistakes.
I was busy, but I was not seeing money in my account because there were a lot of mistakes that had to be corrected, and these things were costing a lot of money. But by 2023-2024, I mastered the craft and got a strong grip in it. At that point, I decided it was time for the world to see me. One thing about me is that whatever I decide to do, I will always give it my best. My father used to say, what is worth doing is worth doing it well. I always act on that word in my everyday life. I wanted so much to be a master of the craft.
The moment I mastered the craft, I knew that it was time for me to let the world see me, and social media had to be the way. So I started looking for ways to let people see me. I struggled until I saw an online training on content creation and I joined. I did that training in December 2023, and by January 2024, I made my first 10,000 followers on TikTok. That was such a massive growth. So you can tell that the training really, really, helped me. That was where my viral story started. After that training, I went viral. People were reposting me. I had a lot of interviews. I got awards, and from there, life changed. That’s where I now got resources to move into this space.
In one of your videos, I saw that you have machines produced under your brand name, Khal. How did that happen?
Remember, I said my brothers got me the flatbed machine I use. A lot of my friends who are shoemakers, when they need to sew certain things, they come to use my machine. When they use my machine and go back home, they complain about their own machines. Now the type of machine is not available in Nigeria. We imported it by ourselves and there’s an obvious difference in what the machine does, compared to the types in the market. Those that wanted to buy machines came to me. I brought in the first one for free because the first person happened to be my friend. She referred some other person to me. Then I realised that I could key into this as a business, and that was how I started to import machines
I have an agreement with the company that makes the machine to sell it in Nigeria under my brand name, which I registered as a trademark with the Federal Government of Nigeria. There are a lot of machines in the industry that I have discovered. One of them is the airbrush. Before 2024, nobody knew anything about airbrush machines in the shoe-making industry. It was in my quest for knowledge that I learnt about it. I imported it and started selling it. And anybody who sells now is doing so because I have made it popular in the industry.
What does the future look like for the machine sales side of the business?
I am fully focused on reaching and surpassing the MOQ (minimum order quantity) of the producer of the Khal machine. I am devising various strategies to achieve this.
What has the response been like among other shoemakers?
I don’t just sell shoemaking machines, I sell solutions to the problems they have because I have encountered the same problems. I try to fix the problems for the upcoming shoe designers. So, I just help them get solutions. I’ll direct you according to what you do. I’ll let you know what you need and what you don’t need. It’s basically creating awareness. That’s the first important thing because when people don’t know, they don’t know.
Somebody reached out to me. She wanted to acquire a particular brand of shoemaking machine. The seller didn’t have it, and instead of just saying, I don’t have it, he took the one he had, cleaned off the name of the brand on it, and then used a sticker to put the name of the brand she wanted and delivered it to her. That was dishonesty, and it’s not what my brand stands for. So, when awareness goes out that there is a seller who is not just honest, but who is giving you a good quality machine, I’m talking about very durable machines, then they will know the right places to buy from.
Given Nigerians’ penchant for buying imported goods, is your shoemaking venture generating sustainable earnings?
My shoemaking business is giving me a lot of money. I am getting a lot of patronage. Training students is also another source of income. Content creation is another source of income. So when I am selling machines, even though it’s a business, I am helping my colleagues who are just starting off. So, they need to know that this is where you should be. If the news can go around that if you need anything, shoemaking machines, because it’s not just a sewing machine, I have a lot of other machines in here. So they need to know that there are people you can still trust, people who can deliver.
Shoemakers in states outside Lagos don’t have people selling these machines over there. In fact, most of my customers come from outside Lagos. Because they don’t have anybody they can trust. The machines are expensive, and need somebody they trust and send over N700,000 for a machine and be sure that they will receive goods in good condition. I have built credibility and I have a track record of dealing transparently with my customers.
