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From Geoffrey Anyanwu and Abasianam Philip, Enugu
In a society where many of the female folk feel it is normal to depend on men to meet their financial needs, a teenager, Charity Nweze, has said every woman should be self-reliant.
The 19-year-old, who hails from Nkerefi in Nkanu East Local Government Area of Enugu State, has taken the bull by the horns by venturing into shoe-making business, a trade that is dominated by men.
Like the saying that one’s name leads him or her, the teenager’s name, Chinecherem, has somehow motivated her to take bold steps, having no one to lean on. She said she lost parental love and care while she was still an infant when her parents separated. She claimed that her parents abandoned her and her elder sister as they remarried and started new familes.
Chacha, as she is popularly known at the Ogbete Market in Enugu, where she learnt her shoe making skills, resolved to take her destiny in her hands after managing to complete her secondary school education.
As gathered, her zeal to cater for her needs made her apprenticeship a lot easier and quicker. In less than the agreed time, she became a master of the trade, to the astonishment of her master and colleagues.
Daily Sun got to know about Chacha through one of her products worn by a visitor to the office who, in the course of discussion, disclosed that his footwear, which everyone thought was foreign-made, was made by a young lady at Ogbete Market.
A visit to the market to locate her was made easy due to her popularity among her colleagues, coupled with the fact that she was about the only female shoemaker there.
Telling her story to Daily Sun and detailing why she went for the craft, Chacha said: “I would love to further my education, if the opportunity comes. I am still believing God that it will happen when I do not expect.
“However, I realize that in Nigeria of today a woman is not supposed to totally depend on anybody to live. Hence, instead of me being a liability to anyone, I decided to learn a hand work, acquire useful skills and make some money to enable me further my education.
“For a very long time, I wanted to go into the making and selling of clothing, but I had this thought in my mind that if I should add shoe-making to it, it’s going to benefit me the more. That means I will be making more profit because it’s what I am producing myself. That has been my dream, that whenever you come to my shop and pick any cloth of your choice, you get a matching footwear, so that has been the reason I said I would go and learn this shoe-making before starting up my clothing business.
“I have learnt hair-dressing before now, that was in 2018/2019. Hairdressing is just natural with me. So, I decided to go to a shop to make sure I have a certificate as a qualified hairstylist.
“I learnt shoe-making at Holy Ghost Ogbete Main Market. My friend was posting slippers online, so I was patronizing him then, until one day I decided to ask him, ‘Do you sell these slippers for someone else or does someone own the shop?’ He said, No, he produced the slippers himself.
“I told him I had been longing to learn the work and how I wanted to go to Aba to learn it. He said they also produced it in Enugu. Then I was at Agbani Nkanu West. And we agreed on the terms for me to begin.
“I made up my mind to take the risk. When I went there, it was mostly males that I was seeing there, young guys, to be precise. I became worried about how I was going stay here. But he encouraged me that I could cope. Later, I started loving what they were doing. Though I saw two other females there, they were only coming once in a while.
“The guy that took me to that place showed me another person, that the person was his boss. He said the person would teach me very well more than him; so I asked the guy how much he was going to collect from me, he said N30,000 and some drinks.
“When I was about to start the work, I told everyone in the family but no one was willing to help me. I told my boss I would be paying in installments. I started learning the craft on December 12, 2020, having finished my West African Examinations Council (WAEC) exams on December 5. Before the end of 2021 I was able to acquire the requisite skills, and that wasn’t up to one year. It was about six months or thereabouts. After that, I started producing my own shoes on my own and people, mostly ladies, began to patronize me.”
She said, while learning the trade, high cost of transportation and food were major challenges for her.
She said: “Every day, I go out by 6am and I would be back home by 8pm because of the traffic, coupled with the fact that we also closed late. And, as apprentices, we have to wait until our master permits us to leave. I was also always teased by the guys who call me female shoemaker, and so many other remarks such as asking me if I was going to use the business to feed my children?
“To be frank, shoe-making is not an easy craft. There are so many tools for this work but I don’t have all. I do go to people that have the complete instruments to help me. For example, when it comes to sewing, I normally go to someone to help me sew and I pay the person. Not that I can’t sew, but I don’t have a sewing machine. Therefore, I end up using the profit I make in jobs to pay people that help me with their machines and those machines are costly.
“If I can get assistance to own my own machines, especially the sewing and filing machines, it will really boost my work. By God’s grace, I am sponsoring myself to do everything, but it is not easy.
“My parents separated; my mom is in Abuja and my dad in Lagos. My parents are not close to me. It is just God that has been seeing me through my challenges. My dad has remarried; the same is applicable to my mom.”
On her future ambition, Charity said she would love going back to school with the hope of becoming a lawyer.
Her words: “The main reason I learned this work is to be supporting myself in school. Even if I have someone else that will assist me or support me, it will lighten my burden.
“My advice to young ladies is that if a woman can stand for herself, a man can’t easily insult her. If you can fend for yourself, you will have much respect even in your family. Every lady needs to help herself, even if it selling pancakes at N50.”
