Access to raw materials, high exchange rate our greatest challenges – Tosin Lawson

A prominent fashion designer, Tosin Lawson spoke with Ngumah Isaac on the fashion industry in Nigeria. Excerpts:

Tell us about your background?

.
My name is Tosin Lawson the creative director of African Things. I have been doing this business for the last six to seven years. I started when I came back from University of Nottingham, we were first doing Ankara and different small accessories. I started selling to the school that I was working, then during my NYSC. So from there because I was in a school, I now started selling school bags and note books to the students as well and little by little it evolved to where it is today.

Educate us about your innovative designs that empower Africans.

Actually I studied product designs and manufacturing in school and from there I just use my experience to innovate. So whenever I am coming up with designs I first think of the function, how would this person going to use this bag, how would it help them? What would they use it for? First think of the whole function of the bag. I also studied the current fashion style and evolved also a modern African style so it is not just the same design they see everywhere.

What exactly does AArican Things entail?

African Things is an African infusion in a contemporary way. I dId not want it to be like African products so a modern take I feel, like for a long time image wise have been stocked in a particular image. People wear more cloths and wrapper and all that, I wanted to use that into a modern era to use our own to come into the future So that’s African Things is about. a modern take of Africa.

What motivated you into the fashion business?

When I went abroad, I schooled abroad and there Africa was seen as backward. if I lived in a mud house, it was really the image that people saw. I wanted to make sure even as I was designing this product and love them and say if Africa can do this there is something there in a modern era, there is the pride there. So that is what made me to start African Things to show that Africa is more than the backward image that people see.

We wanted to make sure that the quality always meets international standard.

 

What informed your using the name African Things?

African, I wanted to makesure that as the company grows, we stay focus in promoting Africa and African things.

Tell us more about your fashion accessory store.

We have a stores at lkeja City Mall because of COVID-19 we have to close it and now we are focusing more on bulk orders. So when a company is looking for conference items, if you are looking for conference items and different things, we produce for costomers. For example if you need tee shirts for your events or schools, we can supply you with those tee shirts and if you need bags for conference events we can also produce bags specifically to your taste, your colour, your brand
We will show to you the design after we have done bulk order, the sample is made and approved. Thereafter you can pay deposit and from there we now make the full production and you pay on delivery.

What is your business prospect?

Like I said, we started about seven years ago and we were selected for Tony Elumelu Foundation in 2015 and we started with about five stores, and had about 20 stores across Nigeria before the outbreak of COVID-19. We have closed down some of them but we are working hard to go back. Like I said earlier, we opened a store in ikeja City Mall which we closed but hoping to reopen soon. Yes, we are just expanding.

How?
.
Like I said we want to open more stores, we will also have our outlet we will have franchise and events.

What about your business growth?

Our business has been growing and we have been very thankfull to God for where we are today. We started small but we are expanding gradually, now we are selling thousands of bags in a month. The objective is to export abroad, for every household in Africa to have our bag. We want to get to that level where Africa people recognise Africa Things, that they know that this is made in Africa and we can be proud to hold this as our own.

What is your focus?

Product expansion and export. Specifically, we sell African bye products from wear to bags to mostly the United Kingdom and hoping to expand there as well
Just to focus on expansion and export continuously to make foreign exchange.

Does African Things make life colourful?

it is a pride as you are carrying African Things bags, you feel a sense of pride knowing that this is my Africa, this was made by one of my own, that is what we want African Things to be.

What is your mission?

My mission is to export African products across the world literally and be in Africa countries

How do you source for raw materials?

Unfortunately a lot of our materials are imported but we get some of the raw materials from our markets like adire and asoke which are made locally.

What are your most cherished products?

We make school bags, laptop bags, tee shirts, accessories and much more, those are the products we focus on.

Any award so far?

Like I said begore, we are selected for Tony Elumelu Foundation 2015 and eight years ago I did my MBA at Lagos Business School and we are selected for face foundation.

Are there trainees under you?

We are planning to launch our Training School where different people can come on our platform and learn eventually how to make bags and different accessories, shoes to bags, Adire and different vocational skills. So we are hoping to launch it on May 2022 and it is going to be called school of Aba.

What are your challenges in the industry?

Access to raw materials, forex is going up, exchange rate is high, the cost of materials is increasing.
Also getting reliable tailors can be difficult because mataining that standard of quality have been difficult in the past. We are always making sure that we are maintaining high quality and have been one of our major challenges and we are making sure that we improve on systems that ensures that quality is maintained in every aspect.

Did you get any support while starting your business?

Yes, I got support from my family, my mum especially gave me a start up capital followed by my dad and like i said Tony Elumelu Foundation gave us funds after that. When i was working i used my salary to start the business, I also got loans from GTB Bank, Lagos State Employment Trust Fund and we continued to expand our business.

Is your business capital intensive?

Yes especially when you are supplying to stores you go in to inventories and when they sell they now pay you back. We have a lot of cash tied down but you should make sure you have a big inventories to expand.

What can the incumbent government do to promote fashion industry?

Building infrastructure specifically a hub where people can go to work than to either rent equipment 24 hours electricity to use internet and other capacity building, software. If iwe can have a hub with free internet access to machinery where people can come together and share ideas and share resouces together and expand a bit for infrastructure that will be great

What were you doing before venturing into fashion?

I was working at the chair centre as a furniture designer so I did office designs, offices that wanted to design their layout function.

What is your contribution to lob creation in the country?

Like I said we produce large quantity, there is a lot of tailors working with us. Whenever we have buyers, tailors come together and from there we hire them, it depends on the number of producers, the production size that we are doing that we now hire tailors. We are working on vocational course where we can develop other tailors to come into the system.

What is your view on unemployment rate in Nigeria and the role of fashion industry in addressing it so far?

Fashion industry allows for people that are not educated because it is the manual labour, you don’t need to have the highest education to be able to come into this type of industry.
It is something that you can learn in a few months.

 

 

For a better society