I’ve been extremely busy in the last 2 weeks, we had 2 training sessions for one of our multinational clients back to back. That was Friday to Saturday and Thursday to Sunday, it was excitingly tiresome as we had to prepare for both sessions, manage both sessions and also share in their fun. I’ve been very sparsely online as well, but I’m back now, and watch this space…lol.
About Extreme Makeovers, I had gotten mails from a few well meaning people, asking wassup. Well, what we decided to do was get an independent journalist – The Managing Editor of Inspire Magazine, Kayode Odeleye to interview the top 3 candidates so we can have a closer look at their lives and see who we would be willing to help. Please read the three interviews, have a look at some of the pictures, and let’s together decide who the first beneficiary of Extreme Makeover Nigeria will be. Their stories are arranged in the order in which they were nominated in the first round.
Pictures for the first two can be found here
Story 2 (Mayor)
Background
Baderinwa Ademuyiwa Olanrewaju was born on Jan 16, 1979 into a family of 14. His mother, the second of three wives was not legally married to his dad. In his words, “I have 5 elder sisters and there was some trouble when I was born because my step mother didn’t want me to live as she did not have any son. My father was in six different cults and he wanted me at all costs. My grandmother took me and took care of me because of the problems.”
“My mother had another son for my father but my dad left and my mother had to shoulder the responsibility of taking care of the two of us, unfortunately my grandmother died and there was no one to assist her.”
“I went to primary school from 86 to 91 and secondary school from 91 to 97 with the intention of proceeding to university to study to be an engineer but there was no one to assist so I couldn’t go on. While in secondary school (JSS 3), I used to help an uncle who was into laundry and dry-cleaning and with time I started having my own customers aside my uncle’s. Before leaving secondary school, my mother gave birth to five more children for two other men making seven of us.
Current Situation
“I finally got admission into Unilorin in 2004 but realised I couldn’t cope as there would be no body to take care of my family in Lagos, so I had to come back here. I wrote the JAMB that year and scored 246 but I was not chosen. Things became very rough so I went back to offering laundry services, the major problem was that I didn’t have an office and my clients demanded an office where they could visit at any time and see their property secure. I started by going out to people’s houses to wash and iron since they didn’t want to patronise me because I did not have an office. But I had to stop because of the insults I kept on receiving. When I stopped going to homes, I started out by using my room as an office and going to offices to tell them about what I do. It was in the process I met Adeolu Akinyemi and my life changed in the process. Based on his advice, I decided that nothing could stop me and I was going to start fully. My family members gave me one of the shops in the family house where I stay but it requires a lot of money to put it in order.” His business is running and I saw his receipt booklets, fliers and 2 banners which he uses to create awareness.
Next Level
The next level for Lanre’s business is to renovate and expand the small shop which he was given by his family members. The shop is attached to the family house where he resides.
Financial Implications
“I need between 100 and 120 thousand to get things going but I have about ten thousand naira now.” I asked him for a breakdown of what he intends the sum on and here’s the breakdown.
Extension:40,000
Roof:20,000
Convenient Table:6,500
Industrial Iron:8,000
Wet Cloth Rack:5,000
Drums: 2,000
Brushes:1,000
Chemicals:8,000
Signboard:27,500
Fan:3,500
Nylon:1,000
Wall Hanger:7,000
Total:129,500
Story 1
Ogechi Agba
Ogechi is a Twenty-one year old first born in a family of six children who lost his dad sometime in 2003. He finished his SSCE in 2002 and since then has been looking for a means to further his education, he intends to study electrical engineering but has been having problems with finance. He plans to study part-time since his family depends on him and he can not leave them to go to school. He hopes to go to Yabatech since the school is good in engineering and offers part time courses.
Current Situation
“Right now, I am into sale of recharge cards and makes phone cards which I do to sustain and feed my family, pay my siblings’ school fees, house rent and any other thing that needs to be done. Recently, my immediate younger sister just got admission and I’ve been trying to sort her out.
I got admission into OSU sometime ago but did not have the N50,000 required for the school fees and I also thought of what I would be able to do to continue sustaining my family. My mother was never allowed to do anything while my dad was alive though she always wanted to trade as she only has a primary school certificate. She became very frail after my dad died in 2003 and though she wanted to work, it wasn’t quite possible as nobody really wants to employ her for the first time at her age. Right now, she takes care of babies for a family and gets 3500 per month. I will try to raise something for her so she will be able to start a small business but she manages with what she gets now while I take care of every other thing that needs to be done,” he says.
He is thinking of buying forms for Yabatech but has cash problems especially since he spent most of his capital that he uses to buy cards and even borrowed more from people to pay for his sister’s remedial programme. “I’ve paid back some of the debts but still owe about N20,000 which i used to pay for the house rent which came due about the time his sister was to go to school.”
Next Level for the business
The main problem for now is that he has eaten deeply into his capital and so does not even have cards to sell to his customers. His immediate need is to raise the quantity of cards he sells so his revenue can increase because of increased financial burden as he has to take care of his sister’s needs while in school.
He also hopes to expand his business by developing the idea he started about 3 years ago, which involves telling some of his friends that he sells credit so they can call him at any time and he will text airtime PIN to them.
Financial Implications
He says he will need about 200 thousand naira to increase the quantity of cards he sells. “If I have 100 thousand naira worth of cards, I am sure I will be able to attend to my customers around and then will be able to go into wholesale, get a system and printer also so that I can start printing the smaller value recharge cards. I bought some shares a while ago and attended a couple of seminars on stock trading; I will also want to open a CSCS account and trade in stocks.”
Breakdown
I asked him what he would do if he got about a hundred thousand and this is how he allocated it:
Cards: 50,000
Yabatech admission process: 10,000
Food stuff at home: 10,000
Open his CSCS account and trade shares: 40,000
Total: N110,000
Story 5 (Groundnut seller)
Background
Problems started for Mrs Anne Anyiam and her husband in August 1989 when he was laid off at the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) where he used to work. The financial difficulties that ensued compounded his sight as he could no longer afford to buy drugs for an eye condition diagnosed as glaucoma which he had been suffering from since the age of fifteen. His site rapidly grew worse till he became blind in both eyes in 1991. Mrs Anyiam used to cook at a construction company in Ikeja but had to stop two years ago.
Current Situation
She sells fruits and groundnuts at a small stall by the roadside in Oregun Ikeja and the proceeds from this she uses in taking care of her husband and six children. Their first child was born in 1989, the year her husband was laid off while the last was born three years ago. The children are all schooling except the last that has not started. They also rely on friends, church members and well wishers for the funding of their children’s education and the other needs of the family.
Next Level
Mrs. Anyiam would like to get a proper shop where she can continue her trading as well as expand if possible. She would like to go back to her cooking and open a restaurant as she says “If cooking moves.” She is sure her fruits ‘moves well’ and would like to have enough capital to buy more.
Financial Implication
She estimates she will need between four hundred and five hundred thousand to really set out and the basic needs as follows:
Shop: Minimother is N168,000 (N4,500 per month, pay for two years and then N30,000 each for agreement and agency fees)
Fruits: N3,500 (stock for a day)
Pots: N25,000
Plates & Cutlery: N10,000
Tables: N4,000
Plastic Chairs: 12,000 (10 @ N1,000 each)
Foodstuff: (10,000)
You can get history about this http://deoluakinyemi.com/2007/06/10/extreme-makeover-mini-edition/ , http://deoluakinyemi.com/2007/07/25/extreme-makeover-season1-results/
Let’s vote quickly so we can get on with this, already we have about 3 families who are willing to pick up the bills, but we can be a part of this too.