The mask revolution
. While the virus has infected millions of people worldwide and caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands others, it is not only a story of gloom and tragedy as it has led to a turnaround in the fortunes of many people, particularly in Nigeria where facemask business is booming among neighbourhood tailors.
Omolola would later reveal to her husband that the money she withdrew from the ATM was the proceeds of the numerous facemasks she had sewn and sold since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. “It was a woman in my neighbourhood who introduced me to a trader in Oshodi. The trader had liked the design of a mask the neighbour bought from me and subsequently contracted me to sew special masks for her and another friend of hers.
“Since customers have stopped bringing their personal fabrics and aso ebi because the ban on social functions is still in place, face mask production has become a huge compensation for me. “The precautions against the spread of coronavirus pandemic, including social distancing and ban on public gatherings, have put a stop to parties and social events on account of which people usually bring fabrics for us to sew.
“I have since been making money from masks. I make between N5,000 and N6,000 weekly because the vendors who sell the masks have become so many so that I now close late from my shop, which is right behind my residence.’’Like their counterparts in Lagos neighbourhoods, production and sale of face masks is a booming business for tailors and hawkers in the ancient city of Kano, the commercial nerve centre of northern Nigeria.
In the Fagge and Sabon Gari axis known for clusters of professional tailors, face mask business is enjoying a boom. Tailors in those areas are not only jostling to win contracts from religious organisations, they are also doing so from private individuals and organizations who place orders for masks which they in turn donate to people.
A teenage face mask vendor around Brigade Quarters in Gama, Jibrin Mustapha, 13, said: “I derive pleasure in selling face masks. I started the business recently. My elder brother named Mubarak, a tailor, introduced me to it. Mr Femi Osipitan, an Abeokuta-based fashion designer, believes that the COVID-19 pandemic is a blessing in disguise as he has redirected his energy from sewing designer wears to making facemasks.
Osipitan reckoned that if one aggregates the N3,000 daily for a month, the figure surpasses the national minimum wage, leaving the readers to make their own inferences on face masks business. Bello, who spoke through an interpreter, said he made his first trial from the remnants of fabrics from customers’ materials and came out with 250 pieces of facemasks at the end of the cutting and sewing.
“This period is a blessing for me. There is money in it because everybody is asking for facemask. So, the market is there for us. I make more money now producing face masks, unlike what obtained in the pre-lockdown era.”In Minna, the Niger State capital, tailors and vendors are laughing all the way to the banks following the boom in facemask business.
At the Kure Ultra-Modern Market, law enforcement agents sometimes do not allow people without facemasks into the market, hence they are forced to patronise mask vendors at the gate. “That was when people started coming to buy from me. Those who want to distribute to residents also patronise me. But that was two weeks ago. In the beginning, we made about 10 facemasks daily. But now, we make like 50 pieces daily because people are still buying.
Tawakalitu Gidado, a tailor and a mother of three, says she produces about 15 facemasks daily at N200 each. She noted that the business had impacted positively on her income. “With the entrepreneurship skills I got from the internet, I started producing facemasks from the pieces of cloths I had in my shop. Thereafter, I started going to the market to buy materials to use for the production.
A student of Okini Grammar School identified as Samuel told our correspondent that he makes about N600 from the sales of facemasks daily. “I am making profit from it. It is helping me and my family in terms of buying foodstuffs to survive the lockdown. If government didn’t make it compulsory, I don’t know where I would have got money from to feed my family.”
“I started the business when people began placing orders for them. The closeness of my shop to the main road also helped me. As I hang them for sale, people stop their vehicles to patronize me,’’ said another female tailor, Alice John. Makinde is the only governor in the Southwest who did not impose total lockdown as a measure to contain the spread of the virus, arguing that most residents depend on daily income for survival and that any imposition of lockdown in the state would put them at a great peril.
“It was profitable initially but those selling materials to us have since increased the prices of their stock. What we bought for say N700 during the first set, they sold to us for N1,700 in the second set. That has made it so difficult for us to make any profit.“That is why we are using this opportunity again to appeal to our kind-hearted governor to please increase the price for us in the second phase of another 500,000 masks.
Ondo State Government was on the verge of ordering for over N500,000 face masks from neighbouring states when it decided to contract tailors in the state to produce the item. One of them, Mrs. Abiodun Adewale, said she was already thinking of how to make ends meet since people were no longer sewing clothes to wear to ceremonies.
Nigeria Latest News, Nigeria Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Kanu threatens to sue FG over arrest of IPOB members - Latest Nigeria News, Nigerian Newspapers, PoliticsBy Chris Njoku, Owerri The leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, on Thursday said he would sue the Federal Government and Inspector-General of Police for illegal arrest of the IPOB members in Delta State. Police in the state arrested about 10 members of the organisation on Wednesday allegedly in possession of […]
Read more »
Fed Govt frowns as states reopen Mosques, Churches - Latest Nigeria News, Nigerian Newspapers, PoliticsFrom Vincent Ikuomola, Abuja Task Force to engage governors after Borno, Gombe, Zamfara, Adamawa eased lockdown More Lagosians favour return of lockdown In one fell swoop, four states in the North – Borno, Gombe, Adamawa and Zamfara – on Thursday reopened Mosques and Churches. It was a major easing of the lockdown imposed to curb […]
Read more »
Kehinde Bankole reads riot act to stingy guys - Latest Nigeria News, Nigerian Newspapers, PoliticsGbenga Bada Nollywood actress Kehinde Bankole has read a riot act to miserly guys in a recent Instagram post. The ‘October 1’ actress says she can’t stand ungenerous individuals and they don’t stand any chance with her. “I can’t stand a stingy person. cool guy or not, be stingy & it’s zero chance,” the dazzling […]
Read more »
Adamawa discharges eight new COVID-19 patients - Latest Nigeria News, Nigerian Newspapers, PoliticsThe Adamawa State Containment Committee on COVID-19 has announced the discharge of eight more patients from its isolation centre.
Read more »
COVID-19: FG blames high deaths on fear - Latest Nigeria News, Nigerian Newspapers, PoliticsThe Federal Government has expressed worries that there might have been an increase in the number of deaths not associated with coronavirus
Read more »
Mating in Ramadan - Latest Nigeria News, Nigerian Newspapers, PoliticsTherefore, Ramadan should not be used as an excuse to abdicate legal matrimonial responsibility by abstaining from the matrimonial bed.
Read more »