Meet Aminat Toyin Taofeek — A Beneficiary of the SuPPoRT Initiative’s Community Connect Programme
Women love looking beautiful and looking good they say is good business. Make-up, wigs and clothes make some woman feel complete. Many women, young or old and across many cities in Nigeria love to change their looks every now and then. A wig is usually one way this can be achieved. They are easy to use and not as stressful as the weaves that are sown in or glued on. As a result, they have become a go-to, time-saving beauty hack and a source of income for makers of these hair extensions.
Taofeek Aminat Toyin, a 21-year-old woman from Ibadan North-East Local government area of Oyo State, had a desire to make wigs. She wanted to help women look more attractive while making money on the side. Her passion was only a dream until she was informed by the chairman of her community that an organization — Sustaining Programs and Partnerships on Reproductive Health Transformation (SuPPoRT) Community Connect Programme — was going to train young people on entrepreneurship and she had been chosen to be a part of the training.
Excited about the possibility, Aminat attended the first session where she was briefed on what the training would entail. She learned that not only would she be taught how to make wigs; the curriculum would also focus on leadership and mindset change; adolescent and Youth reproductive health and rights; financial management; and entrepreneurship. Together, these areas of focus were designed to help Aminat — and other participants of the training — learn how to plan their lives and live wholesome, impactful lives.
Aminat was excited!!. She quickly immersed herself into the sessions: a 2-week capacity building session, and a 4-week vocational session focused on wig making. She interacted with other young people like herself who were learning different vocational skills that the Community Connect program was offering: cake and confectionaries; ready to wear dress making; make up and fashion; fabrics and leather works; branding and customizing; graphics design; and event decorations and party planning.
After the six weeks elapsed, Aminat was informed that the SuPPoRT Initiative would be providing her with start-up tools worth N70,000 to get her started on her journey to being an entrepreneur.
Asked what the entire process was like for her, she responded: “I learnt about leadership and mindset change. Leadership is an act of motivating someone to achieve a common goal, while mindset change is what you have already in mind that you can do but you now have the opportunity to do it. On Family planning, we talked about how to abstain from unplanned pregnancy and on budgeting, we talk about how to make a budget in terms of how money flows in and out of my business. On leadership training, they taught us how we could have an impact on one’s society and can be a source of inspiration to others to the extent that they also become a source of value to their community too. I went into wig making to make a wig for people and to make them look attractive and it even saves time. I intend to make it a lucrative business so I can earn my own money from it and people will benefit from it because it will save their own time.”
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Sustaining Programs and Partnerships on Reproductive Health Transformation (SuPPoRT) is a six-month initiative funded by TJ. Mather in Oyo State and at the Federal level to provide continued technical assistance and institutional support towards sustaining Family Planning gains achieved by Nigeria Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI) over the last 10 years.
