We really love to party in Nigeria. From East to West, North and South, there are different events including weddings, christening, housewarmings, political rallies, and festivals among others. That was a 2014 Bloomberg article emphasised the love of Nigerians for parties by stating that $17 million was spent on parties in Lagos over a five-month period, at least one-fifth of them on weddings.
For each of these parties, a particular traditional attire is selected. For example, for a wedding, the bride’s family will choose their own attire and the same goes for the groom’s family members and their invitees. This attire is popularly and widely referred to as Aso-Ebi.
You can only imagine the stress and difficulty party organisers go through to purchase these Aso-Ebi as well as distribute them. It can be unbearable at times.
Henceforth, you do not need to go through this anymore. You can leave that responsibility for Fabricsphere.
The job of Fabricsphere is to help potential customers purchase or buy any Nigerian traditional attire.
Founded by Venn Oputa, Fabricsphere is a startup for sourcing for the right fabric be it ankara, lace, atiku, and aso-oke at affordable market prices.
Oputa who founded the online marketplace in November 2016 said that one of his biggest challenges is that the sellers of the fabrics are not tech savvy. His words: “The money helped but still the complications of a marketplace and the fact that the fabrics retailers and wholesalers in the market weren’t tech savvy enough to remain on the platform was another challenge.”
How did he overcome this challenge? Again, Oputa said: “I decided to take another approach. I was done being an internet entrepreneur checking Alexa rankings and our dashboard hoping for cash flow. I knew if anything was going to change I had to make a move. I made a call to one of the merchants who had initially accepted our idea and explained to her that I’ll like to come to the market more often to learn from her and observe what and how customers made their decisions on a fabric. She was skeptical at first but she agreed”, he concluded
If we go by the sheer number of parties and events organised in the country, then Oputa will soon be smiling to the bank as the idea of buying fabrics online is gradually catching up with Nigerians.
