Meet 2017 TEF Alumni, Franklin Isinguzo who runs a Fashion and apparel printing startup in Nigeria

Description of his business

The business has two sections which is: Ready to wear urban clothing and apparel branding / printing.

How long the business has been in existence

Over 36 months.

What led him to be an entrepreneur (His passion for fashion)

The trendiest designer in those days while he was schooling at the Federal Government College Minna was Sean John. He had loved this brand and as a result would use his pen to write the signature brand ‘Sean John’ on the shirts of his classmates. He enjoyed thinking out of the box so much that when he got into the University, he would use markers to design more professionally on shirts till they looked better and different.

This metamorphosed into designing t-shirts for his family as well as friends of the family. The more people wore these shirts the more encouraged he became. Upon completing his tertiary education in 2015, his major customer owned a bar at Lekki Gardens, Lagos, Nigeria.

His good marketing skills and creativity had charmed this customer so much that they both struck a deal ‘Franklin could now use the office space and the printing materials that the customer had acquired but will remit 60% of his returns on a weekly basis’.

Franklin had used this office space judiciously and had renumerated this benefactor and his staff (Four permanent staff and two contract staff) as at when due.

Over time and with more business deals, it became more obvious that he needed to scale his business and that includes increasing the size of his space. He had applied to the Tony Elumelu Foundation entrepreneurship program in 2017 and was happy to be selected.