From an Early Start in Trading to Garment Making, Meet Ogenedoroh Udeh
At Age 14, Oghenedoro Udeh started her first business of sales of plantain chips. Together with a friend, She made the chips and sold to traders around who inturn retailed this. This she says was the beginning of her entrepreneurial journey which has now gone from trade to fashion. on to
Oghenedoro set up Fame design academy, a garment making factory that provides end to end apparel manufacturing solutions and training. Fame design offers young emerging designers the opportunity to create and produce their designs using its services and as well produces an in-house brand for children and women.
In 2016, she got selected as part of the second cohort of the TEF programme this she says defined her entrepreneurial journey “I win every day, I take on new challenges, I apply for things that interest me and approach successful people daily to mentor me. The Tony Elumelu foundation gave me that boldness, I want to succeed because one man took a chance on me, I have no reason not to believe in myself anymore, because a stranger validated my idea”. This validation by the TEF has seen her push even further and this has brought recognition for her work on several other entrepreneurship platforms.
Of great importance for her in the programme has been the network across Africa “The day I got placed on the TEF training hub, I was determined to know all 1000 entrepreneurs, for fun. I would stay up all night talking about business and issues that concerns others, at that time it seemed like a waste of time.
But in two years TEF entrepreneurs are my go to people for almost all my activities. I came out of my shell and networked, and its paying off.
This experience gave birth to a new trait that has been transferred to everything I do. I was made class rep for the accelerate lab North central, I currently work part time as an administrative person for a women entrepreneurship NGO, with over 500 members. I just keep putting myself out there, and it pays”
Prior to the programme, Doroh says she was faced with the challenge of Human resource but through a conscious effort at improvement and retraining, this challenge is rightly solved. Now, Doroh and her team of 5 employees focused on a path to achieving her vision of establishing an international standard apparel production factory. To achieve this she hopes to embark on trainings in China and India on how to run a factory efficiently. This she says will help her move from operating as a dressmaker to a factory producer.
Doroh can be reached by phone: 08068902211
