Zainab Ashadu is the Founder & Creative Director at Zashadu, a leading Nigerian sustainable luxury brand that specialises in hand-crafted leather handbags, shoes and accessories.
Zainab since childhood had a passion for vintage handbags and was always thrilled at the idea of bags lasting as long as 40 years.
On episode 12 of Binging with GameChangers, Zainab chats with show host, Seyi Banigbe, about how this passion led her to creating her own leather brand, Zashadu, which now produces an average of 700 bags annually, has a staff strength of about 30 people and retails in Nigeria and boutiques in London, Paris, South Africa and more.
She narrates how getting hands-on experience during apprenticeship gave her the further insight she needed to start her business. Zainab also reveals that she didn’t have funding challenges because she did not start her business formally. She started “informally” by creating a piece, selling the piece, and putting the money back into the business.
Interestingly, she sources all her leather from Kano and python skin from snake farms in Sokoto.
Zainab recently made a new collection debut at the New York Fashion Week.
The corporate gamechanger on this episode is Ope Olaniran, an Information technology expert and co-founder of Defax Consulting. He studied Electrical Electronics Engineering at the University of Ibadan and has vast experience in field Engineering, Project Management and business development in the I.T and Telecom sectors.
Ope’s career has taken him through multinational firms like Microsoft, Ericsson and Alcatel and he is well on his way to disrupting regular activities in Nigeria via the use of technology.
Watch episode 12 of Binging with GameChangers here:
Zainab
Ope
The show is currently airing online as well as on Africa Magic Family, NTA Network, STV, LTV, MYtv and NTA2. You can visit @thebwgshow on all social media for more details.
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