By OBAJI AKPET, Lagos
The streets of Lagos, Nigeria’s economic capital were empty and quiet in a way never seen on a normal day. This followed the federal government’s enforcement of a lockdown to combat the spread of Coronavirus the country. But in a compound at Ogudu, this emptiness and quietness is disrupted by 50 workers wielding heavy spatulas to reoccurring sloshes of burbling alcoholic-based contents stirred in large plastic basins. While some mix, others prepare containers to bottle them, and these alcohol-based contents will become hand sanitizers and sprays. And in the centre of all these activities is Ogechukwu Alexis Obah hastening these workers to leave no stone unturned in the race to produce a fine mix of germ killers for a country running short of germ killers to control the spread of a novel disease they’re faced with for the first time.
Obah, a nursing student graduate with a kin interest in cosmetics that provide solutions to skincare is no doubt a genius of her art has been a onetime celebrated winner of Forbes under30, The Next Titan Nigeria S5 winner as well once carted Nigeria Entrepreneur Awards, and currently pursuing a grant with Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP) to expand beyond the countries her business currently has a stronghold of – and that business is Bodylikemilk Skincare Services.
“Basic products like the germ-killing gel and hand wash spiked to over 200% in price and nothing has been done by government to regulate that. We were motivated to produce quality yet affordable germ killers to help people stay safe and navigate this trying moment; one of the handy ways to fight this pandemic,” Obah said explaining her motivation to helping her country make germ killers available.
Bodylikemilk Skincare Services, a cosmetic manufacturing company she birthed at the age of 25 under which she is producing the germ killers have branches in three West African countries; Nigeria, Togo and Ghana and the company boasts to have sold to over 800,000 people in Africa and 20,000 overseas.
But during the unexpected outbreak of the Novel Coronavirus followed by a country to country lockdown, Obah’s business like many others across the continent were forced to engage other creative means if they must continue to run.
“We’ve faced a lot, movement restrictions, traders closing up shops due to fear, the price increase of plastics, factories shutting down and other essential ingredients, you name them,” she said.
But with this challenge that her business faced came great blessings in disguises, Obah’s company had just concluded an order that saw the company manufacture thousands of germ killers for the Nigerian market with the biggest client being the Ogun State Government
“On a larger scale we supplied over 8,000 bottles of sanitizers to Ogun state to help them combat the viral pandemic,” she said adding that production contract included branding the state’s name on the products her company supplied to Ogun.
“We sold most of these at cost, in stores in the mainland; while others spiked prices of these products, I would think ours made a big difference,” she added pointing to sanitizers at retail stores and pharmacies manufactured from her company.
But it was not only sales, but Obah’s company also engaged in rounds of giveaways of sanitizers and sprays around Ogudu, Alhaja Elseshin, one of the poorer areas within Lagos. Call this Obah’s kind of corporate social responsibility to residents of her where her company is cited, but for her, it was her contribution to her own country, a country that will find it hard to recover from the loss by the COVID-19.
As the country resumes activities today, Obah knows this comes with so much burden upon her shoulder and that burden is investing in more sloshes of burbling alcoholic-based contents stirred in large basins for a teaming population a single company will find hard to fern for, but Obah and her team seem equal to the task ahead.
Germ killers produced at Ogechukwu’s company.
For a better society
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