This November, we launched "In Her Bag", a business grant powered by Flutterwave for young business women between the ages of 18-35. Together with Flutterwave, we created a program to help support female entrepreneurs with the financial and social capital to nurture their businesses, cultivate their business leadership skills and, of course, get in their bag. 

Our one week masterclasses were facilitated by Yewande Akomolafe-Kalu, Dolapo Morgan, Tobi Hamilton,Onyedikachim Nwankwo, respectively.

After over 1,000 applications, we narrowed down our selection to five business owners who we felt were in their bag and eager to scale their businesses.

We caught up with our grant winners: Seyilogo Braithwaite (Beezus Kitchen), Yobe Garrick ( Étanyobe), Omolade Ogundimu (MORUGS), Elizabeth Adedeji ( 21 Wool Street) and Florence Agholor (A R Á I L É) to speak more about their respective businesses, their plans to level up in 2024 and what it means to be in their bag.

SEYILOGO BRAITHWAITE

When Seyilogo Braithwaite officially launched her Lagos-based cloud kitchen and catering company, Beezus Kitchen, during the COVID lockdown, she started with a food blog. 

“While I was in university, I used my food blog to work on my craft and get my name out there but things really kicked off when I moved back to Lagos after I graduated and I helped feed some of the protesters during the ENDSARS movement ” , she says speaking to Femme Africa. 

For Braithwaite, food played an instrumental role in lending her support to the protests and was her first taste into mass catering and recipe development. “I started off making 100 boxes of food a day myself but then the demand grew and soon I was up to 1000 boxes a day. It was intense but it showed me that I could really make a difference and turn this into a business. I rolled up my sleeves and decided to try and take this seriously”. 

It was gruelling but satisfying work. 

Now, Beezus Kitchen is a three pronged business that cultivates different experiences for a growing customer base. There's the lunch delivery targeted at young professionals who work office jobs. Then the catering arm focused on delivering quality Asian food and canapes for small and large events. And their private dining arm run personally by Braithwaite herself that focuses on providing upscale luxury dining experiences. 

As an In Her Bag winner, Braithwaite plans to expand her business and get in front of more customers. “I’m grateful that my business is now at a point where it can run by itself but I know I’ve not even scratched the surface of what it can become. For me, I want to use this opportunity to scale and be more aggressive with my marketing efforts”. 

Advice on getting in your bag in 2024?

“I feel like a lot of the time, especially as women, we talk ourselves down when it comes to launching things and started. Believe it. Just do the work and you’ll be in your bag. Don't let anyone discourage you”.

YOBE GARRICK

If there’s one thing you need to know about Yobe Garrick, it’s that she has a knack for creating things. Her shoe brand, Étanyobe, was born out of her need to wear shoes that looked just as good as they felt. The largely untapped market was a chance for Garrick to take her creativity to the next level and provide shoe lovers like herself with quality pieces made with love and care. 

“The idea for Étanyobe came to me during COVID. I knew people weren’t going out a lot so I used that time to really build a team and test-run a lot of my ideas”, she says speaking to Femme Africa, “It wasn’t easy at all because I had a lot of quality control issues but it gave me the opportunity to set high standards for my brand. I didn’t want to just create anything so I had to take my time”. 

Unfortunately, she faced hurdles along the way. 

“One major hurdle I’ve faced is getting artisans that really see the vision like I do. The training is intense and you have to be super hands on to ensure that each shoe produced meets the quality I’ve set”. 

The In Her Bag winner plans to expand her customer base and shorten production timelines. “ I get so encouraged when my customers tell me they love the shoes. I want to be able to serve them better and create manufacturing processes that enable me to mass produce”. 

Advice on getting in your bag in 2024?

“You have to shamelessly put your name out there. I want to emphasise the ‘shamelessly’ part because that’s what it really is. Carry your business on your head and do exactly what you want to do. Remind yourself daily about the core vision of your brand and work tirelessly to bring it life”.

OMOLADE OGUNDIMU

Omolade Ogundimu doesn’t play when it comes to her craft. The interior designer and Founder of fibre art and rug making studio, Mo Rugs, has a penchant for detail and craftsmanship. 

Each custom rug is painstakingly made by Ogundimu herself in her studio and she’s not afraid to let her creativity take the lead when she gets orders. From real life mega icons like Pharell to fictional crime fighting Power Puff Girls, there’s nothing Ogundimu isn’t able to do with her trusty tools. 

But creating intricate rugs wasn’t the only reason Mo Rugs was born. “Mo Rugs also started as an outlet to help me clear my mind. As someone who has had some mental health challenges, I needed a healthy way to channel my energy. I feel incredibly productive and great after I’ve completed a rug so that also encouraged me to expand”. 

The In Her Bag winner plans to grow her team and train artisans like herself so that she’d be able to reach more customers. 

“I need more hands and machinery to produce at the level needed to grow the business. It’s an incredibly time consuming business and I can’t do it on my own forever”.

Advice on getting in your bag in 2024?

Stop talking about it and just do it.

ELIZABETH ADEDEJI

Launched in 2017, the goal for 21 Wool Street Founder, Elizabeth Adedeji, was simple: create a size-inclusive fashion brand that was both stylish and comfortable. 

“I wanted to create a brand that stood out from what the fashion industry was currently doing”, says Adedeji to Femme Africa, “Yes, there were other crotchet brands out there but I didn’t feel like they were weather friendly in the Lagos humidity. I did my research and got to work.” 

Another thing Adedeji realised was that there weren’t a lot of size inclusive brands. “ I wanted 21 Wool Street to cater to a wide range of body shapes and sizes. We stock pieces from a UK 2 to a UK 18 and I’m really proud of that”. 

The In Her Bag winner’s brand has a burgeoning community of crochet lovers who are eager to connect and create their own custom pieces. Adedeji plans on creating more community-focused initiatives as well as offering training programs. 

She’ll use some of her learnings from the In Her Bag program to deploy more resources to her fashion brand, implement more business structure to her operations and resource research. 

“A big challenge I faced when I started was access to resources and tools to help me produce my pieces. The Nigerian market is very unstable and so I want a business that’s not too reliant on it in terms of our resources.”

Advice on getting in your bag in 2024?

Do your research, figure out what makes you stand out and just go for it.

FLORENCE AGHOLOR

‘​​A R Á I L É’, which loosely translates to neighbours in Yoruba, is a sustainable minimal womenswear brand that uses organic fabrics to craft its pieces. For Founder Florence Agholor, the name is an ode to the community of people who have been instrumental to her success when she first started. 

“ Initially, I just started making clothes for the people in my neighbouring community, which included friends and family”, she says speaking to Femme Africa, “They gave me the confidence to keep pushing and it forced me to take it seriously. The ethos of my brand lies in that communal feeling of encouragement and nurture”. 

Currently operating on a pre-order basis, ​​A R Á I L É caters to an audience of women who prioritise tailoring and comfort, without compromising on style (think flowy beige linen trousers or black maxi dresses with dropped waists). Agholor has been very intentional about sticking to her minimal aesthetic and also training local artisans. She isn’t afraid to stick to her vision, even if that means her customers might have to wait a little longer. 

The In Her Bag winner plans to grow ​​A R Á I L É into a fashion powerhouse that stocks everything from shoes to clothes and bags. “The plan is to create a full line of womenswear items in a sustainable fashion. It might still be slow but I know the work that goes into producing high quality pieces with these fabrics - I’m not going to compromise on that.”

Advice on getting in your bag in 2024?

Don't limit yourself and put yourself out there