Barely four years ago, nobody, even Aminu Musa himself would imagine becoming a successful tailor that could afford to buy a motorcycle, flaunt iPhone 12 Pro Max and even build a house for his parents.
The face of Aminu Musa, fondly called Aminai in a predominantly tailoring community in Fagge Local Government area of Kano state is not new to many when he was hawking groundnut and fried grasshopper for his mother, not knowing that few years later, he would become the breadwinner of his family of seven.
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Living with his family in crowded rental apartment, whenever darkness set in, precisely after Magrib (evening prayer), Musa would spread a thin mat in front of the house, drop a locally-made wooden chair and put a tray over it to sell the groundnut and grasshopper for his mother.
That was boy’s occupation before he decided to start learning tailoring in 2019 at a shop in the neighborhood, an enterprise that has fetched him good fortunes.
Musa, 24 years old, had indeed demonstrated brilliance and determination after mastering tailoring in just one year of learning the business.
In 2020, the boy, who just finished secondary school in 2022, felt that he had learned tailoring enough under his master, and decided to open his own shop with a view to exploring more ways to become self-reliant.
“I spent just one year learning tailoring, that is from 2019 to 2020. I then decided to open my own shop. I started with a single sewing machine. I jointly rented a shop with other tailors before I eventually open my own shop and equipped it with four industrial sewing machines.
“it is a situation that I couldn’t imagine it would happen. As I am talking to you now, I have three workers and two apprentices under me,” Musa told BizPoint
Asked about his journey to success in tailoring, Musa stated that he decided to venture into tailoring out of passion and desire to help his parents, three sisters and a brother, a dream that had become true for the boy whose star still shines in the fashion industry.
He added that he started amassing customers right from schools when his mates patronized his shop and even referred him to others, thanks to his quality and beautiful designs as well as punctuality.
According to him, even after graduating from secondary school, the customers keep coming, majorly on referral by others.
“I can’t tell you exactly, or even estimate the number of my customers. They are still coming, Alhamdulillah. Most of my customers are on referral. My existing customers seem to be satisfied with my work, I believe that is why they are linking me up with others,” Musa narrated while sewing a blue shadda material on his white industrial machine on Sunday morning.
Musa, still single recalled that he successfully threw at two birds with one stone when he combined apprenticeship with study.
“When I return from school, I would head to the shop. After Magrib, I would sell groundnut for my mother. To God be the Glory, within a year, i successfully passed out and established my own venture,”
Asked about the successes he has achieved so far in tailoring, Musa began with thanking God for giving him the opportunity to build a three-bedroom house for his parents.
“ I have achieved a lot. My major success is that Allah Has given me the ability to build a house for my parents. I am their first son. I have spent millions of naira to build the house that I am also living in because I am not married.
“As a young man, I have the ability to take care of my parents, my three sisters and a brother, even though he is working with me in my shop, this is great achievement.
“I am happy to have the chance to feed my family. My father is weak now. When I was hawking groundnut for my mother, we used the money to eat food and other expenses. I thank to God now I can take care of all that. I built a house near my mother’s family house. She always thanks me and I am happy that I have put a smile on my parents’ faces,” he said.
Interestingly, Musa was able to build the house just three years after establishing his tailoring shop, which according to him, installed solar to keep his family lively.
For his shop, the boy had been able to power all four industrial machines with solar, as according to him, buying fuel daily at an exorbitant price wouldn’t be bearable to him.
Biz Point