Nigerian Baker and entrepreneur Onome Isikeh advises women on using their skills to create wealth
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Meriks Place, Onome Veno Isikeh, lives in Nigeria, and advises Nigerian women to learn a skill and create wealth for themselves to enable them to become self-reliant.
Onome, one of the biggest cake and confectionery bakers in Delta State, Nigeria, shares her thoughts in an interview with Urban Kapital magazine.
The baker, and entrepreneur highlighted the various skill sets that Nigerian women could choose from to become self-sustainable by using their existing skills in areas such as: Baking, Fashion designing, Hairstyling, Bead making, Make-up and nails.
Onome is a highly educated woman herself, with a degree in Biochemistry, but she believes that education alone, is not enough, she said:
“Learning a skill is the most important thing. Education is good, no doubt but having a skill and business is best. Our women need to start immediately”.
“I started baking at age 16. I had always loved baking, and playing with flour and sugar. I will always watch my mother bake bread for me and my siblings to take to school. Little by little, I started trying how to make cupcakes, bread and chin-chin” (Chin chin is a small Nigerian cookie-like snack made from fried wheat flour dough).
“I got into university and continued with my little baking hobby. In school, I was getting orders. I started to bake free cakes for matriculations, birthdays, and graduations”.
“I am a graduate with one of the best results in Biochemistry, but today I have trained over a hundred students in the baking industry”.
Onome got admission to study Biochemistry at Madonna University, but she was jobless after graduation which forced her into following her dreams of baking.
Onome said, “Within the first two months of opening my shop, I baked over 30 cakes. While I was baking, I gathered money to buy equipment, things like a mixer and an oven in the shop”.
The baker who presently bakes over 100 cakes in a month, says one of the ways to success is by learning a skill and putting in the effort to build a business after learning the skill.
She says learning skill acquisition has helped many people to make a difference in the country.
Onome says she encourages Nigerian women to acquire a skill and create a business so they have more power to support their families and contribute to the national development of the whole country.
Follow Onome's bakery on Instagram @Meriksplace