Page 12 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 34

Community
I spent most nights wide awake, crying, I
couldn’t even pray. I felt stuck and backed
to the corner with no way out. Grateful for
Pastor Austine Oviawe he would call over
and over to make sure we were fine. He stood
in the gap for me spiritually and financially
when we needed to get another house. I will
never forget such kindness.
At a point, I went to Arena Market to the
women I used to supply goods to see how I
could dropship for them. They knew me from
when I used to supply them goods, so it was
shocking for them to see me as a supplier
now asking to dropship. Two of the ones
close to me gave me clothes without a dime,
and I’d take them to the offices of my past
customers, sell them, get paid, and pay back
the women who gave me the goods.
This was all while I was still trying to get a
job but had no luck. I sold my iPhone and
two of my work laptops and took back the
Samsung I had previously bought for my
sister.
But the house demolition was getting closer
and closer and all I made went into feeding,
Mum’s drugs and care, and Jas’ aftercare.
Eventually, I had to come online here, yes
here, on my page to ask for help to get us
a house because I knew there was no other
way to go about it. (Which is why I will
never understand why someone needs help
but won’t post on their own page, and keep
getting upset that you asked them to post on
their page and then share on yours).
Hundreds of friends here shared and sent in
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| we tell the true afrikan story
help, enough for us to get a house. Which we
finally did. The day we moved in, we had no
single food in the house and the last cash I
had was used for the truck for moving. So,
you get the drift.
I was actively trying to get another job
internationally while also waking up every
day to go out and get things done to put food
on the table.
One night my only laptop left had packed
up and I had taken it to Ikeja to fix the next
morning. Took it to a paddy in the market
I’ve known for over a decade because I
didn’t have any money to fix it, while they
were fixing my laptop, we got talking and he
spoke about considering drop shipping for
laptops. And that was where I started.
During drop shipping, I stumbled on a guy
who imports laptops. I went to visit his store
in Ikeja to see how I could drop ship for
them. We agreed on modalities, and I started
doing that mostly for them.
When I finally got my job and started earning
in dollars, I knew I wanted to do the laptop
business. So, I reached out to my supplier to
show me how the laptop import works, we
agreed on how much it would cost to teach
me and I paid. He taught me everything I
needed to know in 10 days. At the end of the
training, I told him I’d like to start off as a
partner with him. And I did that for about 5
months.
And eventually, after getting the hang of
things and seeing how lucrative it was, I
decided I’d go solo. Spoke with him about