No such thing as a man’s world, say Nasarawa’s woman entrepreneurs

Tina David, 27, from Zangon Kataf, in Kaduna State, is the only female automobile balancer in Lafia, the Nasarawa State capital. The inability of her parents to afford higher education after her secondary school pushed her into first, playing football and later into learning auto car balancing. Her interest in learning this at Oando Filling […]

Tina David, 27, from Zangon Kataf, in Kaduna State, is the only female automobile balancer in Lafia, the Nasarawa State capital. The inability of her parents to afford higher education after her secondary school pushed her into first, playing football and later into learning auto car balancing. Her interest in learning this at Oando Filling Station in Kaduna – where she lived with her parents – received stiff opposition, particularly from her father who felt she was looking for an opportunity to become wayward.
“I went home and told my dad that I saw something I will like to start doing. He said what is that? I said car auto mobile Balancing. My dad told me to get out of his presence and that I’m simply looking for undue freedom. I said fine, if you cannot find work for me or afford my higher education, you should allow me do what I want. So my mum talked to him. The next day I started the procedure. It took the engineer-in- charge time to accept me, saying, I’m a woman and wouldn’t be able to do it,” she recalled.
She stressed that after completing her apprenticeship – from 2006 to 2008 – she ended up spending additional years because the chief technician didn’t want to graduate her, for the major reason that her presence attracted a lot of customers to the place.  This made the Director of the Oando filling station to place her on salary even though she wasn’t working as their staff.
In order to pick more challenges, Miss David left to pursue her dreams outside her home State. She worked in places like Niger state, Port Harcourt, Abuja and now Lafia. In the first three, she worked for people as a contract staff because of her immense knowledge of car balancing. Today, she is the owner of Tina Tech in Lafia. Although she acquires working machines through an arrangement that enables her to pay through hire purchase, she has shown strong character to move ahead instead of just working and making money for other people as she did in Abuja before leaving for Lafia.
“I worked in about four places in Abuja, but the challenge was that I didn’t know anybody there and accommodation was a big problem to me. I slept in any uncompleted building that was roofed. I simply go in there, arrange a place and sleep,” she recounted.
“I worked last in one Oando filling station at Gwarimpa, where I slept in a container at the back of the filling station. The next day I will get up and dress to work. After work I will go there and sleep,” she intimated with a smile. Asked how she finds Lafia, compared to other places she has worked in, Tina David pointed out that Lafia is a very nice place for business to thrive and that people are very happy with what she does, particularly her fellow women.
Miss David has three workers in her shop, which is located along Lafia-Jos Road. She explained how she runs her shop in a meticulous manner. “I keep record of everything I do here. If a car is worked here, even after two years if you come to check the record, you will see the number, the date, when it was worked last, the time, the month and how much you paid.”
Leaving Tina David’s shop along Lafia-Jos Road, the reporter located another young lady. Talatu M. Mincha, is another enterprising woman who works near the railway station behind UAC Road in Lafia. But unlike the former, this lady who hails from Chusa in Akwanga LGA, is into furniture and carpentry. She climbs the roof of completed buildings to zinc houses, to the surprise of many women – who sight her on top of buildings – and men who look on in admiration. Her journey into furniture and carpentry was spurred by the death of her father, the hardship in the family and the inability for her to attain higher education after secondary school.
“When my father died, I went to my uncle and presented two options to him: To choose between me becoming a prostitute or take me to where I will learn a trade.  At that moment, seeing the seriousness on my face, he (the uncle) took me to the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) Lafia where I was accepted, along with two others girls, to learn furniture and carpentry,” she explained.
But Mincha faced several challenges. Both men and women tried to discourage her that the profession was for men and not women. “However, some always encouraged me to push ahead.” Since her father and then the uncle who took her to NDE to learn the trade died in 2007 and 2011 respectively, life has never been the same again. She currently works together with others to generate money that will help turn around her future. She expressed the hope of generating enough money to open her own personal workshop in Lafia, given the needed assistance.
“If there’s any assistance that I need now as an orphan, it’s to set up my workshop. I am the only lady doing this in Lafia to the best of my knowledge. I want other women to know that we can break barriers created by culture,” she stressed.