We are excited to introduce another phenomenal woman who is making a difference in the budding world of fashion e-commerce in Nigeria – Honey Ogundeyi. She is the founder of Nigeria’s premier online fashion retailer, Fashpa.com. Fashpa is a multifaceted company in the sense that it manufactures, designs and distributes its own line of clothing, retails the clothing online and offers delivery throughout Africa and the world.
Here are the reasons we love Honey Ogundeyi.
She is a problem solver
Women who are able to see a problem and provide solutions to them are worth loving. Honey Ogundeyi is not an exception. In this interview she had with Mfonoong Nsehe, a contributor for the Forbes magazine, her answer to the question, “What was the original inspiration/thought process behind Fashpa” proves that she is a woman who knows when and how to take initiative. She had this to say:
“I started Fashpa (meaning Fashion Parade), out of frustration of not being able to access quality fashion following my move back to Nigeria after several years living abroad. Africans have the same modern sophisticated fashion tastes and love for fashion when compared to consumers elsewhere in the world. The only difference between us and a consumer in London is access to that fashion. I wanted to bridge that gap using technology, by creating an online fashion platform targeted at style conscious consumers who wanted quality, variety and convenience, at affordable prices.”
She is passionate about what she does
Honey Ogundeyi is passionate about the business she runs and a woman with a passion makes an amazing entrepreneur. Here is what she had to say about the desire that drives her to keep going and pushing boundaries.
“I am driven by the desire to leave an impact to contribute to growth and development of the fash-tech industry in Africa. When I launched Fashpa, one of the first online retailers, we changed the Nigerian Fashion Industry; we built a truly unique brand and a community that I am super proud of. However it is still day one, and there is still a lot of work and innovating to be done to truly transform the sector. To change the way African’s shop for fashion is my mission, my passion and life’s work.”
She has a heart for Africa
Honey Ogundeyi is a woman whose heart beats for Africa. Her words in a particular interview she had with a Forbes contributor reveal this.
“I asked myself that question too, at a time when the African Fashion is making global headlines, why do we in Nigeria spend $3 billion dollars annually importing foreign brands? The answer was around distribution and scale but most importantly the quality and fit of the clothes that are made in Africa. These are some of the issues we are solving at Fashpa, looking at how we can use technology to make Made in Africa Fashion successful at scale both at home and abroad and make it accessible for all. With $50 billion fashion retail market in Africa, the major growth driver is going to be online, and more specifically, mobile. There is an undeniably huge opportunity for the market leader in online fashion retail in Africa.”
