Nigeria: Rich in culture, poor in souvenirs

Grace Ali, 36, is a lawyer. She loves souvenirs but can hardly find small pocket-size ones in Nigeria.

She said: “From my refrigerator door, you can tell all the countries I have visited. Everywhere I go, I buy a fridge magnet.”

Ali also said: “Some of them are molded in the images of iconic tourist or historic sites or elements of such countries that are easily recognisable. Some have pictures and names engraved on them so that anybody can easily tell where they are from.”

Fifteen years ago, Taju Rahman said he realized he couldn’t always afford to buy or carry expensive and big souvenirs to remind him of the places he had visited.

Upon this realization, the 47-year-old portfolio management specialist said: “I started buying key rings, bottle openers, light-weighing satchel bags and t-shirts which serve as souvenirs for people I want to give gifts to and for myself because they all carry messages and/or photos from the destinations I have visited.

“I also found that, people appreciate them a lot more because they are things they put to use almost on a daily basis,” he said.

“Beyond this,” Rahman said, “they are very handy, cheap and if I forget to buy at the site while still in town, I need not bother because on my way out, I’m certain, I’ll find a fridge magnet or key ring or something similar to buy.”

These are the narratives of Nigerians who travelled abroad and found easy-to-pick and affordable souvenir pieces to return home with.

The President, Female Artists Association of Nigeria, Mrs. Ngozi Akande, who said: “Visual artists produce miniatures, mostly carved objects especially in wood, the torn art by Akeredolu in the early 1900s is an example. Most of them are genre. It is very popular in the south east. In Benin they make miniatures in wood and ivory and they are readily available.”

The story isn’t quite so for a tourist like 53-year-old Angela Ogieva who said: “I don’t think so. I’m an Edo. I have combed Igun which is the famous street for carvings and even Akpakpava but I’ve not been fortunate.”

When she is going to other African countries, she said: “it is a huge problem to find souvenirs to take along because, they all mostly have the same things we have here especially those in West Africa.

“Carrying adire and other fabrics can be quite bulky and sometimes like in Europe it is almost useless because they don’t have tailors as we do and when they do, it is quite expensive. At the moment, I’m very confused because I don’t know what to get for people. I have searched for phone cases made from aso oke or other traditional fabrics distinct to Nigeria, but I can’t find to buy except I make specific orders for them, I’ve been told,” she said.

The housewife said: “I can’t start carrying wax prints because they have them; same things as art and crafts items. Christmas is coming and I have searched all over for places where I can get things like postcards done by say one of our artists without luck.”

Ogieva suggested that: “Nigerian artists could do reprints of a few works and sell in packs of 10 and because they are beautiful, people would want to frame them up,” a visibly frustrated Ogieva said as she helplessly walked out of the Arts & Crafts Village, Abuja during the just concluded Arts & Crafts Expo (AFAC).

In response to this, a visual artist, Millicent Osuomo, this year expanded her business by making mugs, handbags and postcards with prints of her works.

Osuomo said: “The idea was originally to give people an opportunity to own my work if they couldn’t afford the real works. But these small items now sell as fast as the works do.”

During a visit to Port Elizabeth, South Africa, Daily Trust noticed a section of the airport where women belonging to a particular community were stationed stringing key rings, miniature dolls, cross bags, ornaments and other decorative pieces with tiny strings of metal and threads.

The site of what they were doing drew travelers to them and many were lured to patronize them when they realized that it was a means to raise money for the women some of whom were widows or dealing with one challenge or the other. They were taught the art which has become their source of livelihood as passengers let go with whatever Rand (ZAR) they had left or were ‘forced’ to convert their foreign exchanges to Rand to patronize them, while leaving with a bit of South Africa.

Producing souvenirs which tourists could purchase even if all they had were N5, 000 or less is a vacuum to be filled up in the Nigerian tourism industry and one small scale businesses could exploit.

As to whether this is an area the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) focuses on as part of its training, Mr. Ibrahim Mohammed of the organisation’s corporate affairs department said: “We give entrepreneurship training to all sectors. This subject in particular involves skills training which we do in collaboration with Industrial Training Fund (ITF) quarterly or monthly, after we have carried out a needs assessment.

“In the end, of the whole lot who come for the training, there are usually only one or two people interested in receiving this training. But we still train them on entrepreneurship,” Mohammed said, adding that: “bead-making is one of the trainings we have carried out and it falls under skill development.

“As part of our training, we teach artists on entrepreneurship skills, how to set up their businesses, develop business plans in ways that they can get grants to start up. But we don’t have any specific training for people who are interested in starting off small scale businesses with making souvenirs for the tourism sector,” he told Daily Trust.

Although Daily Trust reached out to ITF on the matter, no responses to questions posed were received as at press time.

Most Nigerians when they travel even to Ghana come back with dark chocolates wrapped in kente designed papers. In European countries like Belgium and Brussels – famous for chocolates – it is impossible to walk past the spread of various flavoured white and dark chocolates attractively displayed as tourists peer through shop windows, making a mental note to buy some on the way home.

As if to remind them, at the airport tourists are besieged by chocolates and if they have time on their hands, will be educated on their history by the sellers who know their story like the back of their hands or by trained guides.

Although the arts and crafts villages across Nigeria should cater to such needs, the sheer bulkiness of most of the artefacts make it difficult for tourists to travel with because they worry about excess luggage.

Beyond doing more to sell our arts and crafts, with our wealth of delicacies and local snacks this is an area waiting to be exploited for small and large scale business.