FaMaD Plc, Nigeria's foremost shoemaker and formerly called Bata, has unveiled the elements that nearly culminated in the failure of its business.

During the Annual General Meetings of the company, the board Chairman, Pastor Ituah Ighodalo, divulged these reasons to reporters.

Ighodalo lamented that imported second-hand shoes from China and other European countries have persistently undermined local product development for many years.

He spoke out against it in a chat with newsmen on the sidelines of the AGMs which took place on Thursday in the Ogun part of Lagos State.
The annual general meetings, for the financial years from December 31, 2007, to December 31, 2021, fulfil the legal requirements mandated for companies.

In his speech, Ighodalo said, "The challenge China presents with its low-quality shoes and the used footwear from Europe continues to give our business competition that is nearly insurmountable. At this point, we have got to a very critical stage. Over the equipment purchases we've made in the past few years, and as as we enhance our product quality and expand our designs for school shoes, we've got to a very critical stage".

This puts us in a position where we can sell quality footwear direct to the consumers compete effectively with shoes made in China and slowly diminish the need for the second-hand market.
"With God's help, we are slowly getting back the markets we lost before that have been hard for our customers to reach because of the problems we faced earlier.

We have gotten the Standard Organisation of Nigeria certification for all our school shoes.

"This signals a better outlook for the future.

"Shareholders will see that we are ready to get back to work and we want to expand the company", Ighodalo said. "This AGM for FAMAD has been long awaited from 2007 to 2021. The company encountered its own challenges but the board I took over has been able to restructure, reformat, reorganize and reposition FaMaD over time."

That's exactly what we are doing right now, and we hope that after some time, we'll build a strong and successful company.

In response to FaMaD's efforts to return to the market and become the leading competitor in Africa, Ighodalo said, "The first requirement for success in this industry is to have the right technology and technical expertise.

A lot of time has been spent learning to gain technical skills and collecting new knowledge and information from China and India, which are imparting valuable technical support to us.
The next thing is to look at how good the workers are.
"We truly need very skilled and able staff.
"You can buy and get some of them; while others need training. That’s the second thing.

The third option raw materials would be one—a cheap, reliable, and sensible source. This is a challenge because most goods in Nigeria in Nigeria are at about many imports. Yes, it is produced in Kano, but we do not have the capacity to process it into quality suitable for making shoes. Yet, high-quality leather is what we still need to import. "But local alternatives have also been found which we can use for the shoes. "Fifth element, of course, is machinery.

Very efficient machines are important, and they bring a challenge of their own.

You can always get that if you have the right resources.

"We have made good progress with these projects and are slowly getting back on our feet and finding new markets.

"Once we do all that, we'll be really ready to take the number one spot, not just in Nigeria but also across Africa, too.