Folake Akindele Coker is a 45-year-old designer and founder of a Nigerian fashion label called Tiffany Amber.
She states that every morning she wakes up and gets geared up for the “invisible enemy” which is Covid-19, and she has to have a 10-minute safety talk with her production team every morning before they start with work.
She founded Tiffany Amber in 1998 and it is now considered one of Nigeria’s most influential fashion and lifestyle brands.
In early March, the colourful fabrics that usually covered the floor and sewing machines of the factory were replaced by hospital scrubs, gowns, stretcher sheets, and non-medical face masks.
Just after the pandemic reached Africa, Tiffany Amber’s factory was no longer producing fashionable wear but they were instead producing personal protective equipment (PPE), which Folake Akindele Coker stated that it took huge pressure to turn around.
She also stated that to make the turn around work the company had to first get 15 tons (just over 13 607 kilograms) of raw materials this included 90 000 yards (just over 82 kilometers) of fabric, 300 000 yards (just over 274 kilometers) of elastic, and almost a million yards (just over 914 kilometers) of thread.
She got the items just before the borders were closed in Nigeria and prices went up due to the unforeseen demand for the material.
In mid-July, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that Nigeria had the second-highest Covid-19 (being 30 000) cases in Africa, after South Africa.
