Amina learned tailoring from her mother in Abeokuta before moving to Lagos at 19 to pursue her dream of running a fashion workshop. For five years, she worked from a rented corner of a shared shop with a single domestic sewing machine.
'I was turning away customers every week,' Amina explains. 'Aso-oke finishing, buttonhole work, overlocking — I had to send people to other tailors because my machine couldn't handle it. It was heartbreaking.'
A community leader in Lekki who had been Amina's customer for years vouched for her on BuildBridge. Her Need for an industrial overlock machine was posted, and the response was overwhelming.
Fourteen backers funded her ₦350,000 need in just 12 days. But the real surprise came after: three of her backers connected her with bulk uniform contracts for a local private school.
Today, Amina's workshop operates with three machines: her original domestic, the funded overlock, and a buttonhole machine she purchased from her increased earnings. She employs one full-time assistant and trains two apprentices.
'BuildBridge didn't just give me a machine,' she says with a smile. 'It gave me a network of people who believed in me before they even met me. That belief is worth more than any equipment.'