Aba, Abia State, is known over the ages as the place to go for shoes that look like they were made in Italy. The success story of the Aba shoe industry is so huge that the World Bank led other international financial agencies to finance a joint facility project as well as power supply project, believing that this would position Aba for international competition.

But while Aba is getting ready to face the world, it may receive a run for its reputation from its back yard, the Garden City, where 88 agents of transformation have been released into the shoe and leather works business.

According to Blessing Daniel-Kalio, GM, Business Development and Job Creation, the journey began in 2010 when 110 willing young entrepreneurs registered with the Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency (RSSDA), the institution created to operate with world-class standards in creating wealth and jobs in the oil-rich state. The Agric/Agro Allied Division of the agency led by Oliver Biedima introduced the idea, selected the 88 candidates from the 110 that applied, and picked a trusted shoe/leather expert to train the entrepreneurs.

Delay set in due to budget and capital release constraints until providence intervened and the Governor, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, remembered the idea after a Town Hall Meeting in Obio/Akpor local council area. Fortis Microfinance Bank (MFB) from the Fortis Group became the financial partner.

On the very last day of July 2013, excitement took over the conference hall of the hard-fighting agency led by a world-class chief executive on loan from Shell, Nobel Pepple, where the 88 entrepreneurs were flagged off to go fish in the shoe and leather waters of the South-South region, to do what Aba is doing and probably better.