Securing Her Bag: Balancing the book by day, hatching entrepreneurial dreams at night.

Meet Monica-Mary, the multi-talented accounting student, poultry farmer, and stationery business owner

What was your first experience with money?

As a kid, my mum gave us pocket money to take to school alongside our lunch for long breaks, so I really appreciated that. But most of the time we ended up not eating our food! So she gradually reduced the amount we were given. I remember one time I bought ice cream with it — 40 Naira at the time, and you could get half too. So I’d buy one half first and then take the bigger portion; then buy another half and take the larger part again. It happened more than once, that’s for sure! And I wasn’t really into chocolates or sweets so I just got things that would fill me up — like doughnuts.

What did you want to be as a child?

I always wanted to be a banker, since my mum was one. Counting money and having my own bank seemed really cool to me, and I liked how bankers dress, they look hot! I believed that with being a banker came confidence, beauty, charisma, and smartness — all of which I saw my mum have when she went to work. It was beautiful, so I thought banking was definitely the right path for me — plus I loved calculations so it felt like a perfect fit!

Is that what you’re studying currently?

Yes! I’m a chartered accountant to be, currently in 200 level in Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-ife, Osun state.

Nice! Enough about school, let’s talk about your business. What is Monica-Mary doing to “secure the bag”?

I’m an accounting student in school, but majoring in agriculture back home. I raise chickens, turkeys, and goats. Last year, I also started a stationery business in school. Since I didn’t pass maths in my WAEC and NECO exams, I had to rewrite it the next year and couldn’t stay idle after that. My dad got me a book about snails and PDFs on animals and how to raise them. At first, it was annoying, but eventually, I began to enjoy it and became so attached to the animals that if they suddenly died, I’d start shaking and almost cry. Nowadays I have lots of fun looking after them when I’m home.

About the stationary business: last December we were asked to get graph sheets for a test and knowing my coursemates who will rather buy just a sheet rather than the graph book that other vendors are selling, I took advantage of the money that was available to me at the time, I decided to get into the market myself and buy necessary stationery! Soon enough people began knowing me for my services and competition began popping up — making it more exciting! Though eventually, they backed out leaving me as the only seller in my class.

How does it feel like running your own business?

Running my own business is so rewarding! The agricultural business is seasonal, like around special holidays when sales are higher. But stationery isn’t seasonal — it’s a steady, day-to-day thing that’s been really good. Plus, it’s helped my finances quite a bit- I was even able to pay my school fees with holiday season profits.

How is it like juggling school and business?

At first, it was difficult to equally manage both as one had to suffer for the other but as time went on, I found a way to manage it and it’s been going great since then.

Have there been any challenges so far?

Yeah, there have been quite a few challenges. The death of the animals have been a big loss. We had an incident with fowl pox where most of them died — it was awful, there was no benefit from killing them to eat. Prices for the feed fluctuate a lot, which isn’t ideal.

Also, my stationery business interferes with school work — when I should have been reading I still had people coming in for items, but I eventually managed to make up for it.

What’s your relationship with money?

Sometimes it’s great, other times it’s toxic. I never know how it finishes or why, which is really frustrating. Right now, it’s terrible and I’m trying to adapt. Data consumes all my funds, plus the rising prices of products. I don’t usually buy food, but instead things I don’t need. It’s essentially impulse shopping, but I’ll strive to make it better.

Any advice for people who want to start a business or build a career?

Start now! Start small.

It will only get better and bigger from there

Don’t wait till you have all the money in the world

Start with the little you have and utilize your resources well.

Securing Her Bag highlights the entrepreneurial and career journeys of Nigerian female university students. If you’d love to share your story on the Securing Her Bag series, please send an email to hello@hervest.ng or fill this form