Nigeria’s Kano Factory Revealed as the Provider of Louis Vuitton’s Leather

Revealed last week by – you guessed it – social media, one of Nigeria’s last-surviving leather factories, God’s Little Tannery made waves when we were told by Tweet that it supplies top fashion house, Louis Vuitton.

Said Tweet came from The Economist’s correspondent Eleanor Whitehead, whose recent tour around Northern Nigeria included a visit to the city of Kano, where she met the team at the tannery.

Ms Whitehead took a few shots of the establishment, which is owned by Igbo businessman Chief Koffy Ndubuisi Udeagha, captioning her Twit-pic;

“This is God’s Little Tannery, one of Kano’s last surviving leather tanneries. It supplies Louis Vuitton”

Garnering over 1,000 retweets, word of the factory spread fast, with one question arising: How is it that Nigeria can make such wondrous products and supply a global brand like Vuitton, yet struggle to sell such products internationally and create its own brands with the same magnitude?

In contrast to news of the tannery’s success, the reporter also shared a shot of Kano’s closed shoe factory, captioning;

“Sad sight of a non-operational shoe factory in Kano. It’s had to deal with a litany of problems in the past decade.”

Adding another twist in the Twitter tale, Ms Whitehead – on her outward journey from Nigeria – Tweeted this of her struggles with Arik Air;

– some irony found in the fact that the airline has been publicly favoured by notable politicians and others promoting the #BuyNaijaToGrowTheNaira campaign on social media, which aims to increase patronage for Nigerian goods and services.

Team SPICE send a salute to Kano and God’s Little Tannery for its hard work and success in supplying such a prestigious label with its leather, and will look forward to the day the globe is buying the same Naija-made goods from a Naija-made brand, that’s a big or even bigger than Louis Vuitton.

Image source: @Nellwhitehead, Jaruma.net