Ewuraba - Professional African Women with Class and Style

Introducing Sandra Aguebor Edokpayi

Sandra Aguebor Edokpayi, the Chief Executive of Sandex Car Care and the founder of Lady Mechanic Initiative has proven a point.

Interview with BBC News (2005)

“I am the first woman mechanic in Nigeria. I started when I was 14 years old. The idea came to me through dreams, and fortunately I was able to pursue it. I dreamt that God said: "Sandra, I want you to be a female mechanic." I told him I could not do it - but he said: "You can."

I told my dad about my dream. He said: "Go and sleep - that's not a dream, it's a nightmare." He said I could not do it. But I started crying and told him it was what I wanted. Then, when he travelled abroad, my father saw other female mechanics. When he came back, he said: "You know, your idea is actually very good." And he said that I could do it.

He took me to a garage where they used to fix cars. When I got there, there were a lot of customers. Some said: "Take her back home, she can't do it - she's a little girl, she should go home with her mother and learn how to cook."

I said no. I love this job. In that workshop, I saw a big engine on a top of a table, dismantled, with black engine oil running down the table. I fell in love with that black engine oil.

I told my dad that I wasn't coming home with him, and that I was starting work that day. So, at a time, I found out that I don’t want to do any other thing except mechanic work. I then went to Technical College and from there to Auchi Polytechnic where I studied Auto Mechanical Engineering. After my graduation, I worked with Bendel State Transport Service, Benin and Nigeria Railway Corporation before I finally set up my own garage, which is Sandex Car Care”.

Challenging the stereotypes that limit women and minority groups to low-paying, menial jobs, Sandra is tackling an area traditionally reserved for men – auto repair. Her goal is to promote sustainable positive change in the socioeconomic circumstances of the poor and vulnerable people in Nigeria by demonstrating their ability to master a difficult skill, simultaneously securing their economic future and building their self-esteem. She breaks this stereotype by training successful female mechanics across the nation, many of whom come from especially poor backgrounds. She helps her trainees diagnose and fix mechanical problems with a professional touch, and as they master her techniques, she helps them start garages of their own. A career in car maintenance enables women to secure a stable stream of income and establishes them as respected, valuable members in their communities. Sandra crafts her work to open the way for women to succeed not only in auto maintenance, but in dozens of other occupations traditionally dominated by males.

Interview with C.S. Anyawu, Daily Sun (2006)

She tells you it wasn’t rosy at all starting the mechanic business. "Initially, friends ran away from me, they said I’m not the happening woman. But today, they come to me and say if they had known, they would have joined me then." "It was difficult convincing people to bring their cars to her for repairs. Because, you know, being a woman, a lot of people thought I wasn’t serious. The thought I was not well trained. But, one day, I was driving along the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos, and the car of a woman driving in my front had a fault. She stopped and dashed out of the car. When she opened her bonnet, she saw some smoke and was scared she thought that her car was burning." Aguebor parked and went to her. "I assured her I could fix her car but she never believed me. I checked the car and saw it was a radiator problem. I picked up my spanner, my clips, screw drivers, and within a few minutes, I repaired it. Her car temperature came down afterwards. I didn’t collect a dime from her. But I gave her my card and she brought some first sets of customers to me."

Her services speaks for her and this has earned her the sobriquet the Lady Mechanic.

The Problem

Interview with ASHOKA (2004)

For most Nigerian women, opportunities for meaningful employment are scarce. Educated women have made significant progress in entering the labor force, but their less-privileged peers remain unemployed at much higher rates. Lack of opportunity for training and apprenticeship, combined with discrimination, exclude women of limited formal education—the majority of the female population—from promising careers. The result is severely limited opportunities for women to earn their own money, increase their self-confidence and start their own small businesses.

Blue-collar professions in particular have tended to discourage and discriminate against women, despite the national shortage of trained workers in these trades. Very few women are able to forge careers as carpenters, plumbers, mechanics, electricians, and other skilled laborers. Moreover, there are no systemic efforts underway to recruit women to these types of work. Many programs teach women vocational skills, but do not challenge the traditional division of labor; preparing women for work such as sewing and washing. The labor market would benefit from an infusion of committed, well-trained professionals in blue-collar careers, but the potential of many women ready to serve, remains untapped.

These problems persist and are compounded by the perception that women’s work is not as valuable as men’s work. For the most part, women lack the opportunity and the confidence to prove this perception wrong; to prove themselves as capable and prodictive. They sell vegetables at market, assist with office work, and care for children; performing these tasks with great skill. However, these traditional roles do not showcase women as skilled and capable laborers ready to lead the market workforce. As Nigerian girls grow up, they will define their career aspirations by what they see achieved by their mothers’ generation.