Oliver: Government Should Invest In Cane Craft To Assist Livelihood

Oliver Ewalefo Ahia, the Managing Director/PA of VAJ Ratan Group of Companies, an indigene of Edo State, precisely the Esan-speaking tribe of Uromi.
He started as a lad in Saint Francis Primary School, Maryland, and moved to Maryland Comprehensive Secondary School, and finally got admitted into the Lagos State Polytechnic; he studied Business Administration and graduated with flying colours.
Mr Oliver became friends with his boss while they were in primary school in Maryland. Their ties became stronger when they both got admitted into the same secondary school at. After secondary school, Victor Solomon otherwise known as Vaj went into entrepreneurship, Oliver went into the tertiary institution, and after graduation, he worked and amassed a couple of managerial skills while displaying his acquired knowledge.

He came back to his friend, Vaj who was already doing well in the Ratan business world and decided to input his acquired managerial skills to play and it is paying off.
CREEKVIBES magazine had a ruburst conversation with Mr Oliver to ascertain the grapevine currently making the rounds about his friend and boss of over 3 decades, Vaj, his response was wao, he said, “Going by Vaj’s native name, ‘Ajarese’, which simply means if anybody has a problem he should come to me, he has been that kind of an open-hearted person.”
“In this community, he has reached out to widows and the less privileged, even in the church he attends, he does not hold back whenever he notices someone in need, he dolls out financial assistance without hesitation.”
CREEKVIBES also asked if he can still locate some of his primary school classmates, and he responded in the affirmative.
He also used this medium to pass a message to the Lagos State government to invest in the cane craft business, he said, “We started from Anthony Village and moved down to Maryland cane village, although this is not a bad location. It was the fault of their founding fathers not to have gotten a permanent site for their businesses which resulted in us practising our ventures under the bridge; in a nutshell, I will want the Lagos State government to get us a permanent site to be the headquarters of cane and rattan businesses in Nigeria. Some of our jobs are good exports, and it revealed that we are not to be swayed away.
“These lines of business can take people off the streets if the government made funds available for students of technical institutes to learn the nitty-gritty of the cane craft.”
“For instance, one of our workers used to be a tailor in his neighbourhood, but he was chiselled out of business because his patronizers now have brothers and sisters inline of his business. Unfortunately for him, he lost his wife, and depression started setting in; all we could do was to bring him in to start taking care of sewing for the cane cushions, and the man could stand on his feet again and take care of his children,” Oliver said.