How losing both parents shaped OTP Label founder Toheeb Opeyemi

Akinwale Toheeb Opeyemi, founder of OTP Label, says the deaths of both his parents drove him to take early responsibility for his future and shaped his path into fashion entrepreneurship, the Vanguard reports.

Opeyemi, 27, told Vanguard that he lost his father when he was five months old and never met him. He said he was raised by his mother, a hairdresser, and that her death was especially painful because of the role she played in his upbringing. “Those experiences made me understand early that life can change at any time and that I had to take responsibility for my own future,” he said, according to the report.

He said his mother taught him the value of consistency while juggling work and family responsibilities. “Things will not always be easy, but you have to keep showing up and keep going. That is something I carry with me today in running OTP Label,” he told Vanguard.

Opeyemi began his career in fashion through tailoring. After working as a designer and tailor, he said he realised tailoring alone would not deliver the income he wanted, so he explored other opportunities in the industry. “For me, it wasn’t that tailoring was bad. I just saw another opportunity that I believed could grow into something much bigger,” he said.

He described how he saved from his tailoring work and used about ₦300,000 to start a retail clothing business. As that business grew, Opeyemi said he saw scope in wholesale supply to other retailers and resellers. He said finding reliable suppliers was initially difficult and that he once paid someone online to access a supplier contact while learning the wholesale market.

To scale the operation, Opeyemi said he later raised about ₦1.5 million to move into wholesale. He described that transition from the initial ₦300,000 retail investment to a larger wholesale business as a key stage in building OTP Label.

The interview was published by Vanguard and filed under its entertainment section. The full profile appears on Vanguard’s site.

What he says he learned

• Personal loss and early responsibility influenced his business outlook, he told Vanguard.
• Consistency and persistence, lessons from his mother, guide his approach to running OTP Label.
• He started with tailoring, used savings of about ₦300,000 to launch retail, then raised about ₦1.5 million to expand into wholesale.
• He said he used online searches and paid for a contact while building supplier networks.

All details in this report are drawn from an interview published by Vanguard. See the original story at Vanguard.