Yaounde: University graduate makes living through barbing.

This is the case of 24-year-old-Nifonwi Benedict who today runs a barbing salon, despite holding a Bachelors Degree in Business Management from the University of Yaounde I.

Nifonwi who earned his university degree in 2018, had like many of his peers hope to pick up a good pay job but soon turned his attention to something else.

Instead of continuously going out in search of a job, the native of the North West Region decided to create a job for himself.

He set up Anointing Beauty Barbing Salon in the Obili neighbourhood in Yaounde VI Subdivision, Mfoundi Division of the Centre Region.

“It is no longer news to finish school and remain jobless. So, to secure a job for myself, I decided to erect this salon from the skills I had acquired while I was a student,” Nifonwi told The Guardian Post.

Quizzed on why he chose to erect a barbing salon, he said: “I am a young man and I always love looking good! My likeness for barbing was activated when I was punished while in secondary school for having an unkempt hair. I felt bad that day. So, I decided to always make sure to have a good haircut and to look good…”.

According to the graduate, the barbing salon which he erected one year after leaving university in 2019, has been a source of income to him and has made him financially independent.

“I no longer ask money from my parents, instead I assist them to train my five other siblings who are still schooling,” the graduate said.

As the second male child in a family of seven, Nifonwi finds delights in the activity he carries out and is gainfully putting to use the proceeds he gets from his barbing salon.

The young graduate has equally for the past years been using his skills in barbing to train other youth who are interested in the barbing activity.

“We met three other trainees at the Anointing Beauty Barbing Salon,” Nifonwi said.

Nfonyuy Samuel, aged 16 and Alain Bris, aged 18, are two secondary and high school students who have learning the art of barbing at the Anointing Beauty Barbing Salon.

They told this reporter that just like their boss, they too want to have a “handwork” before they finish school.

Nfonyuy and Bris say for the time that they have been at the barbing salon, they have been motivated by Nifonwi and they money they have had while working there, have gone a long way to assist him in school.

Being a young man with vision and burning with the zeal to put to practice his business management skills into use, Benedict Nifonwi has also set up a motor spare part shop at the Biyem- Assi neighborhood still in Yaounde which he also manages.

He believes that a man should not have just a single occupation, thus supporting the adage that: “Do not put all your eggs in one basket”. 

He said he has also been training his younger ones to be able to assist him and keep the businesses going. Even though he pays more attention to his barbing salon, Nifonwi says he faces only one challenge.

“The only challenge I face is that of the many taxes. Today you will see one tax official, tomorrow you see another. So, it is not really easy,” he laments

His humility towards his customers has equally gained him favour in their eyes. One of them who didn’t want to be named, said: “He is very talented and also respectful. We want more barbers like him in this our neighborhood”. 

By Cyprian Bekhali (Journalism student on internship)

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue N0:3198 of Tuesday August 13, 2024