NIGERIA: 'Intimate Pleasures,' Nigerian entrepreneur opens first female online sex store.

Record ID: 238191

  • Title: NIGERIA: 'Intimate Pleasures,' Nigerian entrepreneur opens first female online sex store.
  • Date: 23rd July 2014
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) IHEOMA OBIBI, CREATIVE DIRECTOR, INTIMATE PLEASURES-DESIRES OF THE HEART, SAYING: "Every single penny earned goes back into the business, goes back into the business investing in stock, I mean and we can see the stock moving, you could see it. Stock doesn't last as long as it used to, now you are looking at every six weeks." STREET SCENES / PEOPLE WALKING (SOUNDBITE) (English) VICTORIA OKOJIE, LAGOS RESIDENT SAYING: "Vibrators and sex toys they are not good for someone to use because the Bible is also against it and as a woman we have to keep yourself or it's either you get married and leave sex toys alone because they're not applicable, it doesn't make sense to me." (SOUNDBITE) (English) JOSEPH OLALERAN, LAGOS RESIDENT SAYING: "You know the pleasure that one has been deriving from using sex toys, it will get to a stage where you will not even consider a man or woman giving you such satisfaction." MORE STREET SCENES (SOUNDBITE) (English) AWOKE CHRISTOPHER, LAGOS RESIDENT SAYING: "It has to do with individual interest, sometimes if you cannot control yourself sexually and you know it's very hard this time around for one to control him or herself, so in that manner instead of going out to commit one or two things, if you feel to yourself that is what you can use to satisfy yourself I think you can go on with it." CARTONS OF SEX TOYS VARIOUS OF PENIS SHAPED BAKING PANS AND COOKIE CUTTERS PRODUCT READING: "G-SPOT WILD" (SOUNDBITE) (English) IHEOMA OBIBI, CREATIVE DIRECTOR, INTIMATE PLEASURES-DESIRES OF THE HEART SAYING: "I'd like us to be more accepting of sexual health and sexual pleasure and you know I don't ah...I'd like to really get to grips with social media, some of the social media...the famous Nigerian social media handles are unwilling to take our adverts and so we've got more....that's why I was surprised you know we've got more talks about us from outside Nigeria than from inside and that's also because Nigerians and sex is very complex." PRODUCT READING: "BOY BUTTER"
  • Embargoed: 7th August 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Nigeria
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: Business,General,Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVAF8CBO3Q5RDHC586LMFSQJP4
  • Story Text: Iheoma Obibi runs a rather unique business in a local suburb in Lagos, one of Africa's busiest commercial capitals. Welcome to the headquarters of Nigeria's first online female sex shop.
    Here, Iheoma ships and packages an array of sexual health products and erotica to clients across the country.
    Iheoma set up 'Intimate Pleasures, Desires of the Heart' in 2010 after incessant requests from her friends to buy sex toys, also referred to as adult novelty toys, whenever she travelled abroad.
    "Each time I went on holiday, I will always get somebody asking me, can you bring something back for me, and they will give me a long list to go to "Aunt Summers," you know or "Shh Emporium," there's a store in England called "The Shh Emporium" and they will send me there and you know I had friends in Nairobi, in Sierra Leone, in Gambia, and they will say ah, Iheoma you know when...I will pick it up whenever I see you but they would have given me the money and all I had to do was bring it along," said Iheoma.
    'Intimate Pleasures' clients can also order products from other online shopping platforms which Ifeoma says has helped to increase her client base even though some choose to remain anonymous.
    Most of the products cost between 2,500 naira (15 U.S. dollars) and 32,000 naira (193 US dollars).
    "This is the back end of Konga shopping online, and this is the sellers headquarters so what happens is that when you place your order, you will get a receipt from Konga telling you your order has been sent to the seller, and for this type of items many people don't want anybody else to know that they've ordered them, so sometimes the names they use don't make sense," added Iheoma.
    Ifeoma's business is considered risqu�in Nigeria where many people hold conservative views. Talking openly about sex in public is often regarded as inappropriate.
    On the streets of Lagos, some were critical not just of 'Intimate Pleasures,' but of adult novelty toys.
    "Vibrators and sex toys they are not good for someone to use because the Bible is also against it and as a woman we have to keep yourself or it's either you get married and leave sex toys alone because they're not applicable, it doesn't make sense to me," said Victoria Okojie, a Lagos resident.
    "You know the pleasure that one has been deriving from using sex toys, it will get to a stage where you will not even consider a man or woman giving you such satisfaction," said Joseph Olaleran, another Lagos resident.
    But others expressed more positive views.
    "It has to do with individual interest, sometimes if you cannot control yourself sexually and you know it's very hard this time around for one to control him or herself, so in that manner instead of going out to commit one or two things, if you feel to yourself that is what you can use to satisfy yourself I think you can go on with it," said Awoke Christopher, a Lagos resident.
    Iheoma invested about 1,000 U.S. dollars to start the business and says now she is turning a profit. She orders her stock from the U.S. which she says lasts about six weeks. She now has clients from other African countries like Ghana, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Kenya and Senegal.
    Iheoma is also a feminist and a human rights activist. She hopes her store will help break taboos that prevent women from both exploring and expressing their sexuality.
    "I'd like us to be more accepting of sexual health and sexual pleasure and you know I don't ah...I'd like to really get to grips with social media, some of the social media...the famous Nigerian social media handles are unwilling to take our adverts and so we've got more....that's why I was surprised you know we've got more talks about us from outside Nigeria than from inside and that's also because Nigerians and sex is very complex," she explained.
    'Intimate Pleasures' also caters to men but according to Iheoma providing a space where women feel empowered and free to be themselves remains one of her primary goals.
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