Rita Howard Arigbabu is the CEO of Howard Link Finishing, a construction outfit with specialties in ceiling designs, POP, plaster boards, internal and wall screening, pillar designs, window hoods, and stamp concrete for floors. She tells Dorcas Egede about her switch from banking to construction and the journey so far.
In the meantime, she had taken a liking to the making and installation of POP. “It happened that I visited my brother’s site and saw him preparing POP. He brought out the cement and sand, put water in it, added some amount of POP powder and poured it inside the mixture of water, sand and cement. He gauged it to see how thick it was, you know, just like mixing starch, he poured the mixture into a square shaped glass for it to form.
How does she cope with the competition in such a male-dominated field? With a short laughter, she explained that the belief that women get away with everything they do is largely fallacious. “People think you get away with things because you’re a female, and I’m like, ‘No! I get away with things because I’m good at what I do and my prices are very fair.’”
Arigbabu believes that one thing that makes her and other women stand out in various fields and in her field in particular is that “Women have eyes for details. Men can easily be carried away, but it’s not so for women. Women love interiors and they have eyes for fine things, that’s why when a man goes out for shopping he goes with his wife.”
She believes that men don’t do sex for jobs anymore, because many of them have learnt the hard way. “I know a lady that a guy paid N4m for wardrobe after he had slept with her. She didn’t come back to do the job and claimed that the money the man paid was for the carnal knowledge he had of her; it was her service charge for satisfying him in bed. I think guys have learnt over time, and of course they respect women. I’ve had a guy come to me and say, ‘I’m very impressed with you.
Arigbabu however admits to some challenges on the job. “One initial challenge I had was that of respect, because most times, my workers are males, but that has changed now. When I’m on site now, they know that I’m on site. Secondly, finance; sometimes you do a job and your clients don’t pay. Another thing is that you must pay your workers as and when due. So, it doesn’t matter whether your client pays you or not.