We were really thrilled to see this interview of Iheoma Obibi, a feminist, entrepreneur and steering committee member of the Nigeria Feminist Forum (NFF) on MsAfropolitan, one of our favourite African feminist blogs. In this interview Iheoma shares about the challenges of starting Nigeria’s first online sex shop, Intimate Pleasures:

My motivation came after several years of being told that since I had relocated to Lagos for work and who travelled rather frequently, that since “I had no shame” here is a list of items from friends all wanting something from an adult store in whichever country I found myself visiting. By the time I had attended the African Feminist Forum in 2008 and 2010, I knew that this is what I wanted to do but still had a few stumbling blocks in the how it was going to take shape.
The idea for an online store was therefore organic, because I knew enough to know that no Nigerian would visit a store. In fact, getting staff to man the store would be problematic. It makes me glad that my business idea has allowed for women – single or coupled up – to begin to address issues around intimacy, sexual fulfilment, lust and love. In fact, I have had to engage a counsellor because some women will call the order line and burst into tears. There’s very little opportunity for women to discuss issues of intimacy, sexual fulfilment or even address previous history if they have been survivors of sexual abuse or rape in Nigeria.

Read the full interview by clicking here