Indigenous Business Incubators: A Focus on the Akwete Weaving Industry

Abstract

The Igbos are renowned for their success in business. This chapter traced the pre-colonial and post-colonial innovations among the Igbos to highlight salient factors that could be responsible for their outstanding success in recent times. In the pre-colonial era, the Igbos made their livelihood through vocations such as blacksmithing, traditional medicine, farming, pot moulding, hunting, food preservation, and textiles, especially in cloth weaving. The post-colonial period which witnessed the Nigerian civil war, led to a disruption of their entire business structure. However, through the principles of apprenticeship and hard work, ingredients of success in the pre-colonial years, the Igbos were able to rebuild their business structure and became renowned for their success. They retained some of their pre-colonial crafts such as cloth weaving of which the Akwete fabric is a good example and has gained both national and international prominence in recent times. The chapter presented the case of the Akwete Weaving Centre of Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike Ikwo (AE-FUNAI), established to promote cultural heritage and enhance the entrepreneurial skills of students in the craft through modern apprenticeship. The chapter made recommendations on ways to enhance the Akwete Weaving industry and effectively harness its potentials.