Nigeria’s wood and furniture industries embrace tens of thousands of wood harvesters, craftspeople, and merchants, who ply their trade in major clusters and smaller locations all over the country. There are a few fairly large businesses in the sector as well, some of them lasting several decades and involving multiple generations of owner-families.
One of them, BISROD Furniture Company, has had its main production center in Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, for over forty years. Throughout that time, it’s churned out furniture for companies, government offices, universities, and polytechnics. And despite the challenging times it’s faced at various stages of its long-lived existence, it continues to craft chairs and tables for Nigeria’s formal establishments.
BISROD takes its name from its founder’s own, Giwa Bisi Rodipe. Pa Rodipe, as he is now known, has a history that’s hard to unthread from wood and furniture. He’s been with trees for most of his life and was himself a carpenter in his earlier days. He has recently become an advocate for environmental sustainability, and an avid tree planter.
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Rising from the Woods
Giwa Bisi Rodipe seems to have had his path set for him from the very beginning. His father was a kola nut farmer; doubtless, the young Rodipe would have stared at the kolanut trees on his father’s farm and admired their rough barks and smooth fruits. Those early impressions had so strong an effect, that when he completed his secondary school education, he chose to train in woodworking at the Yaba Trade Center.
After graduating from the institution in 1961, he joined the Cooperative Woodwork in Ibadan, where he worked for a while. Later, he landed a job at the Western Region Television and Broadcasting Service, where he helped create furniture and props for the television and radio stations.
But Rodipe wanted his own venture. In 1971, he opened a roadside carpentry business in Ibadan, which he ran as a side hustle while still holding down his job at the WNBS. He continued with this until he saved up enough to get fully involved with the woodworking enterprise. That shop was the BISROD Company in its earliest stage.
The creation of new states in 1976 led to the expansion of the country’s public sector and an accompanying construction of new offices and state-owned educational institutions. The economy was thriving as well, thanks in part to an oil boom. Demand for furniture was rising, and BISROD was in a position to help plug the supply gap. Buoyed by the nationwide requests for its services, BISROD relocated to a much bigger production facility in Ijebu Ode.
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At the height of its operations in the 1980s, the BISROD factory employed about 250 staff. And although economic conditions took a negative turn a few years later, the facility continued to supply the local market, which was always in want of chairs and tables.
An Environmentally Aware Business
Rodipe also founded the Evergreen Tree Planters, an initiative that encourages tree planting and the creation of forest covers. Starting in 1986, Rodipe has planted over 2 million trees, as part of his efforts to raise awareness about the depletion of Nigeria’s tropical vegetation. The Evergreen Tree Planters have their office at the BISROD Forest Demonstration Center in Ijebu Ode.
Now in his eighties, Rodipe continues to campaign for greater care for natural habitats. He is keen to show that it’s possible to be both chairman of a competitive furniture company and an environmental activist, without threatening one’s work on either front.
Featured image source: City People Magazine
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