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Clay fairies, Nigeria’s foremost play dough company is owned by kids!!!

6 year old Nathan Demilade Akintoye and 4 year old Phoebe Doyinsola Akintoye are the powerful brains behind Nigeria’s foremost Play dough company: Clay Fairies.

6 year old Nathan Demilade Akintoye and 4 year old Phoebe Doyinsola Akintoye are the powerful brains behind Nigeria’s foremost Play dough company: Clay Fairies.

Their inclination toward Arts and craft started as an interest that was piqued in the course of helping their mum out with her craft activities. Their favourite of all was the homemade playdough. They would request their mum to make this malleable dough for them over and again that it soon became a regular pastime.

They found making playdough so much fun because they were able to mould the finished product into various objects as far as their imagination could take them. This pastime soon became serious as they now started playing an active role in the preparation of the playdough. They do the measuring, scooping and assembling while their mum cooks the non- toxic homemade playdough for them. They then wait for it to cool down after the cooking is done and then the fun begins! They particularly enjoy kneading dough, picking a colour of choice to knead into it as well as the flavouring also working in the glitters into the dough which is the magical fairy element of this whole amazing clay.

This is how they came by the name ‘Clay fairies’.
Many people love the homemade dough so much because of the wide variety of colours and flavours, the non-stick malleable texture, the oomph the glitters add to it and what’s more, it’s completely non-toxic in nature! Nate and Phoebe knew it was time to turn their pastime craft into a money making craft when family and friends started demanding for Playdough in high numbers.

They asked their parents if they could sell a few cups and viola with the right packaging a business was born. The Clayfairies playdough is now stocked at toys stores and has received great reviews for its non-toxic nature as this makes it safe for kids to play with. It also has an amazing variety of vibrant colours and yummy flavours from bubble-gum to cookie cream pie and what’s more, it’s glittered!

Their enrolment at Kid entrepreneurs Centre has been of tremendous impact as well as Nate and Phoebe have been groomed to be young entrepreneurs. The kids got learn about designing their business logo, identifying their target market, and generally turning their hobby into a profitable business. The Kent academy in February 2017 was so much fun and very educative. The kids went on shopping trips to get raw materials for their product and then went ahead to produce the playdough.

Their first selling experience was at the Kids Business fair. The kids sold out on all the playdough they took to the fair and the made so much money. Now their product is making it to the stores and schools! It’s absolutely amazing. Imagine if every adult had this opportunity and coaching to turn a hobby into a business as a child. These children are the economy leaders of tomorrow. Game changers!

A bank account has been opened for Nate and Phoebe in order to help them keep track of the money coming in from sales of the playdough and this has actually taken that sense of entitlement away from them as they know the value of working and earning. Four year old Phoebe says “Mummy can I have some of ‘MY money, I’d like to get some….” Can you beat that?!They know they make ‘their’ own money. Their parents can’t wait to stop paying their tuition.

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