From Indomie in Islamiyya to Importing From China: Katsina Governor’s Daughter Breaks The Mold With Gift Business
In a country where children of powerful political figures are rarely seen openly running small businesses, the daughter of Katsina State Governor, Amina Dikko Radda, is charting a different path.
The young entrepreneur, who recently opened a gift and souvenir store in Abuja named Minaries Gift Gallery, says her journey into commerce started as early as age 10 in primary school in Kano, charging neighbourhood children to play on her family’s swing and selling Indomie noodles at Islamiyya school.
In an interview with Radio France Internationale, RFI Hausa on its program “Sa’idu Ku,” Amina traced her business zeal to her parents. Her mother has run several businesses, while her father, Governor Dikko Radda, is an entrepreneur who believes strongly in self-reliance and insists his children must earn their own keep outside education.
That spirit, she said, pushed her to dump Public Health after one semester at the university in Yola. She had enrolled only because her mother wanted one of her two daughters to become a doctor, but she quickly realized business was her calling and switched to Entrepreneurship and Management. While still at university, she started a weekend shawarma business that grew from 20 pieces to over 300 pieces in three days.
Her latest venture was born out of a market gap she observed in Abuja. She wanted to sell wedding and corporate souvenirs that people usually had to travel to Lagos or Kano to get. After drafting a business plan with photos and item lists to prove her seriousness, she convinced her father to allow her to travel to China’s Canton Fair, accompanied by her uncle, spending three weeks across eight Chinese cities to source affordable, high-quality goods.
She named the shop Minaries Gift Gallery, after a nickname given to her by a secondary school friend, with a dream that the name would go global across all her future businesses. The strategy, she said, is working — with prices starting from N3,000, her Abuja store now attracts customers from Kano, Sokoto and Katsina who say her goods are cheaper than in Lagos.
Amina however admitted that being a governor’s daughter comes with its own burden. She said some people visit the shop not to buy but to take pictures, gossip, or bring political complaints, while others place huge custom wedding orders, demand invoices and pictures for days — especially while she was in Umrah — only to disappear without payment, which she described as unfair and draining.
Despite the challenges, she insisted that self-reliance is non-negotiable for women and youths, arguing that earning personal income builds self-respect, teaches the value of money, and stops the cycle of constantly begging parents or husbands.
