When it comes to career choices, being a mechanic is still sadly considered an unconventional choice for a woman because society stereotypes girls from a young age, believing that they can only care about dolls and playing dress up. However, Sandra Aguebor, the first female mechanic in Nigeria, has proven all that to be wrong, as she hasn’t only emerged successful but has also successfully trained and empowered other women all over Nigeria.
About Sandra Aguebor
Sandra Aguebor is the founder of the Lady Mechanic Initiative (LMI) and the CEO of Sandex Car Care Garage. She is the first female mechanic in Nigeria.
A native of Benin City, Edo State, the first lady mechanic in Nigeria was born in the 70s into the family of the late Mr. & Mrs. R.A. Aguebor. She is a graduate from Auchi Polytechnic, and she also has a degree from the Goethe Institute, a German school based in Lagos State.
Sandra, who has been a mechanic for 32 years, started her own garage, Sandex Care Garage, 22 years ago.
Mechanic Journey
Sandra started training to be a mechanic at the age of 14, despite her mother’s belief that it was shameful for a woman to pursue that career, with the support of her father. He had been out of the country a couple of times and had seen female aeronautical engineers; hence, he didn’t see why his daughter couldn’t be an automobile mechanic if she wanted to. So he took her to the workshop, where he fixed his car, and, according to Sandra, once they arrived, she immediately fell in love with a dismantled car engine and refused to leave. Thus began her training. And although she was still in secondary school, every day she would leave for her mechanic training after school hours.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, she said, “When I opened my shop, my name was all over town. ‘If you go to the Lady Mechanic, your car will be well taken care of …'” I started getting [so many] jobs, I could not cope anymore; I had to employ somebody. That birthed the idea of an empowerment programme, I thought, why not start empowering women to be mechanics so that they can open up their own shops?”
Empowering Other Women
Sandra started her empowerment program training 7 girls and a boy and, over time, successfully built a network of female mechanics that is fast spreading from city to city in Nigeria.
The Lady Mechanic initiative focuses on training orphans, former sex workers, school dropouts, single mothers, and victims of trafficking to become mechanics. According to her, “Lady Mechanic focuses on the poor.”
Sandra and her trainees usually embark on campaign drives where they spread the gospel of the initiative, speaking to young women and encouraging them to become Lady Mechanics.
Awards And Recognition
Just recently, the executive governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode, announced Sandra as the inspirational woman award recipient for her continuous effort in empowering many young ladies.
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Several international organizations, like BBC World News, The New York Times, The South African Broadcasting Corporation, CNN World News, the Voice of Africa, etc., have shown quite a number of documentaries on her.
Watch her interview below