From Afikpo to Abuja: the Lizkon story
A bundle of Ankara prints, a one-room studio, a year of national service and a move to the capital. How Lizkon grew from a home business into a studio and an academy.
1 October 2026 · Lizkon Clothing
Lizkon started with an apprenticeship. While she was a student at the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Elizabeth Ori Ikwudiuto worked as a design intern and then as an assistant designer in fashion houses in the city.
In 2018 she began selling Ankara prints under the name Lizkon Fabrics, sewing from home and sending orders to Abuja, Makurdi, Maiduguri and Port Harcourt. The Lizkon Facebook page opened that July.
A studio on Amachi Road
In mid-2019 the Lizkon Clothing studio opened at No. 31 Amachi Road, Afikpo. From the start it was two things at once: a place to make clothes, and a place to learn how. By 2020, fee-paying students were training on the studio's machines while working on real client orders, and at the studio's first anniversary the trainees modelled outfits they had made themselves.
A year of service
Elizabeth's national service year fell during the 2020 lockdown. As her community development project she gave about a dozen girls aged 13 to 18 six weeks of free training in basic fashion design, and she distributed more than 700 free face masks in Ebonyi State.
The work was commended by Akanu Ibiam Federal Polytechnic, Unwana, its School of Science, the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, St Patrick's Parish, Afikpo, and HRH Ezeogo Ewa Elechi of Ohaisu.
Abakaliki
Lizkon Clothing Venture was registered in January 2021, and that year the business moved to Abakaliki. It launched a YouTube channel of pattern-drafting tutorials and took its first city intake in July. The same year Elizabeth qualified as a certified bridal-wear designer, and bridal couture, corsetry and figure enhancement became the house's signature.
In February 2024 the academy moved into dedicated premises with a hostel for students from outside the city, and that July it welcomed its first international student.
Abuja, and further
In January 2026 the studio moved to Apo Resettlement, Abuja. Since then Lizkon pieces have travelled to the USA, the UK, Canada and the Netherlands, and to a destination wedding in Santorini. Many of those clients were measured on a video call. In all, the studio has now made more than 4,750 unique outfits and exported to more than 20 countries.
The academy reopens in Abuja in January 2027. Same method, same standards, a bigger city.
