Kudzayi Hove's entrepreneurial journey from Zimbabwe to Nigeria represents a masterclass in adapting, pivoting, and building with purpose in Africa's challenging business landscape. As co-founder and CEO of Amayi Foods, meaning "mother" in her native Shona language, Kudzayi and her co-founders have transformed what began as a passion for Ghanaian Shito sauce into a mission to reclaim value from African agricultural commodities.
The path hasn't been straightforward. After leaving her finance career at AFC, Kudzayi and her co-founders discovered that their initial focus on premium condiments and modern retail channels was limiting their growth potential. This realization prompted a fundamental strategic shift toward mass-market essentials like tomato paste that could reach consumers through traditional markets, which account for 90% of retail volume in Nigeria. Today, Amayi's products are distributed across 29 states, with 99% of sales flowing through these traditional channels.
What sets Amayi's approach apart is their deep understanding of vertical integration. Rather than simply manufacturing consumer products, Kudzayi recognized that sustainable growth required building lasting partnerships with farmers and aggregators. This infrastructure not only secures consistent inputs for their retail products but has evolved into a broader vision of processing African commodities for international markets – capturing substantially higher margins than exporting raw materials.
The company stands at a transformative moment with plans to acquire an established manufacturing operation that will dramatically scale their capabilities. Looking ahead, Kudzayi envisions Amayi as a $100 million enterprise within 5-7 years, built on three pillars: a strong FMCG platform with leading market positions, a nutritional commodities business serving domestic and international markets, and a commodity processing operation that maximizes value from African agricultural products.
For fellow entrepreneurs, particularly women, Kudzayi offers wisdom earned through a decade of building: take care of yourself while you build. Even in the midst of survival-level challenges, finding moments for rest and renewal isn't a luxury but a necessity for sustainable success.
Discover Amayi's products in markets across Nigeria or connect with them through social media @amaifoods_ng and at www.amaifoods.com.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
With more female entrepreneurs than any other
region in the world.
Women are at the heart ofAfrica's transformation.
Welcome to African BusinessStories, the show that amplifies
the voices of femaleentrepreneurs shaping Africa's
business landscape.
I'm your host, ekego Koye.
Here we explore bold ideas,strategies for scaling and the
(00:25):
realities of building businessesthat drive economic development
.
These stories will provideinsights into Africa's business
landscape, practical tools forgrowth and the inspiration to
navigate your ownentrepreneurial journey.
Be sure to subscribe, rate andshare journey.
Be sure to subscribe, rate andshare On the show.
(00:49):
Today I chat with Kudzai Hovay,co-founder and CEO of Amai Foods
.
Born in Zimbabwe and now basedin Nigeria, kudzai shares her
remarkable journey from privateequity to entrepreneurship,
driven by her desire to buildsomething meaningful, create
mass market products and unlockmore value from African goods.
(01:12):
We explore her lessons innavigating co-founder dynamics,
overcoming the struggle to scale, and why taking care of
yourself as a founder matters.
Let's get into it, hi Kudzai.
Welcome to African BusinessStories, thank you.
Thank you very much, akaego.
So good to be able to sit downwith you today.
(01:33):
I know that you were born andraised in Zimbabwe and I wonder
what that was like for yougrowing up in Zim.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yeah, it was an interesting time.
I was born during the war, theliberation struggle, and at a
very early age, when I was aboutnine months, my parents left
the country to go to the UK tostudy because at the time it was
an apartheid system, blacks inuniversities and then the only
(02:06):
professions that were open wereteaching and nursing.
So if you wanted to dosomething else, it was really
difficult to do that if youstayed.
So they left my brother and Iwas three years older with
family members, etc.
So my earliest memory was beingin the village at my paternal
grandparents' home and Iremember it as a happy time as a
(02:27):
child.
But it was also during the war,right.
So I do remember moments wheremy grandmother put me on her
back and was running fromsoldiers, right.
Or I remember a time when mycousin and I were at the
homestead by ourselves.
I think the adults were in thefield or I'm not sure, but I
(02:49):
remember white soldiersapproaching the homestead and
asking us through translators,where the grown-ups were and
being absolutely terrified.
Yeah, it was intense.
Those were my first memories.
Like I said, I felt they werehappy memories but at the same
time there were these intensemoments.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Did you get to go join your parents at some point?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yes, so when I was four years old, my brother and I
went to join our parents and Ialso remember that journey.
I remember being on a plane.
I couldn't speak English at thetime journey.
I remember being on a plane.
I couldn't speak English at thetime.
My brother could speak a bit ofEnglish and it was back in the
days where they would take theboys to the cockpit, but little
girls presumably weren'tinterested in the cockpit.
(03:34):
And I remember feelingabandoned because my brother,
who was the only person whocould speak the language, was
not there, could kind of speak.
The language was not there andthe only person I knew.
I remember screaming and themtrying to calm me down.
And then I also remember westopped somewhere.
I don't know if it wasJohannesburg or Rome, it was
(03:56):
also.
It was a time when there weresanctions, right.
So, there couldn't be directflights into Rhodesia at the
time.
So I do remember spending thenight in a hotel with a flight
attendant in the same bed as mybrother, and when I tell people
that they're like what, it'slike a crazy.
You couldn't imagine it inthese days.
(04:17):
But yeah, just arriving in theUK now, I didn't know.
My dad was there to pick us upwith his brother and I didn't
know them right, because theyleft when I was nine years old.
So I was following this flightattendant out of the airport
because she was the only personI knew and then they had to find
(04:38):
me and call me.
So it was, yeah, it was a lot Iremember.
Just I guess it was significantenough for me to have retained
these memories.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
You meant nine months old, right?
Because I think that's what?
Yes, nine months old.
That's just incredible.
So where did you end up goingto university?
Speaker 2 (05:01):
So I ended up going to university in the US.
So shortly after independencewe went back to Zimbabwe as a
family which again was anotherinteresting thing because it was
just after independence we weregoing to these schools that
were that used to be reservedfor white people, and so now
black kids were going there, andso there was was this a lot of
(05:24):
stress on the system.
The teachers, who were mainlywhite, also were, I think, maybe
having their own mental healthepisodes at the time.
Transition was a lot and itwasn't.
It was again an interesting fewyears of the country were
trying to settle into thispost-apartheid,
post-indindependence world.
I started primary school in theUK by the way.
(05:47):
I left.
I started school in the UK andI left when I was about seven or
eight years old to go back towhen we went back to Zimbabwe.
So I did come back to Zimbabwewith this funny little accent,
probably from East Londonbecause that's where we lived.
So that also made me a littleweird to everyone the black kids
were like why do you talk likethat?
(06:08):
The white kids were like why doyou talk?
So I was a bit weird, yeah.
So then finished primary schoolin Zimbabwe and then went to
secondary school there.
And I didn't actually finishsecondary school.
I went to the US before the endof my last year, and mainly
because I didn't want to doA-levels.
I just thought they were soconstraining.
I didn't know what I wanted todo in my life and I thought it
(06:31):
was really unfair to have16-year-olds decide what they
want to do.
And I found out about theliberal arts system in the US
and how you get time to kind offigure out what you want to do,
and I was like, ok, that's thesystem for me, right, and so
that's how I ended up atuniversity there, so your
parents allowed you to make thatchoice.
(06:52):
Yeah my dad.
Unfortunately, my mom passedaway when I was 16.
But yeah, my dad was very muchhe was OK with it.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
OK, so what was that experience like for you moving
to the US?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
okay with it.
Okay, so what was thatexperience like for you, moving
to the US?
The move is always somethingthat's very stressful and
impacts someone's life I think,quite a lot, especially across a
move across the world,basically by yourself at age 18.
So it was an interesting time.
It took me time to settle down,but I enjoyed the school.
This was Clark University inWorcester.
(07:26):
I liked the school, I made somevery good friends, and it was
also it was a very interestingtime in the US too, because I
remember I arrived around thetime that Bill Clinton was
campaigning right for his firstterm, and so it was just
interesting watching the wholething unfold.
You know, coming from where Icame from and the history of the
(07:49):
country.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
So what did you study at Clark University?
Good question.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
So initially I thought I would study.
It was like women's studies Ithought I was interested in,
then international development,and at some point I was just
like I don't know what I wantedto do.
But the great thing about Clarkis that they let you
self-design a major, and sothat's what I ended up doing.
I just cobbled everythingtogether and I think the major
(08:17):
was called the politics ofinternational development or
something.
That's what I liked about theschool in the first place,
besides the fact that it had alot of international students.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
So did you do your MBA straight after or did you go
work first?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
I went home to Zimbabwe and I worked so I got
into banking and it was a bit ofa strange twist of fate but I
got into banking, for my firstjob was a trainee assistant
manager in corporate finance ofa merchant bank which was then,
which then at the point, at thatpoint, had a shareholder, was a
(08:55):
major shareholder with MR Ostroand now it's Ned Bank.
But yeah, that was my first jobin Zimbabwe.
Then I had a couple other jobsbefore that and then I mean
after that, and then went to domy MBA At Wharton.
At Wharton, yeah, I went to domy MBA at.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Wharton.
So what was your career likeright after business school?
Speaker 2 (09:18):
So after business school it was straight into
private equity for a companywhich at the time was called
Emerging Markets Partnership andthere were an early investor in
emerging markets, backed by theWorld Bank amongst other
development finance institutions.
It was set up by former WorldBank guys.
So we.
(09:39):
So basically I joined theAfrica fund.
They had a number of fundsAfrica, asia, latin America and
so I joined the Africa Fund.
They had a number of fundsAfrica, asia, latin America and
so I joined the Africa Fund.
And then, after I joined, acouple of years after I joined,
the Africa Fund team spun offand did a buyout.
They ended up setting up a newcompany called Emerging Capital
(10:00):
Partners and that's yeah.
So that's an ecp is the namethat most people know in the
market private equity.
yeah, so I I joined ecp straightafter graduation now, so that
was 2003 basically, and I was inthe washington dc office for a
while.
Then my husband and I mighthave met my husband and I.
(10:24):
I met my husband at Wharton.
We decided to move back toAfrica and he was trying to set
up a business there and wefigured the soft landing would
be to move to Joburg first.
So I moved to the ECP Joburgoffice for a few years and then
(10:46):
we decided to move to Nigeriabecause the business he was
trying to set up was in Nigeria.
In all of this I was the one whowas kind of convincing him
because at ECP I startedtraveling quite a bit across
Africa.
So it was the first time for meto go to West Africa.
I'd never been to West Africa,but to be able to I'd been to
East Africa, parts of it,southern Africa, but it was for
me coming to Nigeria and it wasthe time when MTN was really hot
(11:08):
and seeing what was happeningin the economy.
I remember going back to theStates and saying to my husband
look, there's a lot of stuffhappening and we may be missing
out on opportunities, decidingto stay here.
It took a while, but we did.
We ended up moving.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
So you're now living in Nigeria?
What year are we in when you'rein Nigeria?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
So we moved here in 2009.
I actually moved here before myhusband did.
So that's what 16 years inOctober or September.
So I came to Nigeria workingfor AFC.
So that's what 16 years inOctober or September.
So I came to Nigeria workingfor AFC Again, a soft landing,
right.
Yeah, it was a great experience.
(11:54):
I liked what I was doing Goodpeople, good work, and it's nice
to see it now becauseinfrastructure takes a long time
.
So some of the projects I wasinvolved in that only were built
and completed after I left.
Yeah, it was like I said, itwas a good, a very good
experience, and it's, togetherwith the private equity
experience I think, has beenreally helpful and informing my
(12:17):
views of what my foods should beand our strategy.
But I had for years, evenbefore AFC, I had for years
wanted to build something.
It just it wouldn't go awayyeah.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
So you knew you wanted to build something, but
you weren't sure what.
So how did the idea of my comeabout?
Speaker 2 (12:38):
so we had my partner, nana and I had known each other
since I joined ECP.
That was in 2003.
She was working there as ananalyst and then I joined after
my MBA.
So we became friends from thatexperience and during that time
she introduced me to Chitosesauce, which I'd never tried
(13:01):
before and I loved it.
She introduced me and anothercolleague of ours to it.
So we loved it so much we wouldhave cooking sessions her place
or to make some right so thatwe each had enough for ourselves
.
But with that, you know, it wasone of those things that just
kind of stayed with us for yearsafterwards.
(13:22):
And when, at point when I endedup in Nigeria working for AFC,
she moved to Nigeria, still withECP, and we were sitting at my
dining room table and being likeI was talking about wanting to
build a business and we werelike we've been, we've been
fighting over Chitoh and bondingover Chitoh for years.
(13:43):
Why don't we look at doingsomething related to African
food?
But there weren't products likeyour pasta sauce that give you
some level of authenticity butmake it easier and quicker, more
affordable to do what you needto do.
So that's what we tried totackle.
We were like look, let's lookat seeing if we can do something
like this.
(14:04):
And we started messing aroundwith different iterations of a
jollof rice kind of mix and wehave taste tests and all that
kind of stuff done, and we werelooking at the jollof being like
a powder mix and it just wasn'tcoming out the way that you
would want it to.
And we had like taste testswith friends and family who are
(14:27):
notoriously biased and give youreally nice answers, and even
they were like no, it doesn'ttaste right.
We knew that it wasn't going towork.
So we ended up just saying, ok,look, while we try and figure
this one out, let's launch theshit talk, because the thing
that they did love was the shit.
Or and it's the thing is, it's awell-known kind of condiment
(14:51):
right in Ghana where, if you goto, a restaurant you ask for
black pepper, they'll give youshit or sauce and everyone's
moms or aunts make their kidsthe shit or to take to boarding
school and all that kind ofstuff.
It's very well known in Ghanabut not known here.
But the flavors in it are veryWest African.
You can take them to anycountry in West Africa.
(15:13):
People will pretty muchrecognize those flavors, even
actually Southern Africa there'sa bit, although we don't eat
that much pepper.
So what we realized when peopletasted it?
They loved it and they werelike, oh, I'm gonna have it with
my yam or I'm gonna do this,and so that's what made us
launch it and that was thebeginning of amai.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
How did you guys settle on the name and what does
amai?
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (15:34):
that was the process, I think.
We had a lot of names, a lot ofoptions, like we, that were
just not working.
And then one day I suggestedAmai.
It means mother in Shona, aZimbabwean language, my language
, right, and it was acceptable.
So that's how we settled on it.
(15:56):
We liked the meaning, obviouslybecause we were mothers.
Our third partner, oname, aNigerian woman, is also.
She's a mother of three.
Nana from Ghana is a mother ofthree.
Nana from Ghana is a mother ofthree.
You know me at the time I was amother of one but now mother of
two.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
We were like, okay, this works, this kind of works
for us, your three co-founders,it's been what like 10 years
since you started this business.
I'm always very intrigued byco-founder dynamics and
relationships, and I wonder whatit's been like for three of you
over this last 10 yearsbuilding this yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Look, I think it's never an easy ride, whether
you're doing it by yourself orwith other people.
Right, building a businessanywhere in the world is never
an easy ride, and especially ina place like Nigeria or Africa
and Nigeria, right.
So we've had our ups and downs.
That's the truth of the matter.
We've been asked by investorsmale investors how do you guys
(16:56):
get on?
Because women notoriously arguewith each other and we're like
rolling our eyes or whatever.
But for us, I think, the mainthing is that it's not consensus
based, our decision making.
At the end of the day, it'sbeen like the three of us.
So if two support, then theother one accepts that it has to
(17:17):
go ahead.
So that's the first thing, andthen the next thing is that we
all agree and accept that thedecisions we all make are for
the good of the business andthat the business comes first.
So, yeah, it's been like I said.
It's not been easy.
We've had our ups and downs.
We've been able to, I think,been easy.
(17:40):
We've had our ups and downs.
We've been able to, I think,navigate a few you know
challenges and come out of it,learn from it and come out of it
.
But we're still navigating andwe're still learning, because
the business changes right.
So new things come up and newchallenges come out of them.
I think that's another.
It's not like I can settle backand say, oh, we're all set.
Everything works like clockwork,but I think we have developed
(18:00):
an understanding of each otherand the support that we need to
be able to do what we need to do.
Yeah, I think that's where weare Fantastic.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
So, talking about change, when you started this,
when you guys started thisbusiness, what were your initial
goals?
What was your goal in settingup Amayi Foods?
And I want to then come tocompare it to what the company
does today, but just taking thefirst step, what was your goal
when you started Amayi Foods?
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Yeah.
So this is an interestingquestion because I've I've come
to realize now, after 10 yearsof entrepreneurship, that
there's always this when youread articles about successful
entrepreneurs, they're like thisperson had a clear vision of
what they wanted to do and theyexecuted on it right, yeah and
then, exactly as an entrepreneur, you're like why, why don't I
have this?
(18:54):
what's wrong with me and whydoes my vision keep changing?
Which is exactly what it'ssupposed to do, because you
adapt to new circumstances.
Right, you realize something'snot working.
Oh, I thought that this is whatwe were going to do, but it's
not working.
Right, I made some assumptionsthat were not right, were not
(19:15):
correct.
I need to go back to thedrawing board.
So, look, I think we've alwayswanted to elevate African food.
Right, that was our whole thing.
Like, african food should besitting at the same level as
Chinese food, globally right,indian food, italian food,
french, whichever one?
Right For us.
We have so much to offer andit's a huge continent, so really
(19:39):
different kind of dishes, rightFrom Cape to Cairo, whatever,
to quote an infamous colonialist.
So we always wanted to do that,and that kind of remains the
same.
But what we realized over time,you know what?
At the time we launched theShytor source, we wanted to have
(20:00):
a mass market product.
We realized that it wasimportant for us to have a mass
market product with a bigpopulation, right?
So you want to be able to havea product that appeals to a good
number of the population so youcan make some money and then to
roll out other products on topof it.
And I think the way that welooked at our product is that
(20:21):
there should be bases for anumber of different types of
foods right, dishes, rather notfoods.
You've got like tomato, tomatopepper mix.
That can be a base for jollof,but it can also be a base for
stew.
Do you know what I mean?
It can be different things.
So that has remained the samein what we want in terms of
(20:42):
versatility for our products.
But what has changed now?
The Chitose sauce was our majorproduct when we launched.
We quickly found out that itwas a very rich product to be
targeting the open market.
We were selling 25 grams ofshito sauce in a sachet for 50
(21:02):
naira and it sounds cheap.
It sounded cheap at the time tolots of people.
The only person who was likethat's expensive was a lady who
was in marketing at Nestle.
She completely understood that50 naira, what 50 naira meant to
a person at the time.
And you know for sure 50 nairaat that time could buy somebody
(21:26):
a whole pack of tomato pasteright, which they could now use
to make jollof rice a pot ofjollof rice 70 grams at the time
of tomato paste to make a potof jollof rice, 70 grams at the
time of tomato paste, to make apot of jollof rice for four
people, whereas we were sellinga condiment for 25 grams.
That was single use only,although people did use it for
(21:48):
other things.
They used it to season meat andrice and everything.
But it was.
When you start comparing whatpeople can do, you understand.
So the shit toes no longer ourmain product.
We had to retool.
We stripped down.
We had a pipeline of products.
Most of them were like ready tocook or ready to use, ready to
(22:09):
use or ready to eat.
We understood after talking todistributors, et cetera, that
our products, the market, wasnot ready for that.
Right, what the market wantedwas a product that they could
cut down the time and cost ofpreparing a meal, but allowing
(22:29):
their own customization.
So that changed.
Right.
So our major products right noware tomato paste and tomato
pepper paste.
Right.
So our major products right noware tomato paste and tomato
pepper paste.
Right, which we sell across thecountry, right 29 states and
mostly in the traditionalmarkets.
Right At the time we were inmostly what they call the modern
(22:52):
trade.
So the supermarkets likeShopRite and Spa were the only
ones, just right, who weretaking our products, and they
really account for less than 10%of retail volumes in the
country.
It was very limiting for us andwe couldn't break through to
the open markets, which accountsfor 90% of the retail volume.
(23:13):
So that has changed and thenalso our view has broadened
beyond elevating African food.
I think what we came tounderstand is that in order for
us to do anything successfullyin this market or any other
African market, right, first ofall there has to be.
There has to be, because wedepend so much on local
(23:35):
ingredients.
There has to be.
There has to be, because wedepend so much on local
ingredients.
There has to be some kind ofpartnership with farmers, with
aggregators, to make it work,and a partnership that is
long-term and sustainable.
So we don't want, at the end ofevery season, to be running
like the new season, to berunning after new farmers, et
cetera.
So that's what we realized, andwe realized that not as a way
(23:59):
of, oh, we need to make animpact, but that's actually.
Initially we were like that'skind of the only way we make
money out of this long term.
Right, if there's some sort ofa win-win right and then, by the
way, oh yeah, it has this greatif we structure it, it has this
great impact on the communities, right, that can actually
(24:21):
change people's lives and makecreate real prosperity.
And so that was another thingthat's really evolved for us.
It's become our understandingof it and how we want to do it
has really evolved versus justokay, we're buying from small
scale farmers, right.
So that kind of also hasshifted.
(24:43):
And then, also connected to thatwas the need for us to not just
elevate African food but to nowclaim more value from African
products.
And if you look at any cosmeticproduct in the US, right odds
(25:04):
are it's got cocoa butter in itor shea butter, right, which
comes from Africa, and we areselling this unprocessed right
and somebody else is processingand making the money.
So for me, for us, we reallyfelt that, look, at the end of
the day, we have got to.
(25:24):
If we're setting up sort of theinfrastructure to buy inputs
for our retail products right,like the tomato from small scale
farmers, then why not now buildon that to actually process
commodities right that we cannow sell for greater value on
the international market?
So just to give you an examplesesame seed If you're selling,
(25:48):
if you're lucky, you get aboutan 8% margin on raw sesame seeds
, right on processed sesameseeds.
But if you now process to coldpressed sesame oil, which is in
great demand in China, japan,other parts of Asia, that margin
increases to 40%.
We're really leaving a lot ofvalue on the table.
As Africans, I think that'salso a huge part of the strategy
(26:11):
that's changed for us as Amai.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
This is so interesting, very insightful.
Thank you so much for sharingthat Kutai.
So in terms of your goal toreach the mass market.
So you were sharing earlier andyou said how, when you
initially started, you were inthe grocery stores and all the
shops.
So where are?
Your products sold today.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Yeah, we've actually been able to break into the mass
market, so 99% of our sales arebasically into the traditional
market today.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
So, in terms of manufacturing, where are you
manufacturing and what has thatprocess been like for you guys
at Amayi Foods?
Speaker 2 (26:59):
in Lagos and so we manufacture from here.
I think, look, it was a verysteep learning curve for us.
Over the years it's been a verysteep learning curve.
I think the last few yearswe've been able to assemble the
right team and with the rightkind of approach, right kind of
attitude, and that has reallyhelped us significantly.
It's taken some time and Ithink as an entrepreneur,
(27:24):
sometimes I look back, I blamemyself at times, right In the
first few years we would spendquite a lot of time on culture
and trying to build a companyenvironment that people enjoyed
working in.
We appreciate team membersright.
But then a few years into it itbecame about firefighting right
(27:45):
and survival and much lessfocused on culture.
But in the last few years we'vebeen able, fortunately, to
focus more on that and not justfocus on creating the culture
but also the kind of person whofits into this culture.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
So today you have five products and you're
distributing across I think yousaid 29 country states in
Nigeria.
What was that process like foryou in scaling your distribution
network and are there any keylessons that you've learned in
the process of scaling acrossNigeria?
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Yeah, look, we've learned a lot of hard lessons.
I think I think we startedtrying to scale up too quickly,
as in going into too many placesat once, and so that really
caused problems for us initially.
We're now being a bit morestrategic about it.
So, for each kind of area, whenwe say 29 states, you can have
(28:44):
somebody in Kano, but dealingwith Australia, several states
when we say 29 states, right,we're not saying that we have
distributors, one distributor ineach and every one of those
states, but we could havesomebody in Kano covering
several states, if you see whatI'm saying.
So we have we've been a lot morestrategic about it, so that's
(29:08):
been very helpful.
We had to learn lessons inquality and seeing our product
out there, because tomato pasteis a fragile product in many
ways but trying to makedistributors understand how you
keep it you know what I mean theconditions that you keep it in,
et cetera.
So, yeah, there've been quite afew hard lessons.
(29:29):
I think for us, the main issuenow, which has been our main
issue for a while, is capacityto be able to actually scale up
further.
We've struggled with that for afew years, which is why we're
now looking at this acquisitionas an opportunity to address
that.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
When you guys started this business, did you leave
your job straight away, or didyou, or was this a side project
for for a while before you?
Speaker 2 (29:57):
you died in yeah, it was a bit of a for me it was a
bit of a side project.
We were working on it before Ileft afc, in the sense that we
were doing developing theproducts and doing the taste
tests, but I it was after I leftafc, in at the end of 2013,
that I now I left my job Nanaand Oname did not, but I left.
(30:20):
I had left anyway because I hadthis need to build something.
So I had taken the decisionthat I was going to leave and
focus on the business.
I had my second daughter in2014 and then it was towards the
end of that year that westarted again really working on
it.
And so yeah, I did leave my job,it was a big deal like that.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
How did you guys raise the initial capital to
start the business?
Speaker 2 (30:47):
We funded it ourselves initially from our own
savings.
We were able to do quite a lotuntil about 2018.
That was the first time we gotthird-party funding in at the
time.
Yeah, it was about.
We funded it for about two tothree years for ourselves.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
And what has fundraising been like?
Look, it's been tough.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Nigeria is tough although it shouldn't be as
tough as other places because ofthe population but it has been
tough.
Both Nana and I are fromprivate equity backgrounds and
we thought it would be a loteasier.
We ended up realizing that it'spretty hard, especially if
you're targeting people whodon't understand FMCG.
(31:36):
You know what I'm saying andhow the buildup, et cetera.
So it was tough just gettingthat initial money in and it's
been tough raising in general.
I think what I think has helpedus is when we look at, for
example, this acquisition ofthis company that we're trying
to do.
That has been able to attractinterest of larger players
(31:59):
because it is a larger ticketsize Do you know what I mean
Versus a smaller play like aMyFoods.
So that has been able toattract attention.
But yeah, I think it's justtough all around.
We were at some point competingwith tech.
If you remember the tech bubble, nobody wanted to know about
(32:19):
you unless you were tech related, unless you were tech enabled.
Yeah, enabled, tech enabled.
And then a friend was sayingwho owned like a retail business
was saying the problem with ourbusinesses is that people think
they understand it right, sothey want to go through the
numbers and all sorts of things,but when it comes to tech, they
(32:39):
don't really understand it.
They just want to follow thebandwagon.
We were really struggling withthat, competing against that,
but look, at the end of the day,people still need to eat.
That's our view.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
So, in terms of your value chain and the local
farmers that you source producefrom, what has it been like
building that network andsustaining it?
Because I think I read thatthey're all the way.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Most of your suppliers are in northern
nigeria, so we have two sets ofsuppliers, some in the southwest
right, and we initially were incontact with them, put in
contact with them by GIZ, theGerman development finance
institution, under a programcalled the Nigerian
(33:28):
International CompetitivenessProgram.
So they are the implementationpartner, so they're the ones
who've helped us, held our handsand put us in touch with these
farmers in the Southwest.
We still have relationshipswith those farmers, so that's,
we continue with that.
The Northern farmers.
It's actually been throughaggregators and that's what
(33:48):
we're building out now.
And you know, now to have adirect link with those farmers
so that we can we know whatwe're growing or we can at least
, rather we can have them growwhat we need, to our
specifications and thequantities that we require,
right?
So that's what we're presentlybuilding out right now, and
(34:09):
ostensibly that infrastructureis for us, for the inputs that
we need for our products.
But this is where theinfrastructure play comes to me.
In my mind, whatever we'rebuilding out can also handle
other commodities, right.
So we're not just looking atone, a single commodity cycle,
(34:29):
right, and our own inputs.
But if you can dry tomatoes,you can dry chilies, you can dry
garlic, ginger, you can dryhibiscus right, they're just
different.
For me, I think the main thingis to make your infrastructure
as, first of all, modular aspossible and make it multi-use
(34:50):
to be able to sweat out as muchas you can from it.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
Right.
So how do you keep your priceslow or reasonable?
Speaker 2 (34:59):
enough for the mass market.
Yeah, it's been a struggle.
I think for us, importsubstitution sourcing our inputs
locally has been what hashelped us.
That has enabled us tobasically make products that are
affordable but also profitablefor us.
That has enabled us tobasically make products that are
affordable but also profitablefor us.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
Are you able to talk to us a bit about this planned
acquisition?
You've mentioned it twice.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
I know, yes, I can.
I can't mention any names, butI can mention the rationale for
it.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
But yeah, look, we initially thought we were going
to scale up organically, soraise money, build our own
factory from scratch, etc.
But a few years ago we startedtalking to a company about
contract manufacturing for usand then those talks evolved
into a potential acquisition thekind of the company itself does
(35:50):
similar products to ours plusadditional products.
So it makes sense in that waythat we have a scale for
existing products but we alsoget new products, which helps us
to diversify.
It has a really good managementteam, which we would have.
Probably we would have had tolook for those kinds of people
anyway.
We're excited about that.
(36:10):
Anyway, we're excited aboutthat.
And, yeah, we, for us, it killsseveral birds with, you know,
just a few stones.
It makes perfect sense for us.
We know enough aboutmanufacturing in Nigeria now
that we know that you don't justbuild a new factory and then
flip the switch and everythingis working right.
It takes a while to optimize afactory.
(36:32):
So for us, we like the ideathat this factory is already in
existence.
They do, you know what I mean.
They do what we do.
They do it at a bigger scale,and then this now creates the
platform for us to do a numberof different things when I
mentioned about the commodityprocessing.
Yeah, we're also very muchinterested in nutritional
(36:52):
nutrition commodities, which arethe like the.
I don't know if they're readyto use therapeutic foods that
are used to treat childrenexperiencing severe acute
malnutrition.
So that's one area that we verymuch want to be in and we're
looking at different parts ofthe value chain, but they all
(37:13):
fit in very nicely with thecommodity processing that we're
looking at doing, and then alsothis acquisition, because the
target company can actuallymanufacture the nutrition
commodities.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
Is this still in Nigeria?
Still in?
Speaker 2 (37:27):
Nigeria.
For us, the other opportunityis with the Naira devaluation.
Nigerian products are extremelycompetitive right now Fantastic
.
So we want to be able to takeadvantage of that too.
So that is again the targetcompany has products that can be
exported into the region.
We, if we have scale as a MI,can do the same.
(37:50):
But yeah, again, it's somethingthat we're very excited about.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
So what has raising money for this acquisition been
like?
So?
Speaker 2 (37:58):
this.
As I've said, it's attractedmore attention because it's a
bigger ticket size, right?
It's your players, like privateequity companies etc.
Are a lot more interested insomething that's $10 million or
$20 million versus $500,000 or$1 million, right?
So it's helped us in that sensethat our private equity
(38:19):
background has also obviouslyhelped us a lot in that in
structuring of it and also lookit all comes back full circle
the contacts, the relationshipsthat we've built over the years
with other players in theprivate equity industry in
Africa.
Nana and I are worthy amongstthe first women to be doing it
(38:40):
in Africa and so, yeah, it'sactually really tapping into our
whole network.
That kind of has helped us andthe network that we have built.
These are people who understandthese kinds of transactions.
Yeah, yeah, so it's not beeneasy.
I wouldn't say it's a walk inthe park, but it's still.
It's moving, it's progressing.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
So, based on your experience your previous
experience in PE and then justbuilding this business over the
last 10 years what kind ofinvestments do you think that we
need to support the growth ofthe agricultural value chain
across the continent?
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Look, it's for me we can talk in broad generalities
like oh, infrastructure, right,but the thing is, I think when
we do that we can make theproblem so big it's really
difficult to grapple with.
My view and maybe it is a bitmore of an infrastructure view
is to make investments asmodular as possible.
(39:39):
So if you're going to be talkingabout storage right, it should
be storage, which is obviously.
We know that lack of storage isa huge problem in terms of
post-harvest losses right, butmake it storage that can be
utilized for multiplecommodities right Over different
seasons, right, differentseasons, yeah.
And then it has to be acombination.
(40:01):
You invest in something thathas a combination of big
off-takers to provide, like,base volumes, but you can also
have small farmers having accessto it.
Right To me, that's the kind ofinvestment that would be good
for storage, for some processing.
But then there's some thingsyou can't run away from.
(40:23):
Carno lagos railway yes, that islike a no-brainer, right.
Unfortunately, with that,unless it's given as a
concession to a privatelong-term concession and that
private player knows they've gotguaranteed volumes from people,
which shouldn't be difficult,it's not going to work, but that
(40:43):
in and of itself would reduceso much of the headache of
transportation.
So those are some of the areasthat I would think that people
should invest in, again,companies like ourselves.
I would say obviously, peopleshould invest in us, because
that's where kind of the realchange is happening, right, and
(41:07):
that's also where the realreturns can happen too.
It's just that it is a hightouch investment.
You're not sitting down andsaying I'm going to contribute
corporate governance, which waswhat we used to love saying in
private equity, we'll bringcorporate governance to the
table.
It's a lot more than that, butyeah, for me they're the
individual investments.
And then there's sharedinfrastructure that can be done
(41:30):
on storage, logistics, andthere's some things just like
the railway, that just needs tobe dealt with, and that's
probably a PPP partnership.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
And I'm really excited about your acquisition,
really excited to see how thatgoes and just wondering where
you see the company in the nextfive to seven years.
So what's next for Amai?
Speaker 2 (41:52):
So if we do, the acquisition successfully, then
that will lead us to eventuallybecome probably the largest
African female founded playerright in the FMCG industry food
related in Nigeria right.
So that would be very excitingfor us, but obviously we're not
(42:13):
doing it just for that.
For us, it's the anchor assetin the broader strategy which
I've mentioned as we go along.
But for me, five years from now, I have got a strong FMCG
platform right, having startedoff with this acquisition.
But it's possible for us toroll up additional companies
(42:33):
that would be basicallygeographically diversified right
.
So not just Nigeria makes sensein West Africa because it has
got the economies of scale rightthat many other countries don't
have.
We could roll up othercompanies, but we have a solid
FMCD business with brands thatoccupy number one and two in the
(42:57):
markets, whatever market theyare operating in.
We have built out the nutritioncommodities business and we're a
supplier, both locally andregionally and internationally,
which ties into what UNICEFbelieves Nigeria should be doing
not just supplying for itselfbut also being a global supplier
(43:21):
.
And then we have got a solidcommodity processing business
which enables us to.
We've picked a number of keycommodities.
We have long-term arrangementswith buyers in different parts
of the world.
We are known as a mine for ourquality and consistency when it
(43:42):
comes to producing those inputs.
So that's where I see it.
In five years' time, we plan tobe a $100 million company.
5-7 years time, that's the goal.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
That's clearly more clarity than you had when you
started 10 years ago.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
Yes, a lot more.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
That's fantastic.
I really do wish you all thebest with that.
In wrapping up, I tend to askmy guests two questions, and one
is a reflection and one is foradvice.
So, in terms of reflecting,just looking back at all you
have built over the last 10years with your co-founders, I
wonder what you would say if Iasked you what your proudest
(44:28):
moment so far has been.
What would you say?
That is, that is gosh, it'shard.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
I think it's probably a tie between our products when
our products roll like the rolloff the line, and we've made
this really good quality productthat we have as founders
ourselves.
Our view is that we don't sellproducts that we don't use in
our own homes.
(44:55):
Right, we wouldn't give youproducts that we wouldn't give
our own children.
So for me, there's level ofpride in that, but there's also
a real level of pride in theteam.
It's just for me, I think it'ssomething that's yeah, I didn't
think it was possible, becausepeople finding the right people,
especially in a place likeNigeria, is really so difficult.
(45:18):
So I'm enormously proud of theteam that we've been able to
build.
I'm proud that we've builtsomething right.
Speaker 1 (45:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
Because that is what I wanted to do at the end of the
day day, the fact that I haveteam members whose outlook has
changed because of theirinvolvement in Amai Foods, and
if they go and work fromsomewhere else, I think that
they will continue to grow.
That is also, to me, building,in a way.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:46):
In terms of advice.
What advice would you give toother women who are building and
scaling businesses in Africa?
Speaker 2 (45:54):
Yeah, especially African women, we think that we
can do it all the time.
I think we're raised to get onwith it.
Do you know what I'm saying?
I don't know how to describe itand I think that it's great,
gives us a lot of energy anddetermination, tenacity and
resilience, but at the same time, I think it's important for us
(46:15):
to always remember that personinside and what you need to.
If you need to regroup, right,you need to rest, you need to
refresh, there are many thingsthat you have to recognize your
needs and you have to take careof those needs for you to be
able to actually continue tooperate.
And the thing is, it soundslike a bit of a luxury and I
(46:38):
think for many femaleentrepreneurs, it is, you know,
because it's life.
It's a matter of life and deathor like it's their livelihoods,
right, but whatever small thingyou can do to take care of
yourself, I think it's reallyimportant.
This is a job that affectswealthy men being a founder and
(47:00):
an entrepreneur, right.
You hear all sorts of thingsabout mental health issues there
.
When you now think of youraverage African woman
entrepreneur, right, who is notsitting necessarily at the top
of the social socioeconomicladder, right.
We have to let's acknowledgethat and do what we can to take
care of ourselves while we build.
Speaker 1 (47:20):
Thank you so much.
Take care of yourself while youbuild.
I like that.
So where can people find AmayiFood Products and how can they
engage with your brand?
Speaker 2 (47:30):
Yeah, so we are mainly just distributing in the
open markets across Nigeria, soit would really be at an open
market near you.
We do have some retail presenceat shops like Ebanor and Just
Right in Lagos Spa in particular.
But if people do want to engage, I encourage them to check out
(47:51):
our social media, myfoodsunderscore ng that's on
Instagram, Facebook and X, andthen also our website,
wwwamyfoodscom, and you can findcontact details there.
We also have a LinkedIn page,amyfoods, so you can find
contact details there.
If you want to place an orderfor something and yeah, that's
(48:15):
probably the easiest way, butbesides the going to the local
markets or if you want to knowwhich local market you know it's
available, the products areavailable there.
Speaker 1 (48:26):
Thank you so much, kizia.
This has been a greatconversation.
Oh, no, you're welcome.
Thank you for having meconversation.
No, no, you're welcome.
Thank you for having me.
Thank you so much for listening.
If you're not alreadysubscribed, please do so on
Apple, spotify or wherever youget your podcast, and don't
forget to leave us a review sowe know how we're doing.
I'm Akego Okoye and you havebeen listening to African
(48:49):
Business Stories.
With more female entrepreneurs than any other
region in the world.
Women are at the heart ofAfrica's transformation.
Welcome to African BusinessStories, the show that amplifies
the voices of femaleentrepreneurs shaping Africa's
business landscape.
I'm your host, ekego Koye.
Here we explore bold ideas,strategies for scaling and the
(00:25):
realities of building businessesthat drive economic development
.
These stories will provideinsights into Africa's business
landscape, practical tools forgrowth and the inspiration to
navigate your ownentrepreneurial journey.
Be sure to subscribe, rate andshare journey.
Be sure to subscribe, rate andshare On the show.
(00:49):
Today I chat with Kudzai Hovay,co-founder and CEO of Amai Foods
.
Born in Zimbabwe and now basedin Nigeria, kudzai shares her
remarkable journey from privateequity to entrepreneurship,
driven by her desire to buildsomething meaningful, create
mass market products and unlockmore value from African goods.
(01:12):
We explore her lessons innavigating co-founder dynamics,
overcoming the struggle to scale, and why taking care of
yourself as a founder matters.
Let's get into it, hi Kudzai.
Welcome to African BusinessStories, thank you.
Thank you very much, akaego.
So good to be able to sit downwith you today.
(01:33):
I know that you were born andraised in Zimbabwe and I wonder
what that was like for yougrowing up in Zim.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yeah, it was an interesting time.
I was born during the war, theliberation struggle, and at a
very early age, when I was aboutnine months, my parents left
the country to go to the UK tostudy because at the time it was
an apartheid system, blacks inuniversities and then the only
(02:06):
professions that were open wereteaching and nursing.
So if you wanted to dosomething else, it was really
difficult to do that if youstayed.
So they left my brother and Iwas three years older with
family members, etc.
So my earliest memory was beingin the village at my paternal
grandparents' home and Iremember it as a happy time as a
(02:27):
child.
But it was also during the war,right.
So I do remember moments wheremy grandmother put me on her
back and was running fromsoldiers, right.
Or I remember a time when mycousin and I were at the
homestead by ourselves.
I think the adults were in thefield or I'm not sure, but I
(02:49):
remember white soldiersapproaching the homestead and
asking us through translators,where the grown-ups were and
being absolutely terrified.
Yeah, it was intense.
Those were my first memories.
Like I said, I felt they werehappy memories but at the same
time there were these intensemoments.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Did you get to go join your parents at some point?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yes, so when I was four years old, my brother and I
went to join our parents and Ialso remember that journey.
I remember being on a plane.
I couldn't speak English at thetime journey.
I remember being on a plane.
I couldn't speak English at thetime.
My brother could speak a bit ofEnglish and it was back in the
days where they would take theboys to the cockpit, but little
girls presumably weren'tinterested in the cockpit.
(03:34):
And I remember feelingabandoned because my brother,
who was the only person whocould speak the language, was
not there, could kind of speak.
The language was not there andthe only person I knew.
I remember screaming and themtrying to calm me down.
And then I also remember westopped somewhere.
I don't know if it wasJohannesburg or Rome, it was
(03:56):
also.
It was a time when there weresanctions, right.
So, there couldn't be directflights into Rhodesia at the
time.
So I do remember spending thenight in a hotel with a flight
attendant in the same bed as mybrother, and when I tell people
that they're like what, it'slike a crazy.
You couldn't imagine it inthese days.
(04:17):
But yeah, just arriving in theUK now, I didn't know.
My dad was there to pick us upwith his brother and I didn't
know them right, because theyleft when I was nine years old.
So I was following this flightattendant out of the airport
because she was the only personI knew and then they had to find
(04:38):
me and call me.
So it was, yeah, it was a lot Iremember.
Just I guess it was significantenough for me to have retained
these memories.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
You meant nine months old, right?
Because I think that's what?
Yes, nine months old.
That's just incredible.
So where did you end up goingto university?
Speaker 2 (05:01):
So I ended up going to university in the US.
So shortly after independencewe went back to Zimbabwe as a
family which again was anotherinteresting thing because it was
just after independence we weregoing to these schools that
were that used to be reservedfor white people, and so now
black kids were going there, andso there was was this a lot of
(05:24):
stress on the system.
The teachers, who were mainlywhite, also were, I think, maybe
having their own mental healthepisodes at the time.
Transition was a lot and itwasn't.
It was again an interesting fewyears of the country were
trying to settle into thispost-apartheid,
post-indindependence world.
I started primary school in theUK by the way.
(05:47):
I left.
I started school in the UK andI left when I was about seven or
eight years old to go back towhen we went back to Zimbabwe.
So I did come back to Zimbabwewith this funny little accent,
probably from East Londonbecause that's where we lived.
So that also made me a littleweird to everyone the black kids
were like why do you talk likethat?
(06:08):
The white kids were like why doyou talk?
So I was a bit weird, yeah.
So then finished primary schoolin Zimbabwe and then went to
secondary school there.
And I didn't actually finishsecondary school.
I went to the US before the endof my last year, and mainly
because I didn't want to doA-levels.
I just thought they were soconstraining.
I didn't know what I wanted todo in my life and I thought it
(06:31):
was really unfair to have16-year-olds decide what they
want to do.
And I found out about theliberal arts system in the US
and how you get time to kind offigure out what you want to do,
and I was like, ok, that's thesystem for me, right, and so
that's how I ended up atuniversity there, so your
parents allowed you to make thatchoice.
(06:52):
Yeah my dad.
Unfortunately, my mom passedaway when I was 16.
But yeah, my dad was very muchhe was OK with it.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
OK, so what was that experience like for you moving
to the US?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
okay with it.
Okay, so what was thatexperience like for you, moving
to the US?
The move is always somethingthat's very stressful and
impacts someone's life I think,quite a lot, especially across a
move across the world,basically by yourself at age 18.
So it was an interesting time.
It took me time to settle down,but I enjoyed the school.
This was Clark University inWorcester.
(07:26):
I liked the school, I made somevery good friends, and it was
also it was a very interestingtime in the US too, because I
remember I arrived around thetime that Bill Clinton was
campaigning right for his firstterm, and so it was just
interesting watching the wholething unfold.
You know, coming from where Icame from and the history of the
(07:49):
country.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
So what did you study at Clark University?
Good question.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
So initially I thought I would study.
It was like women's studies Ithought I was interested in,
then international development,and at some point I was just
like I don't know what I wantedto do.
But the great thing about Clarkis that they let you
self-design a major, and sothat's what I ended up doing.
I just cobbled everythingtogether and I think the major
(08:17):
was called the politics ofinternational development or
something.
That's what I liked about theschool in the first place,
besides the fact that it had alot of international students.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
So did you do your MBA straight after or did you go
work first?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
I went home to Zimbabwe and I worked so I got
into banking and it was a bit ofa strange twist of fate but I
got into banking, for my firstjob was a trainee assistant
manager in corporate finance ofa merchant bank which was then,
which then at the point, at thatpoint, had a shareholder, was a
(08:55):
major shareholder with MR Ostroand now it's Ned Bank.
But yeah, that was my first jobin Zimbabwe.
Then I had a couple other jobsbefore that and then I mean
after that, and then went to domy MBA At Wharton.
At Wharton, yeah, I went to domy MBA at.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Wharton.
So what was your career likeright after business school?
Speaker 2 (09:18):
So after business school it was straight into
private equity for a companywhich at the time was called
Emerging Markets Partnership andthere were an early investor in
emerging markets, backed by theWorld Bank amongst other
development finance institutions.
It was set up by former WorldBank guys.
So we.
(09:39):
So basically I joined theAfrica fund.
They had a number of fundsAfrica, asia, latin America and
so I joined the Africa Fund.
They had a number of fundsAfrica, asia, latin America and
so I joined the Africa Fund.
And then, after I joined, acouple of years after I joined,
the Africa Fund team spun offand did a buyout.
They ended up setting up a newcompany called Emerging Capital
(10:00):
Partners and that's yeah.
So that's an ecp is the namethat most people know in the
market private equity.
yeah, so I I joined ecp straightafter graduation now, so that
was 2003 basically, and I was inthe washington dc office for a
while.
Then my husband and I mighthave met my husband and I.
(10:24):
I met my husband at Wharton.
We decided to move back toAfrica and he was trying to set
up a business there and wefigured the soft landing would
be to move to Joburg first.
So I moved to the ECP Joburgoffice for a few years and then
(10:46):
we decided to move to Nigeriabecause the business he was
trying to set up was in Nigeria.
In all of this I was the one whowas kind of convincing him
because at ECP I startedtraveling quite a bit across
Africa.
So it was the first time for meto go to West Africa.
I'd never been to West Africa,but to be able to I'd been to
East Africa, parts of it,southern Africa, but it was for
me coming to Nigeria and it wasthe time when MTN was really hot
(11:08):
and seeing what was happeningin the economy.
I remember going back to theStates and saying to my husband
look, there's a lot of stuffhappening and we may be missing
out on opportunities, decidingto stay here.
It took a while, but we did.
We ended up moving.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
So you're now living in Nigeria?
What year are we in when you'rein Nigeria?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
So we moved here in 2009.
I actually moved here before myhusband did.
So that's what 16 years inOctober or September.
So I came to Nigeria workingfor AFC.
So that's what 16 years inOctober or September.
So I came to Nigeria workingfor AFC Again, a soft landing,
right.
Yeah, it was a great experience.
(11:54):
I liked what I was doing Goodpeople, good work, and it's nice
to see it now becauseinfrastructure takes a long time
.
So some of the projects I wasinvolved in that only were built
and completed after I left.
Yeah, it was like I said, itwas a good, a very good
experience, and it's, togetherwith the private equity
experience I think, has beenreally helpful and informing my
(12:17):
views of what my foods should beand our strategy.
But I had for years, evenbefore AFC, I had for years
wanted to build something.
It just it wouldn't go awayyeah.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
So you knew you wanted to build something, but
you weren't sure what.
So how did the idea of my comeabout?
Speaker 2 (12:38):
so we had my partner, nana and I had known each other
since I joined ECP.
That was in 2003.
She was working there as ananalyst and then I joined after
my MBA.
So we became friends from thatexperience and during that time
she introduced me to Chitosesauce, which I'd never tried
(13:01):
before and I loved it.
She introduced me and anothercolleague of ours to it.
So we loved it so much we wouldhave cooking sessions her place
or to make some right so thatwe each had enough for ourselves
.
But with that, you know, it wasone of those things that just
kind of stayed with us for yearsafterwards.
(13:22):
And when, at point when I endedup in Nigeria working for AFC,
she moved to Nigeria, still withECP, and we were sitting at my
dining room table and being likeI was talking about wanting to
build a business and we werelike we've been, we've been
fighting over Chitoh and bondingover Chitoh for years.
(13:43):
Why don't we look at doingsomething related to African
food?
But there weren't products likeyour pasta sauce that give you
some level of authenticity butmake it easier and quicker, more
affordable to do what you needto do.
So that's what we tried totackle.
We were like look, let's lookat seeing if we can do something
like this.
(14:04):
And we started messing aroundwith different iterations of a
jollof rice kind of mix and wehave taste tests and all that
kind of stuff done, and we werelooking at the jollof being like
a powder mix and it just wasn'tcoming out the way that you
would want it to.
And we had like taste testswith friends and family who are
(14:27):
notoriously biased and give youreally nice answers, and even
they were like no, it doesn'ttaste right.
We knew that it wasn't going towork.
So we ended up just saying, ok,look, while we try and figure
this one out, let's launch theshit talk, because the thing
that they did love was the shit.
Or and it's the thing is, it's awell-known kind of condiment
(14:51):
right in Ghana where, if you goto, a restaurant you ask for
black pepper, they'll give youshit or sauce and everyone's
moms or aunts make their kidsthe shit or to take to boarding
school and all that kind ofstuff.
It's very well known in Ghanabut not known here.
But the flavors in it are veryWest African.
You can take them to anycountry in West Africa.
(15:13):
People will pretty muchrecognize those flavors, even
actually Southern Africa there'sa bit, although we don't eat
that much pepper.
So what we realized when peopletasted it?
They loved it and they werelike, oh, I'm gonna have it with
my yam or I'm gonna do this,and so that's what made us
launch it and that was thebeginning of amai.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
How did you guys settle on the name and what does
amai?
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (15:34):
that was the process, I think.
We had a lot of names, a lot ofoptions, like we, that were
just not working.
And then one day I suggestedAmai.
It means mother in Shona, aZimbabwean language, my language
, right, and it was acceptable.
So that's how we settled on it.
(15:56):
We liked the meaning, obviouslybecause we were mothers.
Our third partner, oname, aNigerian woman, is also.
She's a mother of three.
Nana from Ghana is a mother ofthree.
Nana from Ghana is a mother ofthree.
You know me at the time I was amother of one but now mother of
two.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
We were like, okay, this works, this kind of works
for us, your three co-founders,it's been what like 10 years
since you started this business.
I'm always very intrigued byco-founder dynamics and
relationships, and I wonder whatit's been like for three of you
over this last 10 yearsbuilding this yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Look, I think it's never an easy ride, whether
you're doing it by yourself orwith other people.
Right, building a businessanywhere in the world is never
an easy ride, and especially ina place like Nigeria or Africa
and Nigeria, right.
So we've had our ups and downs.
That's the truth of the matter.
We've been asked by investorsmale investors how do you guys
(16:56):
get on?
Because women notoriously arguewith each other and we're like
rolling our eyes or whatever.
But for us, I think, the mainthing is that it's not consensus
based, our decision making.
At the end of the day, it'sbeen like the three of us.
So if two support, then theother one accepts that it has to
(17:17):
go ahead.
So that's the first thing, andthen the next thing is that we
all agree and accept that thedecisions we all make are for
the good of the business andthat the business comes first.
So, yeah, it's been like I said.
It's not been easy.
We've had our ups and downs.
We've been able to, I think,been easy.
(17:40):
We've had our ups and downs.
We've been able to, I think,navigate a few you know
challenges and come out of it,learn from it and come out of it
.
But we're still navigating andwe're still learning, because
the business changes right.
So new things come up and newchallenges come out of them.
I think that's another.
It's not like I can settle backand say, oh, we're all set.
Everything works like clockwork,but I think we have developed
(18:00):
an understanding of each otherand the support that we need to
be able to do what we need to do.
Yeah, I think that's where weare Fantastic.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
So, talking about change, when you started this,
when you guys started thisbusiness, what were your initial
goals?
What was your goal in settingup Amayi Foods?
And I want to then come tocompare it to what the company
does today, but just taking thefirst step, what was your goal
when you started Amayi Foods?
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Yeah.
So this is an interestingquestion because I've I've come
to realize now, after 10 yearsof entrepreneurship, that
there's always this when youread articles about successful
entrepreneurs, they're like thisperson had a clear vision of
what they wanted to do and theyexecuted on it right, yeah and
then, exactly as an entrepreneur, you're like why, why don't I
have this?
(18:54):
what's wrong with me and whydoes my vision keep changing?
Which is exactly what it'ssupposed to do, because you
adapt to new circumstances.
Right, you realize something'snot working.
Oh, I thought that this is whatwe were going to do, but it's
not working.
Right, I made some assumptionsthat were not right, were not
(19:15):
correct.
I need to go back to thedrawing board.
So, look, I think we've alwayswanted to elevate African food.
Right, that was our whole thing.
Like, african food should besitting at the same level as
Chinese food, globally right,indian food, italian food,
french, whichever one?
Right For us.
We have so much to offer andit's a huge continent, so really
(19:39):
different kind of dishes, rightFrom Cape to Cairo, whatever,
to quote an infamous colonialist.
So we always wanted to do that,and that kind of remains the
same.
But what we realized over time,you know what?
At the time we launched theShytor source, we wanted to have
(20:00):
a mass market product.
We realized that it wasimportant for us to have a mass
market product with a bigpopulation, right?
So you want to be able to havea product that appeals to a good
number of the population so youcan make some money and then to
roll out other products on topof it.
And I think the way that welooked at our product is that
(20:21):
there should be bases for anumber of different types of
foods right, dishes, rather notfoods.
You've got like tomato, tomatopepper mix.
That can be a base for jollof,but it can also be a base for
stew.
Do you know what I mean?
It can be different things.
So that has remained the samein what we want in terms of
(20:42):
versatility for our products.
But what has changed now?
The Chitose sauce was our majorproduct when we launched.
We quickly found out that itwas a very rich product to be
targeting the open market.
We were selling 25 grams ofshito sauce in a sachet for 50
(21:02):
naira and it sounds cheap.
It sounded cheap at the time tolots of people.
The only person who was likethat's expensive was a lady who
was in marketing at Nestle.
She completely understood that50 naira, what 50 naira meant to
a person at the time.
And you know for sure 50 nairaat that time could buy somebody
(21:26):
a whole pack of tomato pasteright, which they could now use
to make jollof rice a pot ofjollof rice 70 grams at the time
of tomato paste to make a potof jollof rice, 70 grams at the
time of tomato paste, to make apot of jollof rice for four
people, whereas we were sellinga condiment for 25 grams.
That was single use only,although people did use it for
(21:48):
other things.
They used it to season meat andrice and everything.
But it was.
When you start comparing whatpeople can do, you understand.
So the shit toes no longer ourmain product.
We had to retool.
We stripped down.
We had a pipeline of products.
Most of them were like ready tocook or ready to use, ready to
(22:09):
use or ready to eat.
We understood after talking todistributors, et cetera, that
our products, the market, wasnot ready for that.
Right, what the market wantedwas a product that they could
cut down the time and cost ofpreparing a meal, but allowing
(22:29):
their own customization.
So that changed.
Right.
So our major products right noware tomato paste and tomato
pepper paste.
Right.
So our major products right noware tomato paste and tomato
pepper paste.
Right, which we sell across thecountry, right 29 states and
mostly in the traditionalmarkets.
Right At the time we were inmostly what they call the modern
(22:52):
trade.
So the supermarkets likeShopRite and Spa were the only
ones, just right, who weretaking our products, and they
really account for less than 10%of retail volumes in the
country.
It was very limiting for us andwe couldn't break through to
the open markets, which accountsfor 90% of the retail volume.
(23:13):
So that has changed and thenalso our view has broadened
beyond elevating African food.
I think what we came tounderstand is that in order for
us to do anything successfullyin this market or any other
African market, right, first ofall there has to be.
There has to be, because wedepend so much on local
(23:35):
ingredients.
There has to be.
There has to be, because wedepend so much on local
ingredients.
There has to be some kind ofpartnership with farmers, with
aggregators, to make it work,and a partnership that is
long-term and sustainable.
So we don't want, at the end ofevery season, to be running
like the new season, to berunning after new farmers, et
cetera.
So that's what we realized, andwe realized that not as a way
(23:59):
of, oh, we need to make animpact, but that's actually.
Initially we were like that'skind of the only way we make
money out of this long term.
Right, if there's some sort ofa win-win right and then, by the
way, oh yeah, it has this greatif we structure it, it has this
great impact on the communities, right, that can actually
(24:21):
change people's lives and makecreate real prosperity.
And so that was another thingthat's really evolved for us.
It's become our understandingof it and how we want to do it
has really evolved versus justokay, we're buying from small
scale farmers, right.
So that kind of also hasshifted.
(24:43):
And then, also connected to thatwas the need for us to not just
elevate African food but to nowclaim more value from African
products.
And if you look at any cosmeticproduct in the US, right odds
(25:04):
are it's got cocoa butter in itor shea butter, right, which
comes from Africa, and we areselling this unprocessed right
and somebody else is processingand making the money.
So for me, for us, we reallyfelt that, look, at the end of
the day, we have got to.
(25:24):
If we're setting up sort of theinfrastructure to buy inputs
for our retail products right,like the tomato from small scale
farmers, then why not now buildon that to actually process
commodities right that we cannow sell for greater value on
the international market?
So just to give you an examplesesame seed If you're selling,
(25:48):
if you're lucky, you get aboutan 8% margin on raw sesame seeds
, right on processed sesameseeds.
But if you now process to coldpressed sesame oil, which is in
great demand in China, japan,other parts of Asia, that margin
increases to 40%.
We're really leaving a lot ofvalue on the table.
As Africans, I think that'salso a huge part of the strategy
(26:11):
that's changed for us as Amai.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
This is so interesting, very insightful.
Thank you so much for sharingthat Kutai.
So in terms of your goal toreach the mass market.
So you were sharing earlier andyou said how, when you
initially started, you were inthe grocery stores and all the
shops.
So where are?
Your products sold today.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Yeah, we've actually been able to break into the mass
market, so 99% of our sales arebasically into the traditional
market today.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
So, in terms of manufacturing, where are you
manufacturing and what has thatprocess been like for you guys
at Amayi Foods?
Speaker 2 (26:59):
in Lagos and so we manufacture from here.
I think, look, it was a verysteep learning curve for us.
Over the years it's been a verysteep learning curve.
I think the last few yearswe've been able to assemble the
right team and with the rightkind of approach, right kind of
attitude, and that has reallyhelped us significantly.
It's taken some time and Ithink as an entrepreneur,
(27:24):
sometimes I look back, I blamemyself at times, right In the
first few years we would spendquite a lot of time on culture
and trying to build a companyenvironment that people enjoyed
working in.
We appreciate team membersright.
But then a few years into it itbecame about firefighting right
(27:45):
and survival and much lessfocused on culture.
But in the last few years we'vebeen able, fortunately, to
focus more on that and not justfocus on creating the culture
but also the kind of person whofits into this culture.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
So today you have five products and you're
distributing across I think yousaid 29 country states in
Nigeria.
What was that process like foryou in scaling your distribution
network and are there any keylessons that you've learned in
the process of scaling acrossNigeria?
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Yeah, look, we've learned a lot of hard lessons.
I think I think we startedtrying to scale up too quickly,
as in going into too many placesat once, and so that really
caused problems for us initially.
We're now being a bit morestrategic about it.
So, for each kind of area, whenwe say 29 states, you can have
(28:44):
somebody in Kano, but dealingwith Australia, several states
when we say 29 states, right,we're not saying that we have
distributors, one distributor ineach and every one of those
states, but we could havesomebody in Kano covering
several states, if you see whatI'm saying.
So we have we've been a lot morestrategic about it, so that's
(29:08):
been very helpful.
We had to learn lessons inquality and seeing our product
out there, because tomato pasteis a fragile product in many
ways but trying to makedistributors understand how you
keep it you know what I mean theconditions that you keep it in,
et cetera.
So, yeah, there've been quite afew hard lessons.
(29:29):
I think for us, the main issuenow, which has been our main
issue for a while, is capacityto be able to actually scale up
further.
We've struggled with that for afew years, which is why we're
now looking at this acquisitionas an opportunity to address
that.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
When you guys started this business, did you leave
your job straight away, or didyou, or was this a side project
for for a while before you?
Speaker 2 (29:57):
you died in yeah, it was a bit of a for me it was a
bit of a side project.
We were working on it before Ileft afc, in the sense that we
were doing developing theproducts and doing the taste
tests, but I it was after I leftafc, in at the end of 2013,
that I now I left my job Nanaand Oname did not, but I left.
(30:20):
I had left anyway because I hadthis need to build something.
So I had taken the decisionthat I was going to leave and
focus on the business.
I had my second daughter in2014 and then it was towards the
end of that year that westarted again really working on
it.
And so yeah, I did leave my job,it was a big deal like that.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
How did you guys raise the initial capital to
start the business?
Speaker 2 (30:47):
We funded it ourselves initially from our own
savings.
We were able to do quite a lotuntil about 2018.
That was the first time we gotthird-party funding in at the
time.
Yeah, it was about.
We funded it for about two tothree years for ourselves.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
And what has fundraising been like?
Look, it's been tough.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Nigeria is tough although it shouldn't be as
tough as other places because ofthe population but it has been
tough.
Both Nana and I are fromprivate equity backgrounds and
we thought it would be a loteasier.
We ended up realizing that it'spretty hard, especially if
you're targeting people whodon't understand FMCG.
(31:36):
You know what I'm saying andhow the buildup, et cetera.
So it was tough just gettingthat initial money in and it's
been tough raising in general.
I think what I think has helpedus is when we look at, for
example, this acquisition ofthis company that we're trying
to do.
That has been able to attractinterest of larger players
(31:59):
because it is a larger ticketsize Do you know what I mean
Versus a smaller play like aMyFoods.
So that has been able toattract attention.
But yeah, I think it's justtough all around.
We were at some point competingwith tech.
If you remember the tech bubble, nobody wanted to know about
(32:19):
you unless you were tech related, unless you were tech enabled.
Yeah, enabled, tech enabled.
And then a friend was sayingwho owned like a retail business
was saying the problem with ourbusinesses is that people think
they understand it right, sothey want to go through the
numbers and all sorts of things,but when it comes to tech, they
(32:39):
don't really understand it.
They just want to follow thebandwagon.
We were really struggling withthat, competing against that,
but look, at the end of the day,people still need to eat.
That's our view.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
So, in terms of your value chain and the local
farmers that you source producefrom, what has it been like
building that network andsustaining it?
Because I think I read thatthey're all the way.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Most of your suppliers are in northern
nigeria, so we have two sets ofsuppliers, some in the southwest
right, and we initially were incontact with them, put in
contact with them by GIZ, theGerman development finance
institution, under a programcalled the Nigerian
(33:28):
International CompetitivenessProgram.
So they are the implementationpartner, so they're the ones
who've helped us, held our handsand put us in touch with these
farmers in the Southwest.
We still have relationshipswith those farmers, so that's,
we continue with that.
The Northern farmers.
It's actually been throughaggregators and that's what
(33:48):
we're building out now.
And you know, now to have adirect link with those farmers
so that we can we know whatwe're growing or we can at least
, rather we can have them growwhat we need, to our
specifications and thequantities that we require,
right?
So that's what we're presentlybuilding out right now, and
(34:09):
ostensibly that infrastructureis for us, for the inputs that
we need for our products.
But this is where theinfrastructure play comes to me.
In my mind, whatever we'rebuilding out can also handle
other commodities, right.
So we're not just looking atone, a single commodity cycle,
(34:29):
right, and our own inputs.
But if you can dry tomatoes,you can dry chilies, you can dry
garlic, ginger, you can dryhibiscus right, they're just
different.
For me, I think the main thingis to make your infrastructure
as, first of all, modular aspossible and make it multi-use
(34:50):
to be able to sweat out as muchas you can from it.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
Right.
So how do you keep your priceslow or reasonable?
Speaker 2 (34:59):
enough for the mass market.
Yeah, it's been a struggle.
I think for us, importsubstitution sourcing our inputs
locally has been what hashelped us.
That has enabled us tobasically make products that are
affordable but also profitablefor us.
That has enabled us tobasically make products that are
affordable but also profitablefor us.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
Are you able to talk to us a bit about this planned
acquisition?
You've mentioned it twice.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
I know, yes, I can.
I can't mention any names, butI can mention the rationale for
it.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
But yeah, look, we initially thought we were going
to scale up organically, soraise money, build our own
factory from scratch, etc.
But a few years ago we startedtalking to a company about
contract manufacturing for usand then those talks evolved
into a potential acquisition thekind of the company itself does
(35:50):
similar products to ours plusadditional products.
So it makes sense in that waythat we have a scale for
existing products but we alsoget new products, which helps us
to diversify.
It has a really good managementteam, which we would have.
Probably we would have had tolook for those kinds of people
anyway.
We're excited about that.
(36:10):
Anyway, we're excited aboutthat.
And, yeah, we, for us, it killsseveral birds with, you know,
just a few stones.
It makes perfect sense for us.
We know enough aboutmanufacturing in Nigeria now
that we know that you don't justbuild a new factory and then
flip the switch and everythingis working right.
It takes a while to optimize afactory.
(36:32):
So for us, we like the ideathat this factory is already in
existence.
They do, you know what I mean.
They do what we do.
They do it at a bigger scale,and then this now creates the
platform for us to do a numberof different things when I
mentioned about the commodityprocessing.
Yeah, we're also very muchinterested in nutritional
(36:52):
nutrition commodities, which arethe like the.
I don't know if they're readyto use therapeutic foods that
are used to treat childrenexperiencing severe acute
malnutrition.
So that's one area that we verymuch want to be in and we're
looking at different parts ofthe value chain, but they all
(37:13):
fit in very nicely with thecommodity processing that we're
looking at doing, and then alsothis acquisition, because the
target company can actuallymanufacture the nutrition
commodities.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
Is this still in Nigeria?
Still in?
Speaker 2 (37:27):
Nigeria.
For us, the other opportunityis with the Naira devaluation.
Nigerian products are extremelycompetitive right now Fantastic
.
So we want to be able to takeadvantage of that too.
So that is again the targetcompany has products that can be
exported into the region.
We, if we have scale as a MI,can do the same.
(37:50):
But yeah, again, it's somethingthat we're very excited about.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
So what has raising money for this acquisition been
like?
So?
Speaker 2 (37:58):
this.
As I've said, it's attractedmore attention because it's a
bigger ticket size, right?
It's your players, like privateequity companies etc.
Are a lot more interested insomething that's $10 million or
$20 million versus $500,000 or$1 million, right?
So it's helped us in that sensethat our private equity
(38:19):
background has also obviouslyhelped us a lot in that in
structuring of it and also lookit all comes back full circle
the contacts, the relationshipsthat we've built over the years
with other players in theprivate equity industry in
Africa.
Nana and I are worthy amongstthe first women to be doing it
(38:40):
in Africa and so, yeah, it'sactually really tapping into our
whole network.
That kind of has helped us andthe network that we have built.
These are people who understandthese kinds of transactions.
Yeah, yeah, so it's not beeneasy.
I wouldn't say it's a walk inthe park, but it's still.
It's moving, it's progressing.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
So, based on your experience your previous
experience in PE and then justbuilding this business over the
last 10 years what kind ofinvestments do you think that we
need to support the growth ofthe agricultural value chain
across the continent?
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Look, it's for me we can talk in broad generalities
like oh, infrastructure, right,but the thing is, I think when
we do that we can make theproblem so big it's really
difficult to grapple with.
My view and maybe it is a bitmore of an infrastructure view
is to make investments asmodular as possible.
(39:39):
So if you're going to be talkingabout storage right, it should
be storage, which is obviously.
We know that lack of storage isa huge problem in terms of
post-harvest losses right, butmake it storage that can be
utilized for multiplecommodities right Over different
seasons, right, differentseasons, yeah.
And then it has to be acombination.
(40:01):
You invest in something thathas a combination of big
off-takers to provide, like,base volumes, but you can also
have small farmers having accessto it.
Right To me, that's the kind ofinvestment that would be good
for storage, for some processing.
But then there's some thingsyou can't run away from.
(40:23):
Carno lagos railway yes, that islike a no-brainer, right.
Unfortunately, with that,unless it's given as a
concession to a privatelong-term concession and that
private player knows they've gotguaranteed volumes from people,
which shouldn't be difficult,it's not going to work, but that
(40:43):
in and of itself would reduceso much of the headache of
transportation.
So those are some of the areasthat I would think that people
should invest in, again,companies like ourselves.
I would say obviously, peopleshould invest in us, because
that's where kind of the realchange is happening, right, and
(41:07):
that's also where the realreturns can happen too.
It's just that it is a hightouch investment.
You're not sitting down andsaying I'm going to contribute
corporate governance, which waswhat we used to love saying in
private equity, we'll bringcorporate governance to the
table.
It's a lot more than that, butyeah, for me they're the
individual investments.
And then there's sharedinfrastructure that can be done
(41:30):
on storage, logistics, andthere's some things just like
the railway, that just needs tobe dealt with, and that's
probably a PPP partnership.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
And I'm really excited about your acquisition,
really excited to see how thatgoes and just wondering where
you see the company in the nextfive to seven years.
So what's next for Amai?
Speaker 2 (41:52):
So if we do, the acquisition successfully, then
that will lead us to eventuallybecome probably the largest
African female founded playerright in the FMCG industry food
related in Nigeria right.
So that would be very excitingfor us, but obviously we're not
(42:13):
doing it just for that.
For us, it's the anchor assetin the broader strategy which
I've mentioned as we go along.
But for me, five years from now, I have got a strong FMCG
platform right, having startedoff with this acquisition.
But it's possible for us toroll up additional companies
(42:33):
that would be basicallygeographically diversified right
.
So not just Nigeria makes sensein West Africa because it has
got the economies of scale rightthat many other countries don't
have.
We could roll up othercompanies, but we have a solid
FMCD business with brands thatoccupy number one and two in the
(42:57):
markets, whatever market theyare operating in.
We have built out the nutritioncommodities business and we're a
supplier, both locally andregionally and internationally,
which ties into what UNICEFbelieves Nigeria should be doing
not just supplying for itselfbut also being a global supplier
(43:21):
.
And then we have got a solidcommodity processing business
which enables us to.
We've picked a number of keycommodities.
We have long-term arrangementswith buyers in different parts
of the world.
We are known as a mine for ourquality and consistency when it
(43:42):
comes to producing those inputs.
So that's where I see it.
In five years' time, we plan tobe a $100 million company.
5-7 years time, that's the goal.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
That's clearly more clarity than you had when you
started 10 years ago.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
Yes, a lot more.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
That's fantastic.
I really do wish you all thebest with that.
In wrapping up, I tend to askmy guests two questions, and one
is a reflection and one is foradvice.
So, in terms of reflecting,just looking back at all you
have built over the last 10years with your co-founders, I
wonder what you would say if Iasked you what your proudest
(44:28):
moment so far has been.
What would you say?
That is, that is gosh, it'shard.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
I think it's probably a tie between our products when
our products roll like the rolloff the line, and we've made
this really good quality productthat we have as founders
ourselves.
Our view is that we don't sellproducts that we don't use in
our own homes.
(44:55):
Right, we wouldn't give youproducts that we wouldn't give
our own children.
So for me, there's level ofpride in that, but there's also
a real level of pride in theteam.
It's just for me, I think it'ssomething that's yeah, I didn't
think it was possible, becausepeople finding the right people,
especially in a place likeNigeria, is really so difficult.
(45:18):
So I'm enormously proud of theteam that we've been able to
build.
I'm proud that we've builtsomething right.
Speaker 1 (45:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
Because that is what I wanted to do at the end of the
day day, the fact that I haveteam members whose outlook has
changed because of theirinvolvement in Amai Foods, and
if they go and work fromsomewhere else, I think that
they will continue to grow.
That is also, to me, building,in a way.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:46):
In terms of advice.
What advice would you give toother women who are building and
scaling businesses in Africa?
Speaker 2 (45:54):
Yeah, especially African women, we think that we
can do it all the time.
I think we're raised to get onwith it.
Do you know what I'm saying?
I don't know how to describe itand I think that it's great,
gives us a lot of energy anddetermination, tenacity and
resilience, but at the same time, I think it's important for us
(46:15):
to always remember that personinside and what you need to.
If you need to regroup, right,you need to rest, you need to
refresh, there are many thingsthat you have to recognize your
needs and you have to take careof those needs for you to be
able to actually continue tooperate.
And the thing is, it soundslike a bit of a luxury and I
(46:38):
think for many femaleentrepreneurs, it is, you know,
because it's life.
It's a matter of life and deathor like it's their livelihoods,
right, but whatever small thingyou can do to take care of
yourself, I think it's reallyimportant.
This is a job that affectswealthy men being a founder and
(47:00):
an entrepreneur, right.
You hear all sorts of thingsabout mental health issues there
.
When you now think of youraverage African woman
entrepreneur, right, who is notsitting necessarily at the top
of the social socioeconomicladder, right.
We have to let's acknowledgethat and do what we can to take
care of ourselves while we build.
Speaker 1 (47:20):
Thank you so much.
Take care of yourself while youbuild.
I like that.
So where can people find AmayiFood Products and how can they
engage with your brand?
Speaker 2 (47:30):
Yeah, so we are mainly just distributing in the
open markets across Nigeria, soit would really be at an open
market near you.
We do have some retail presenceat shops like Ebanor and Just
Right in Lagos Spa in particular.
But if people do want to engage, I encourage them to check out
(47:51):
our social media, myfoodsunderscore ng that's on
Instagram, Facebook and X, andthen also our website,
wwwamyfoodscom, and you can findcontact details there.
We also have a LinkedIn page,amyfoods, so you can find
contact details there.
If you want to place an orderfor something and yeah, that's
(48:15):
probably the easiest way, butbesides the going to the local
markets or if you want to knowwhich local market you know it's
available, the products areavailable there.
Speaker 1 (48:26):
Thank you so much, kizia.
This has been a greatconversation.
Oh, no, you're welcome.
Thank you for having meconversation.
No, no, you're welcome.
Thank you for having me.
Thank you so much for listening.
If you're not alreadysubscribed, please do so on
Apple, spotify or wherever youget your podcast, and don't
forget to leave us a review sowe know how we're doing.
I'm Akego Okoye and you havebeen listening to African
(48:49):
Business Stories.
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