I am a biochemistry graduate from Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State. My father was an entrepreneur, he ran and owned a logistics business and a meat shop in the city of Ilorin. I started my entrepreneurial journey at the age of 15 by working closely with my father, assisting in recruiting and training new staff for his businesses.
With the experience and knowledge I gathered from my time working with my father, I started an events planning business while I was in University. With the money saved up from my events planning business I started a pastry making business after my National Youth Service. However I encountered some financial problems and was forced to shut the business down. After this, I worked for a few companies. However determined to fulfill my dream of being an entrepreneur, I began doing research into non-capital intensive profitable businesses. In the course of my research I stumbled upon the popcorn business. With donations from family and friends I started a small scale popcorn business with my younger brother. I opened up a popcorn stand in a primary school and also began supplying popcorn to a few local supermarkets. The business gained a considerable amount of success however, I saw the need to expand the business. I recognized that in order to achieve this I would need extensive training. Thus, in 2018 I applied for C4C’s Global Entrepreneurship Fellowship Programme and was selected to be a part of the first set of fellows. The various capacity building workshops and trainings opened my eyes to various methods of successfully running and managing a business. Also, with the guidance of mentors and the C4C Team I was able to determine the amount of capital required to expand as well as the estimated profits.
With the help of the C4C team I am currently working on expanding and re- launching my popcorn business as a new business. The plan is to not only supply popcorn to supermarkets and primary schools, but also to children’s parties, weddings, and other events. Also, as a strong believer in the concept of social entrepreneurship I hope to one day be able to provide free training on running a popcorn business to youths in disadvantaged communities.
I am proud to announce that I am among the first five fellows that will officially be launching their businesses today.
