Why I dumped bank job to sell food – Awojuyigbe

She was a banker and also a lawyer, two professions many see and regard as highly-rewarding. But not satisfied with those two areas, Gbonju Awojuyigbe decided to put her wig aside and literarily returned to the kitchen. Today, Awojuyigbe who is now the Managing Director of Wandy Foods told Adejuwon Osunnuyi why she left the banking industry to venture into the food business. Excerpt.

You read law and worked in the banks but you are now a food processor. What made you dump the bank and the wig. What was the attraction in food processing?
Drove me? What else but passion, fulfi lling a calling and job fulfi lment. For me, I think there was this passionate desire in me to satisfy the African appetite. The passion made way for the vision. I actually started it in 1997. When I started, it was just a hobby. I used to work in a bank, but this is what I now do fully. It is my calling. This is what God made me to be. That is it. It was while I was working in a bank that I discovered that I could just do a bit of milling. At that time, I will just mill one thing or the other with my grinder at home and take it to work, and people were buying. That was how I started in my house. With my small grinder, I just mill things like pepper and take it to work. I did my National Youth Service with the then First Atlantic Bank and I was retained as a staff.
I worked in the bank for about six years. During these years, I noticed that I was struggling to do the job. Although a lot of people see it as a prized job, I did not see it like that. Despite the fact that I had great people as colleagues, I hardly woke up looking forward to go to work. Each day at work was like punishment. I did not push it for too long before I resigned. My resignation however did not come until I had a dream where I was selling elubo in the market. I told a friend who took me to a place where I saw people selling processed foods. When I saw how this was done and with the inner conviction that this is what I am called to do, I swung into action. I started packaging foods like ground rice, chilli pepper and yam flour for my colleagues.
This was in 1997. In 1998, I left the bank and in 2001, I launched into business full blast having taken the necessary coaching to perfect the vision. That was how I started. Secondly, I can say that my background also contributed to what I am doing now. I come from Ekiti which is basically an agrarian community. I could remember that whenever I travelled home, I used to see the plight of the farmers especially in a situation where raw and perishable products would often rot away without being sold. So, I can say that that also made me to think fast and got inspired to process the products, move them up the value chain, and bring them to wider markets.
As an entrepreneur, using your case as an example, what advice do you have for young graduates who a re out there still roaming the streets looking for white collar jobs?
Well, there are lot of job opportunities out there. People should use mine as a case study. They should not waste their time doing things they are not fulfi lled doing even when it is assumed to be the rave of the moment. It is about the person. People should actually discover where they belong and if they do that and engage themselves meaningfully, the sky will be their beginning. No doubt, there are challenges in running a business, but people willing to be on their own should go all out to do what they love because it is very fulfi lling working for oneself such that even when the person wakes up and does not have money in his or her pocket, he is excited with the conviction that the money will come later. People should go all out to dream no matter how ridiculous it seems initially.
Taking my case for instance, people no longer laugh at me because they have now seen that my dream is achievable even though some laughed it off at the beginning. When I started my business in 2001, I always tell people, I started with less than N5, 000 then in my house. The funding actually came from the savings I had. But today, I have put in over N10 million into the business. But in actual fact, one thing I know is that today, it is impossible to start a business with N5,000 and believe me, there is nothing like a small business again. You are in business, you are in business. So there are so many things you have to put into considerations. Unlike then, not many people were doing what I am doing, but you know now, there are so many people on it.
You are a Fate alumnus, what is the level of experience you have with the organisation?
Yes, I am a Fate alumnus. I won the Fate Foundation alumni award in 2005. Now, I have the privilege of mentoring those who graduate from the Fate Foundation. To some extent, I can say Fate Foundation has helped me a lot especially in the aspect of funding. My business is listed in Fate Foundation Hall of Fame which means that I was given a clean bill of health and people are encouraged to do business with my company.
The relationship goes to the extent that I even deliver papers at some of their seminars. My association with the organisation has helped me a lot. There was a time I went for British visa and for the fact that my business was listed on the Fate Foundation Hall of Fame, I did not go for any interview and got visa without hassles.
Considering the high cost of running business in Nigeria, how do you think an average entrepreneur can weather the storm?
Honestly, you really have to be disciplined, focussed and persistent. As a businessman, you really have to have the goals at the back of your mind so that when people say you dont buy aso ebi, you dont do this, you dont do that, deep inside you, you know it is because of a course. If you dont really know where you are going, if you dont know that for instance, this is a journey and these are the prices that you need to pay before you get to your destination, in fact, there is no destination.
For instance, for me, I believe this is what I would do till I am about 90 and hand over to another generation. So, there would always be challenges and if you cannot pay the price, there is no way anybody like that can run a business now. When you are in your calling, challenges are bound to be there. If you know that it is what you want to be, the sky is the limit. For me, I know that what I want to be is to be the Nestle of Africa. Even the challenges are still not enough because you know the higher you go, the more the challenges come. So, I see it as my mission, my calling. So I am happy doing what I am doing.
What is WandyFoods all about and what are your product lines?
WandyFoods processes foods such as agro-allied products, contributing to a healthy and hygienic society. Our focus is to become the leading food processing company in Africa that sells processed food to the world. We bake; we do plantain fl our (amala ogede) which is very good for diabetics and hypertensive people. We do ground rice, whole wheat fl our, pounded yam fl our (iyan), locust bean (iru), chilli pepper, corn fl our, bean fl our, wheat fl our, plantain and natural honey. As a matter of fact, Wandy Foods fi rst products were ground rice and yam fl our. But today, we have expanded the product line to cookies and drinks.
Your factory is located in this place called Technology Incubation Centre, like I observed, there are many other businesses present here. Is there any unique thing about this place? What is it all about?
Yes, this place is managed by the National Board for Technology Incubation which is controlled by the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, so it is owned by the Federal Government. As you have seen, there are so many people here. Basically, it is called incubation centre because it is a place that when you come, you incubate and then you moved out. I have already graduate d. So, what I need to do now is to move out very soon to my permanent place. Basically, NAFDAC prompted me to stay back here when they told me that I would need larger facilities for proper food certifi cation. WandyFoods actually became an incubatee here at the Technology Incubation Center in 2004. The incubator provided not only the food production facility, but also allowed me to rub minds with other entrepreneurs, to share the solutions to challenges faced by small, fl edgling businesses and to motivate each other.
How would you assess the food industry in Nigeria? There are lot of people who seem to be running away from food business as a result of challenges they face especially with regulatory bodies like NAFDAC. Do you face any challenge and if you do, how have you been able to overcome them?
The food industry in Nigeria is massive. As they, say we are about 164 million people in Nigeria, I can assure you there are so many opportunities. Take for instance, I read law and I didnt even know much about food. But I went through some training to end up in what I am doing now. Like I can tell you, it is because of the opportunities that I found myself in this industry. I can tell you the food industry is still largely untapped. There are massive opportunities in the sector. Yes of course, I faced challenges in many areas especially in the area of registering my products with NAFDAC.
To register with NAFDAC and get approved, the process actually was a long one. You do a lot of analysis before you can get registered. It was really a herculean task and very discouraging and because of the procedure involved, I almost gave up. But I was however able to get it at the end of the day. I would tell you that the only thing that has urged me on is the vision and passion.
Also, as the business grows, more capital is required. That is another challenge. The only form of funding I have ever got is from Fate Foundation. Apart from that, I have borne the funding myself all these years. As a matter of fact, I was part of those that went for the training with Standard Organisation of Nigeria. What I am planning to do now is to do something about standardisation ISO 9,000.
There are rules and regulations you have to follow before you can do all those things but if you dont follow rules, well, if you say because of that, defi nitely you cannot grow. There is no where you go to, for instance, if you go to banking, there are rules, if you go to law, there are rules. There are rules in all spheres. So, all you need to do is to take one step at a time. That is it.
Definitely, you are not satisfied with the level you are now. In the next five to ten years, where do you hope Wandy Food would be?
I aspire to be bigger by the grace of God. I am holding onto God to open the plans for me. Like I told you, my plan is to be the Nestle of Africa, where on a particular day, during breakfast, you have one of my products, lunch, you have one of one of my products, when you have your dinner, and you have one of my products on your table. But I am holding unto God to unravel the big plans.
Talking about marketing, do you have target market for your products and how do you reach them?
Are your products in the open markets? Yes, I have my niche. I have target market. I have people like you, that is, up mobile, career women and men who are so busy that they cant run around cutting plantain and drying and everything. The diabetic patients, hypertensive patients, those who want to go on a diet and who need what is healthy to put into their stomach. Those are my target markets. I have marketers. For now, they are not in the open markets. At fi rst, WandyFoods used to sell directly to individuals, but it now supplies supermarkets as well.
What do you think Nigerian government should do in helping businesses to grow?
Nigerian government should create more of a place like this so that youths can access such opportunities. If the issue of accommodation is taken off a business, they have taken off a huge lot so that by the time you are getting yourself together, you would be able to say this is where I am going. So, if they do more of this, if power problem also could be addressed, like you can see us running around, trying to get alternative power supply.
The greatest challenge in doing the business has continued to be electricity. There is no day we do not spend money running the generator to do our production. The energy situation in this country does not encourage private initiatives. It could be frustrating. For me, I know if those two problems, that is, accommodation for businesses and power are solved, there would be more people that would want to go into businesses.