Victor Komolafe, is a chartered accountant and CEO/ founder of Ojoro Kitchen Limited. He finished with a degree in Accounting and Finance about four years ago, practiced accounting for a few years before deciding to focus on his business, Ojoro Kitchen full time where he meets the condiment needs of many Nigerian homes.
What is Ojoro Kitchen about?
Ojoro kitchen like you said is to cheat and what we are trying to do is to cheat time. What the company is trying to do is to make products, condiments you know things that will make cooking easier for a lot of people. we find that in Nigeria our cooking process are still long and these days people have less time to cook and to prepare meals, so it’s just about adding technologies or using new methods or processes to achieve the same results in less time..
Ojoro kitchen… we started off with condiments, we have garlic, ginger, and atarodo…. we make it differently from what is available right now, on the market you are able to get ground ginger, ground chilli or powered things …. we have been able to get the product fresh and real to the to the customer, which is out major different instead of getting the powder or puriee you get the raw original that stays fresh for a longer time so you get the same fresh feel to your product or to your food that you prepare every time and its 100 percent healthy and our preservatives have health benefits.
Why did you venture into the agric business?
Well, that is a very interesting question… growing up I always had a passion in agriculture, my dad used us to plant different things around the house, so it was just in my blood from an early age. But I never thought I would venture into it until I got back to Nigeria about four years ago and I saw there were so many opportunities in the agric space. I went into condiments production because I found a particular challenge that I faced and I needed to get a solution to it, that was how I ventured into the agric business and since I started with condiments there’s been so many areas that I have been able to make an impact and I can make a difference too. Because the agric space is untouched, there are so many things you can do within there.
What are the challenges in agric business?
Wow… starting up business in Nigeria are very difficult… I had an idea of the challenges I would face but nothing prepared me for it until I got there eventually. So what I would say is if you want to start a business, there is no good time for it you just have to start something if you take a lead whenever you feel like you are up for it. There are a lot of challenges especially with regulation and regulatory bodies… for example I had to get a NAFDAC license the cost for that is quite prohibitive, and the time it take its quite a while I had to do my job par time while funding my business.
There are problems with access to finance also, especially for young entrepreneurs mean banks will not give us the money. What kind of collateral do we have anyway … there’s a lot that has to be addressed in terms of starting business in Nigeria
How well is the government doing to encourage entrepreneurs?
I will be quite critical about it to be honest … the federal government has been in power for a while but I haven’t seen much… but I will say this they have a lot of good policies to encourage entrepreneurs.. sound ideas and a lot of thing which h they announce. But that’s all we see, its policies the implementation we don’t see.. I can give a lot of instance where I have promised things by the government, and you know, it does not come true. We don’t look upon them anymore which is quite sad… as an entrepreneur in Nigeria you can’t depend on the government you have to think of how to do what you are doing within the constituent of the society, we can’t depend on the government to do things for us, we have to do it ourselves.
How do you carry out your Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)?
One thing we Ojoro Kitchen do is we try and reach farmers that would otherwise with their products wasted. This is a way of getting another market for them instead of them wasting those products we pay them for it. So that is our way of making social impact because if you are able to give someone money or more money than he expected then he is able to do more with his family, provide more jobs, send his school and benefit the society so what we try to do is to use our company to create a social impact especially as regards farmers and most people that it affects.
Advice to budding entrepreneurs
A few things, one it’s not easy. I think there’s trend or new thing in Nigeria where everybody is saying “agriculture, agriculture”, I don’t agree with it because its false, because it’s not developed there are more challenges that we face than the traditional sorts of business although the government has policies that is try to change things it’s not there yet.. So if you think this is an easy way to make money, you are mistaken. So I would say work hard, work harder if you are doing anything else, there’s a lot of opportunities it a brand new space, almost everything you do, you have to the potential to be the market leader, the market starter, once you put in the quality work and you work hard then sky is your limit, but if you just think that you are going to coast time, make easy money, agric product… then you have a shocker waiting for you.
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