Meet Tomilola Awanebi, the organic skincare entrepreneur

Tomilola Awanebi is the founder of Sheabuttersheen Nigeria Enterprises, a start-up that produces a range of organic skincare products.

Tomilola was inspired to start this business when her baby had issues with skin-related allergies that failed to respond to doctors’ prescriptions. According to Tomilola, the situation prompted her to carry out extensive research on alternatives to address these skin-related issues. The entrepreneur found shea butter, tried it on her baby and it yielded much results.

“I discovered a major challenge through personal experience. My first child had issues with allergies that lasted for years, despite doctors’ prescriptions and use of steroids,” she said.

“This challenge gave birth to years of research on alternative and organic cure to minor skin-related issues. It also raised my interest in organic therapy. As at then, the use of organic products was not pronounced, but funny enough, it was the answer to my child years of skin allergy because my research gave me positive results,” the entrepreneur added.

To change this for others with skin-related issues, the economics graduate established Sheabuttersheen Nigeria Enterprises in 2012. For her, that challenge was a business opportunity which should not be ignored.

The economist-turned-entrepreneur told Start-Up-Digest that she started her business with only N11, 000, an amount she spent on buying raw materials for processing.

Tomilola started this business in her residential apartment and she now has two major factories in Lokoja and Akure with over 20 employees. More so, product penetration is reaching over 18 states with two major export countries of focus.

“My initial start-up capital was N11, 000. Of course I started with manual process, but now, we are into mechanised way of production and have a machine with a two-ton processing capacity of shea nuts.

“The business has grown from producing just shea butter for local consumption to the production of five other by-products of shea butter and also from local suppliers to exportation and getting NAFDAC licence,” she further said.

Tomilola sources her raw materials from local suppliers and from villages where shea nuts are grown. She also gets her packaging materials from Lagos.

Speaking on some of the challenges facing the business, the young entrepreneur said irregular supply of shea nuts is the major challenge. She stated that owing to the fact that shea trees are grown in the wild, it is difficult to have right them on any plantation.

She also identified the high rate of deforestation as another major challenge that is not just facing her business but the entire shea industry in the country. “Shea trees in most states are cut down as firewood and for charcoals.

“We also have external traders from neighbouring countries dictating our prices, making it difficult for local producers to afford it and still be profitable,” Tomilola said.

She also noted that lack of vital infrastructures such as stable power supply, good road network and storage facility, among others, has continued to impact on her business negatively.

Tomilola urged the government to address the issues of infrastructure, stating that it is the basis of industrialisation and growth of the nation. She called on authorities to ensure policy consistency and effective implementation to stop the illegal felling of trees.

The Madonna University, Okija, Anambra State graduate said that youths can only find agriculture attractive when there is innovation in the sector.

“Agriculture is viewed as a very stressful venture because it is labour intensive, but with mechanisation, youths would find agriculture attractive.”

When asked her advice to other entrepreneurs, she said, “Entrepreneurs should have vision, goals and mission clearly written and must stay focused to that vision and ensure each day that passes they have achieved or worked towards achieving a goal.

“Entrepreneurs should be willing to start and grow a business out of nothing or with little. It is your success in ‘the little’ that will make ‘the big’ a reality. Endurance in an economy like ours is a virtue for all entrepreneurs and lastly financial discipline is vital to the growth of an enterprise,” she added.

Josephine Okojie