Onyekachi Ekezie: From oil industry to food packaging
For the Imo State-born Onyekachi Ekezie, idea rules the world. The story of the 35-year-old entrepreneur is a testament that there are untapped opportunities in Nigeria and only people with eagle eyes see them.
Kachi, as he is fondly called, is the CEO of Kaptain Foods Limited and Ready Stews, which produces and packages Nigerian-made stew and fully cooked foods.
Kachi attended primary school in Port Harcourt and secondary school at Igbinedion Education Centre Secondary School, Benin City, Edo State. But the entrepreneur left mid-way for the United Kingdom, where he completed secondary education, later obtaining a degree in Computer Science from the Bowie State University, USA.
Like any average Nigerian graduate anywhere in the world, Kachi’s dream was to work in an oil & gas firm, a feat he eventually achieved. He had a stint at Halliburton ESG, Houston, USA, where he worked as a field engineer.
He equally worked in Kongsberg Oil & Gas Technology in Houston as a software support engineer. Altogether, he spent eight years in oil & gas industry in the USA before returning to the country in 2012.
Incidentally, Kachi did not return to the country to pick a juicy, white-collar job in Shell or Chevron. He found a business opportunity while in the USA and decided to tap into it.
When he was in Nigeria, he enjoyed local stew, a special type of sauce mixed with rice, yam and many staple foods. He noticed that this was scarce and many Nigerians abroad needed to have a taste of it. A number of Nigerians and even Africans in the Diaspora would often order the local stew from the Diaspora just to have a feel of what they had enjoyed while in their countries.
“It dawned on me I could package an authentic, easy to prepare stew in an appealing way. We thought Nigerians at home and abroad, especially students, would appreciate the convenience,” he told the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), in an interview in November, 2017.
Like many entrepreneurs in the country, Kachi needed funding, which was initially provided by family and USAID in 2015.
He got the funding through USAID’s Nigeria Expanded Trade and Transport activity, which assisted agro-entrepreneurs in the country develop business plans, generate investments, and promote exports.
The programme supported entrepreneurs in a number of value chains, including cassava, soybean, cashew and shea nuts, helping Nigerian firms to access regional and global markets, according to USAID.
Kachi knows that he must start from home. Even though he has an eye on the global market, he is conscious of the fact that there are local opportunities. The upwardly mobile and the ever-busy people in Lagos are his ready patrons. So, his products are now in many Lagos stores, and he is planning to expand to West Africa. He has also not forgotten his major focus, which is to hit the European and American markets.
The entrepreneur’s business is gaining gradual traction as it provides convenience for the ever-busy working population in Lagos. It also relieves stress from housewives, providing ‘fully cooked’ and packaged ready-to-eat tomato stews to homes.
According to Kachi, the food is free from chemical additives and artificial preservatives.
He was listed by Forbes as one of the 30 most promising young entrepreneurs In Africa for 2017.
He believes that there is a need for young Nigerians to move into agriculture and tap into opportunities in the sector. The entrepreneur thinks that now is time to truly diversify the Nigerian economy through the non-oil sector.
“We need more young people to get into the agriculture sector. Funding shouldn’t be a deterrent because there are a lot of different grants that young people can apply for, like I did,” he said in the USAID interview.
ODINAKA ANUDU