Vanessa Nwuka: Pushing made-in-Nigeria brands globally

Vanessa Nwuka is the founder and chief executive officer of Veestore, an online retail store that sells and distributes African brands globally. The online retail store acts as an intermediary between its clients and producers of different African brands.

Through her Veestore, Vanessa delivers products globally, getting commission on each delivery.

She was inspired to establish Veestore in 2015 to promote made-in-Nigeria products and tap into growing opportunities.

“In 2015 and 2016 Nigerian economy was bad and there was so much talk about buying Nigeria’s products to grow the economy and strengthen the naira,” Vanessa says.

“I told myself, what if I make African items easily available to people. So I decided to start Veestore, which deals with the online retail of strictly African brands and we deliver worldwide,” she explains.

Vanessa says that her initial start-up capital was N300, 000, which she got from her savings. The money was only used in stocking a particular brand in 2015.

The young entrepreneur says her business has grown tremendously since starting, from having to stock a single brand and using emails and Instagram media platforms to now owning a website and stocking several brands.

“I started this business with N300, 000 from my personal savings. I was only stocking one brand named ‘Cookieskin’. Since then, we have grown to having our website and now stocking several brands online,” she discloses.

“We have also included a personal shopping service in May 2017 and with this service, we are able to source for items or brands we don’t sell online for our customers,” she further says.

The young entrepreneur tells Start-Up Digest that high preference for foreign goods and lack of trust in African products and Nigeria in particular are major challenges confronting her business.

She states that despite that things are fast changing in terms of quality and standards in Nigerian products, people still believe that anything produced in the country is of low quality.

This, according to Vanessa, has raised her cost, adding that she advertises the products vigorously to get the people to buy them.

She urges the government to establish a specialised institution that will pay particular attention to promoting made-in-Nigeria products, stressing that campaigns on Nigerian-made goods should be done internationally as well.

The young entrepreneur says that she is in partnership with a delivery organisation that has assisted in getting the goods to their customers in any part of the world.

Vanessa points out that Veestore has been able to survive the highly competitive retail space because it has been able to carve a niche for itself.

“The business has been able to carve a niche for itself, which is stocking strictly African brands, and we make sure we are affordable and, most especially, we have a great customer service. We do not take anyone that contacts us for granted. Since starting this business, I have come across amazing products made by Africans and I must say we are doing very well,” she says.

She stresses that Nigerians are gradually embracing e-commerce, stating that many citizens only carry out transactions using cash transfer options on delivery.

According to her, the business is planning to increase its number of stocks of African products on its platform and also establish pick-up hubs across the country.

Vanessa was a nominee of the SME 100 Nigeria Under- 25 CEO Awards.

When asked the advice she would give other younger entrepreneurs, she says, “Always remember why you started and keep pushing. Invest in yourself. You have to keep on learning because things are changing and you have to be up to date.”

“Ensure you have mentors and people to advise you rightly. You cannot do it all by yourself. Lastly, challenges will come but I have realised that in that challenge there is a solution that will help you grow,” she admonishes.

Josephine Okojie