Tshepy Matloga: Recognition is the best motivator
South African journalist Tshepy Matloga started making frequent visits to Malawi in 2014 when she noticed the lack of business magazines with Malawian content. Tshepy jumped at the chance to address this gap by launching Inde, a business and lifestyle magazine aimed at Malawian women. Here, Tshepy shares tips on setting up shop in another African country and speaks on being voted a top South African inspirational youth. You’re South African, why did you decide to start a publication in Malawi? More than a year ago I became a frequent visitor in Malawi. I was charmed by how serene and peaceful the country is compared to the hustle and bustle of South Africa. As a journalist by profession myself, some of the things I collect are magazines and it baffled me that I could not find a single publication that was about women and the business landscape in Malawi. Yes, there are so many publications in Malawian shops but they are all South African publications coming here packaged with South African content. I also met my partner here who happened to be in the media too. When I ran the idea past him, we both decided to bring to life Inde magazine in March 2016. “Inde” is a Chewa word meaning “yes”, Inde Magazine is Malawi’s only business and lifestyle magazine. What is the business climate/culture like in Malawi and how is it different compared to South Africa? The business landscape in Malawi is extremely different than the one in South Africa. I am used to a fast paced business environment and I have found Malawians to be very relaxed, there’s no hurry here whereas in South Africa time is money. With that said, I think my biggest challenge was having to slow down my normal work pace so that I didn’t become too overwhelming. I however like the Malawian walk-in policy, you can just rock up at a company with no appointment and request for a meeting and if the person is available they will make time to hear you out. That part has made things easier for me because I came here with no business contacts. What tools do you use to extend the reach of Inde magazine? Social media has been very helpful in this regard. Then, Malawians are generally friendly people and it being a small community, word of mouth also goes a long way. I have also been trying to partner with local events so that the brand is exposed even more What other projects do you engage in outside Inde? My public relations firm, Chronicles Media Group is present in both South Africa and Malawi. Outside Inde, Chronicles Media group also offers PR services such as corporate communications, social media management, brand management and events. Besides PR and the magazine, I blog for a South African organization called Leadership2020 where I write about my life journey, from growing up in the village of Botlokwa in the northern part of South Africa to running my own company. You recently made Youth Village’s list of the top most inspirational youth in South Africa, how does that feel? Recognition is the best motivator. To be young and know that in the few years that you have been on this earth you have impacted lives is a sign that you are going into the right direction. Everyone who knows me well knows that I have struggled to get to where I am today. From Botlokwa, packing my bags and going to university even though I knew very well my mother could not afford the fee; to struggling to find employment, and when I eventually did find one I did not like it; to starting my business with a few thousands I have saved from freelancing jobs. I have to admit it was a curvy road. So with that said, it is things like such recognition that remind me that the journey was and is worth it. What advice will you give to young African women looking to start a business in another African country? I’d say the beauty of venturing into another country is that you are new there so it makes it easier for you to identify gaps and thus fill them up. Africans are generally friendly people therefore making it easier for a new person to just get lost into the communities and be part of them. But, I have to say markets are not the same. In another country you might find yourself having to adjust your prices and make them lower to make your services/products affordable to the locals. If you’d like to share your story with She Leads Africa, let us know more about you and your story here.
Business Alchemy: Creating the extraordinary from the ordinary
In its simplest form, alchemy is the process of taking something ordinary and turning it into something extraordinary -sometimes in a way that cannot be explained. Alchemy is seen in the way an artist can, quite magically, transform a heap of scrap metal into a breathtaking piece of art. I believe that in the business world, we are all trying to create alchemy. We want to take something ordinary and turn it into the extraordinary. Whether you are social entrepreneur Patrick Awuah, taking tertiary education through it transforming lives so that students learn to shape their societies in remarkable, unique ways. Or whether you are Mo Abudu, CEO of Ebony Life TV, Africa’s first Global Black Entertainment and Lifestyle network, taking up the challenge of owning an African TV network where Africans can demonstrate their artistic skills and creativity in a relevant way. Lessons from Coelho’s “The Alchemist” One book that continues to have a profound effect on me is “The Alchemist”, by Paulo Coelho. A simple fable about pursuing your dreams, “The Alchemist” has enough wisdom in it to inspire and motivate you. It can push you to pursue and take charge of your business aspirations as much as any work you will find in the Harvard Business Review –the story is that good. It starts in Spain, where a shepherd boy, Santiago has a dream. He literally slept one night and had a dream that he travelled and found a treasure in Africa, Egypt to be precise. The dream was so compelling –just as your business aspiration might be– that Santiago could not let it go. He had to actualize it. Selling all his sheep, he set off across the ocean to find his treasure. Where your treasure is, there your heart will also be Much of “The Alchemist” is about the Santiago’s odyssey. His adventures, the people he came in contact with (the good, the bad and the ugly), his new learning, love, and eventually finding his treasure in the most unusual place. This reminds us that as we pursue that compelling vision, that business aspiration, we must be aware of the dynamic world we live in. We need to be flexible to succeed at alchemy. Now to connect “The Alchemist” to Patrick Awuah and Mo Abudu. It may have been on a CNN’s African Voices interview, that Patrick recalled that he was driven to leave his work and life in the US. What pushed him was his vision of starting a first class tertiary institution founded on strong leadership principles in Ghana. He was further motivated by that most famous quote from Goethe; “Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” Like Santiago in “The Alchemist”, I imagine that the dream was so compelling for Patrick that he could not let it go. And similar to Santiago who sold all his sheep and set off to find his find his treasure, Mr Awuah forfeited an assured life in the States and came to Ghana to start something new and risky. And what genius and magic that boldness has delivered through Ashesi University, Patrick’s creation. The first lesson that you learn from “The Alchemist” is that business, often requires us to leave our comfort zone and take risks, but wherever your heart is, your treasure will be. For Mo, she was a succcessful HR consultant who left a fabulous international career to host a talk show. Many people asked why, let them wonder. Like Santiago, Mo was drawn to her dream and focused on her purpose. She perfected her art by raising and talking about pertinent national issues. She gave visibility to the work and lives of remarkable Nigerians and international personalities on her show Moments with Mo. Her show may have awakened Mo to the opportunity of creating something bigger than Moments and giving Africans an opportunity to display and demonstrate their own creative skills through the platform of a global entertainment and TV network. Today, EL TV is a testament to not only Mo’s hard work, resilience and vision. The network has also become a channel through which many other African creative entrepreneurs and story tellers can effect and build their own creative dreams. That is alchemy. Transforming the ordinary to extraordinary.
3 subtle ways to increase your daily productivity
Daily productivity can sometimes feel so elusive. We all the many goals we would like to achieve each day. We easily make our to-do lists and set reminders then distractions get in the way. By the end of the day, we’re left feeling like we could have achieved more, and wishing that there were more than 24 hours in a day. I’ve faced the same challenge. But with a few adjustments to my daily routine, I have been able to cope better. Here are three subtle changes that really help with increasing your daily productivity when you add them to your routine. Choose your outfits the day before If you’re going to work or attending a meeting tomorrow, you need to select everything you’re going to wear today. When I say everything, I mean everything. From your underwear to the mascara you’ll be using, to the shoes that will match your outfit and the jewelry you’ll wear. I have been a victim of casually deciding on outfits to wear…only to discover in the morning that the outfit needed a camisole, and then discovering that I could find said camisole. Everything got frantic from then on. I sent clothes flying in the air while muttering prayers and curses concurrently. Do you know how much time you would save each morning by just planning ahead? If you’re able to do this effectively, you would have some time left over to jot down your thoughts or create a to-do list for the day. Trust me, you would start the day all calm, composed and dignified. This will be a huge boost to your daily productivity. The woman rushing around in search of a missing earring while hopping on one foot as she tries to locate a second shoe only looks cute in romantic comedies. In real life, it’s just a mess and brings about unnecessary stress which you do not need. Journaling for side-hustle success You know that spare time you have at work to complain about Nigeria, your boss or whose turn it is to buy the office provisions? Or those times you waste daydreaming about a much needed exotic vacation (when you’ve actually exhausted your vacation days)? What about those other times you wished you had more time during the day to take note of your creative ideas? It’s time to start using your spare time wisely. Get creative and write in a journal. As a writer with a 9-5 job, I carry a journal with me everywhere. In it I write down random thoughts which eventually become poems, stories or essays. But journals aren’t only for writers. Everyone can benefit from a journal. It’s a place where you jot down the random ideas you have throughout the day, and which you can review when you have some down time. You’ll be surprised at the end of the day how many ideas you’ve come up with. Journaling also reveals things about your psyche. What you write down randomly could reflect your state of mind and highlight areas in your life which you might need to improve on. This will take you one step closer to achieving your desired goals. If carrying a journal can’t fit into your designer bag, use your phone to capture your thoughts. Do whatever is convenient for you, just make sure your thoughts don’t fade away. You are what you read: The social media feed conundrum This, for me, is one of the most important things towards subtly increasing your daily productivity. So, you complain about not getting enough information about your areas of interest. Yet your social media feeds are only for entertainment, gossip and videos of cats playing pianos. Can you see the problem here? Social media is a very useful tool for absorbing information in our digital age. Whether we like it or not, we need to consciously moderate our feeds to reflect our interests and aspirations. Let’s face it, I enjoy a good meme. Who doesn’t?! I spent hours on the internet last year laughing out loud to funny pictures inspired by Drake’s “Hotline Bling” video. However when I began to write, I started to follow blogs and forums which reflected my interests. I signed up to Reader’s digest, Writer’s digest, Grammarly, The Sparkle Writer’s Hub, The Reading Room, Writing Tips and of course, She Leads Africa for daily inspiration and motivation. Think about the amount of time you spend on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media daily. Is it a normal part of your day to idly scroll through your feed? You should try to make this activity as intellectually stimulating as you can. If you can’t let go of your social media pastimes, consider multitasking to increase your daily productivity. If, for instance, say you usually spend your lunch break playing Candy Crush on your phone whilst eating. You could use that time to browse the internet for topics related to your areas of interest instead. This is not an exhaustive list, but it’s definitely a starting point to increasing your productivity as a #MotherlandMogul!
African traditions: Helpful or harmful?
In 2014, Nigeria’s Supreme Court annulled the Igbo custom that bans a daughter from inheriting her father’s estate. This marked a decisive victory in women’s rights in Igbo culture. It also serves as a reminder to the rest of the country and the Motherland that African women should be treated as equals. Harmful traditions need to be done away with. President Barack Obama, on his state visit to Kenya which coincided with the ruling, also discussed the need to reconcile traditions with evolving societies. In one of his addresses to the country, Obama stated, “Treating women as second‐class citizens is a bad tradition. It holds you back…These traditions may date back centuries; they have no place in the 21st century.” It’s a complex situation Changes in a society don’t mean we need to abandon traditions all together. Each culture has its values, and some of those values should remain untouched. Forbidding daughters from inheriting their father’s’ estate was a custom that perpetuated inequality. But, traditional Igbo culture as a whole is not one that seeks to subjugate women. We have to be able to distinguish between healthy practices and unhealthy ones. Equality is actually part of Africa’s traditions Historically, Igbos are democratic people. Laws were made and disagreements were settled by popular vote. Before the colonial era, Igbo women played an active role in politics. They took part in village meetings with men. They had their own markets and business networks, their own community meetings to discuss issues affecting women. They also had the right to strike against and boycott anything that threatened women’s interests. Women’s meetings were called mikiri and it was during these meetings that women shared their experiences as businesswomen, mothers, and wives. Mikiri was not only a support system, but also a forum to maintain women’s markets and enforce market rules (which also applied to men). If a man was found guilty of breaking market rules or abusing his wife, the women would gather around his property. They would dance, sing, bang on his doors, and throw mud at his house to express their objection. They could even beat him up a little. This was Igbo women’s most effective form of protest and it was called “sitting on a man”. British rule lead to the end of female institutions like mikiri in Nigeria. Back then British culture did not recognize women in its own political institutions. So, its colonial administration failed to recognize the culture of women’s participation in politics in Igboland. They wrote it off as another “savage African practice”. Igbo traditions and values like democracy and mikiri that promote equality. These values should have stood the test of time, rather than the laws that prohibit a woman from claiming what is rightfully hers. So what can we do? There’s clearly a need to decide which customs hold us back and which ones benefit our communities as a whole. Maybe we should follow the example of the recent Nigerian supreme court ruling. We should compare our traditions to our constitutions. If a cultural practice encourages inclusivity, it should stay. If it violates the rights of a particular group, it should go. Women should be part of Africa’s growth story. Sustainable development is only possible when everyone gets a seat at the table. We should all be active participants in socio‐economic and political initiatives.
It’s time to question the strict gender roles placed on women
One of the major gender roles set apart for women is that of the nurturer. But nurturing takes time. It keeps women away from other activities. It drains us emotionally. It makes us places nurturing above other roles. It costs money. It reduces resources available to women. I was born into a family of 7 children and I have 3 children myself. While I am a huge supporter of family life, I believe nurturing is a huge factor of inequality between the genders. Women are raised to believe that nurturing is an exclusively for women. This is deduced from the inter dependency required during the first year or so of a child’s life. But nature does not make mistakes, it was not intended for intense inter dependency to go on forever. In fulfilling gender roles, some women believe that everything else takes a back seat to nurturing. In my opinion this is a box that women create to limit themselves. We have an inherent gift of multitasking and delegation. Yet, a good number of us spend an inordinate amount of time planning and thinking about our roles as mothers or wives. Consider too that other women will go against their instincts to perform these roles due to societal norms, even when they are honestly not interested in being nurturers. The reality Nurturing is an important role for both genders. The inter dependency between a mother and child should be balanced with a father’s participation. A father is just as valuable a parent as a mother and is key to the emotional growth of a child. It’s a partnership and not a sole proprietorship! So dads, bringing in the bacon is not enough. Children also need your socialization, encouragement, advise, direction and love. Having a support system is important for any woman who has a child. We need time to do other things for our own mental stability. Yet, many women pour in too much time on their children and into their children’s life. You don’t need to take your child everywhere. You don’t need to be a drone mum using espionage-like tactics to constantly keep an eye on your child. My children surprise me everyday with their innovative thinking when I give them space to explore and make their own choices. So mums, child rearing is not a 24 hour business. Balance it out, live your life. Be the lioness who hunts and leads with the lion, even though she has cubs. Technology equalises the imbalance Society can balance gender roles with technology. Women can use technology to participate more to society and not feel stifled or limited to the nurturing role. With technology, we can contribute from anywhere and work faster. Women can handle domestic roles and still have time to pursue their aspirations and dreams. For example, parents can can supervise their homes in their absence through nanny cams. Jobs that were previously time and energy consuming can be done quicker and easily with technological innovation. Women have the choice to participate be both mothers and professionals. Education, personal development and skill acquisition are available at a click of a button. E-learning platforms allow users to interact, access premier education without from the comfort of home. I personally favour listening to audiobooks so that I can multitask. Furthermore, technological advances in the prevention and treatment in medicine mean parents don’t have to fret so much over children’s health. This allow parents time to pursue other pursuits. A number of the restrictions and barriers have been lifted by technology. We need to come up with more strategies to equalize gender roles so that men and women can live fulfilling and significant live while still being nurturers. Technology provides us that opportunity, why not capitalize on it?
4 career lessons from Akothee, Kenyan singer and entrepreneur
Earlier this year, Akothee set off a storm on Kenyan gossip forums as curious minds wanted to know about her wealth. The singer is thought to be one of the wealthiest celebrities in the country and her rapid rise to fame sparked rumours. Wagging tongues suggested that she got her wealth from a rich man and that she is part of the Illuminati. She was even accused of human trafficking. Just goes to show that there is still a long way to go before haters will stop saying horrible things about successful women. Akothee has quite a lot to teach us about life and business, get your pens ready. It’s okay to have a rough start Akothee left school aged 14 to marry the man she thought was the love of her life. In her own words, she came from a stable family but rebelled against expectations placed on her. She stayed at home, working as a housegirl for her mother-in-law over the course of seven years. All this while, her husband was in school getting his degree. He would eventually leave her for another woman. It was after ten years of marriage that Akothee returned to school. She was 24 years old. It is never too late to make a change in your life. A bumpy ride should not stop you from moving forward. Nurture your inner hustler After her divorce, Akothee moved from her village to Mombasa. There she learned how to drive and took to driving a taxi as part of her brother’s business. Yes, you read that right, she drove a taxi (some sources say it was a matatu). Akothee is known to be a great dancer and although she has made money from it, when she started she was dancing for free. It was others who suggested that she consider dancing as a business. She followed this advice and went on to earn a living as a professional dancer, dancing at high-end parties in cities across the world. Write this down, you can make profit from doing something unconventional. Always persevere and like Akothee land on your feet not on your back. Diversity is the spice of life Looking at all the things Akothee does begs the question, what exactly is her side hustle? Is it her music? Is it her business? The parties she hosts? The acting she does on the side? On the business side of things, Akothee has admitted that her ventures fund her Instagram glamorous living. She is the woman behind Akothee Safaris, a travel agency and transport service (remember the taxi company mentioned above? It has now expanded to a fleet of cars and will soon acquire a private jet). She also owns a 5 star boutique hotel in the coastal city Diani. In addition to this, she deals in real estate and property, buying and selling luxurious homes along the Kenyan coast. These days, everyone is expected to find their niche and stick to it but Akothee shows us that you can choose to buck the trend. You can be a mama and an entrepreneur On top of managing all that showbiz and entrepreneurship, Akothee is a mother of five! She has said that having kids is a hobby and she won’t mind a number six. As a single mum, she’s both the mother and the father, add to this her diverse hustles and her as a person outside her celebrity status. Her children have seen her through all her struggles and respect her for it. Akothee is a huge inspiration to single mums. You can be everything you want to be in addition to being a great mother. It’s been said that her past European partners are the ones that gave her money but after studying Akothee’s entrepreneurial spirit, I’ll take that with a pinch of salt. Here’s to living life to the fullest while generating your own wealth!
How to be career focused and not disappoint your mother
It started as a conversation with my friend. We were talking about topics we’d love to read about and I said I wished someone would write a manual on how to not disappoint your mom. Mothers…bless their souls, we love them but there’s something about knowing you’ve disappointed your mother that leaves an indelible mark on your consciousness. A mark you’ll continue trying to obliterate or make amends for -both exercises in futility really because how do you fix what you didn’t set out to ruin? See I’m 26 and I’m a single girl living and working in Lagos, far away from the comfort of my family. That on its own is enough to cause most parents to worry, my parents don’t live in Nigeria. Thus the responsibility of parenting me has been outsourced to a gaggle of well-intentioned, if incredibly parochial, aunts whose reports about my actions are the only things my parents have going for them right now. This unfortunately means that over the last year and a half since arriving in Nigeria, every other phone call to my mother has been an episode of ‘New Ways to Break a Mom’s Heart’. Often due to one aunt or the other complaining about something I’ve done to her. By all accounts, the aunties have valid cases against me. My job means that I work long days that often become longer nights; and on days when I simply can’t go home, I stay in hotels. When you factor in that according to Nigerian aunties, only a certain type of lady regularly patronizes hotels, you begin to understand why my innocuous actions are an affront to their quiet sensibilities. By focusing on work, I disappoint their expectations of proper Nigerian womanhood. I get it, I don’t agree with it but I get it. I used to obsess about my work-life balance and how I was not fulfilling some arbitrary Nigerian ideas I believed I had to satisfy. But now I step away from it all. It’s really just BS. I came across an article once that argued there shouldn’t be anything like work-life balance. The writer stated that this way of thinking doomed us into thinking it was a zero sum game. They instead chose to think of work and life as a delicate relationship that although might sometimes appear to be skewed, are in reality both being satisfied in different ways. This helped me understand that I do not disappoint, and neither do you. I’m still not sure how to balance my work with my life or perhaps more importantly how to ensure my mother doesn’t get disappointed with me (everyday). Yet if there’s one thing I know, it’s the inevitability of mistakes. Sometimes, your work will appear to take precedence for months on end and you won’t always do what’s right by mom. So, maybe don’t obsess over assumed failures? These days, when I get to steal time away from work to gossip with mom over phone about bosses or new opportunities, I can hear her pride. I feel how proud she is of my ability to make things work in my career despite not being the daughter she might have wanted me to be. That’s really all there is to it at the end of the day.
Why you need to set career goals each month
All successful people have career goals. We know a full time job can make it challenging to achieve said goals but this doesn’t make them any less important. As career-focused young women, the goals we set are our career objectives. They are an essential part of progressing up the career ladder. A great way to make sure you are on top of your career goals in a timely fashion is to break them down monthly. This means you’re only focusing on one goal a month. Your monthly goals can range from learning a new skill or updating your LinkedIn account to asking for a promotion or improving your relationship with co-workers. The choice is entirely yours. Not convinced? Here are four reasons you need to set monthly career goals. Flexibility Let’s be real, when you set yearly goals, you do so blindly. There’s no way of knowing how each month in the year will pan out. Monthly goals allow you to properly consider the time period in which you’re setting your goals. That way you’re flexible enough to consider any drama that may come up. It is as the year moves on that the best times to focus on certain activities are revealed to us. Imagine this, you update your resume January every year. What happens when you change employment within the year? Will you wait until the following year to update your resume again? Now if you take our advice and devote a month to brushing up your resume, you have more than enough time to create a master version saved for when you need it. Easy tracking Monthly goals are easy to measure. You know, tracking your progress towards achieving your goals is just as important as setting them. Tracking makes it easier to move on to new goals when you’ve achieved others. If you set goals yearly, you may end up forgetting some of your triumphs when it’s time to evaluate. Seeing what you’ve achieved on a month-by-month basis is also a huge boost to your sense of accomplishment. You’ll be surprised at how much you get done in a month. Better focus Taking things one month at a time allows you to focus, making goals much more achievable than otherwise. You can devote a month to forming better work habits and increasing your productivity. Very specific right? Trust us, by the time you spend thirty days focused on one thing, you would have developed habits that will have a lasting impact. You can set a month aside to learn something new. This is especially useful for those slow seasons at work where you have more free time. Time management Setting monthly goals is a great way to manage your time while also saving yourself from too much stress. If you’re following our advice (and you should), you may set one or two ultimate goals for the year then focus on one aspect of your career each month. This way, each month, you’re one step closer to achieving your ultimate boss goals. You can even go further and set weekly and daily goals. As an aspiring #MotherlandMogul do you set goals every month? Let us know what your goals are in the comments section below.
Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator of Studio Museum Harlem: “The digital age has made it easier for artists”
Art opens us up to the world. We can get a glimpse into the culture and history of a people through their creations. When it comes to African art, many artists are visual griots who tell a story through their visual work. The digital age has made it easier for artists to present their works on a larger platform. Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, explained to us at She Hive NYC 2016 that art at its core is multidisciplinary. Here are some of the points that Thelma Golden highlighted. – “Digital spaces for art display can have pros and cons. Many museums plan so far ahead that it could take years for your art to be showcased, digital spaces in this instance can be great for artists to bring attention to their work.” – “Create a support system within your peer group, within different fields, they can be cultural mentors to you.” – “Art being in the digital space has been to the great benefit for artists who don’t always have access to the official portals of art.” – “When thinking about investing in art you need to do your research. First figure out what you like, go to museums and see what is for you. For example, do you like abstract art? Do you like art with a lot of texture? To live with art, you want to be around something that inspires you and provokes you.” – “One of the amazing things about collecting contemporary art is that you get to know the artist. Knowing about the artist should also be criteria when investing in art pieces.” – “You should only buy art from reputable sources to ensure that you are getting what you paid for.” – “Follow artists that you like on social media and see their path, engage with them.” She Hive NYC attendees learned that art is an investment in culture itself. If you want to be an agent for change in the distribution of African art, be involved in the art scene. Sign up for a museum membership within your community. Visit art exhibits whenever possible. There is strength in numbers, have your peers get involved. Let’s go out and support!
Ogechi Okelu: Making traditional Nigerian snacks sexy
Ogechi Okelu’s love for food creativity led her from a career as a pharmacist to a desire to recreate indigenous Nigerian snacks. Many Nigerians grew up eating snacks which were only largely available in rural areas but Ogechi is repackaging local snacks in healthy and hygienic ways through her small scale food factory to help reach more people. She shared her thoughts with SLA on where traditional foods fit in with weight loss and on her journey so far. Why start a business with indigenous snacks? Nigeria has a wide variety of healthy and creative snacks and meals. These have been lost over time and are not in high demand among the urban and elite groups. This is mainly because of the preparation process and packaging but also due to Westernisation. I’m working on recreating some of these snacks in a healthier and more appealing way for the world to enjoy. Tell us a bit about Kozee My brand has been registered as a trademark and it’s called Kozee. My first product is my brand of kulikuli. Kulikuli is an indigenous snack made from groundnut paste that is quite popular in the northern part of Nigeria. I grew up eating this lovely snack. It is really versatile and can be eaten alone or in combination with other meals. Typically, people eat it broken into soaked garri but modern foodies use kulikuli as salad or parfait toppings, blended into smoothies and also to spice roasted beef or chicken. I am currently at the last stage of registration with NAFDAC, the Nigerian body that is responsible for the registration and quality control of food, drugs and cosmetics in Nigeria. They ensure that standard quality is maintained at all times and that standard operating procedures are adhered to by carrying out site inspections at factories and also running quality control tests on products at their labs. Where do indigenous and traditional foods fit in weight loss and healthy living? The main challenge with weight loss is portion control. We have a wide variety of traditional foods that are rich in fibre and minerals and are not over processed. A lot of our local foods however, have not been scientifically analysed, so we can’t be certain as to how many calories they contain or their nutritional value. This drives a lot of people who are particular about weight loss and healthy living to buy the imported products that have clear nutritional facts written on them. Researching on and repackaging our traditional foods will encourage more people to patronise Nigerian products and therefore boost the economy. How has your background as a pharmacist helped your hustle? As a pharmacist, I have learnt a lot about the importance of quality control and microbial contamination and this has helped me set high standards for myself, my factory and my product. Kulikuli has been made for centuries in the rural areas by hard working women who use a lot of manual processes from start to finish. This makes it difficult to produce large quantities of kulikuli in a healthy and hygienic way. I have been able to substitute a large part of the manual process using food grade machinery. I am also a pharmaceutical sales person, this has taught me a lot about sales, marketing and running a business. Where do you see Kozee in the next year? I currently deliver only in Abuja but am in talks to supply other major cities in Nigeria. I want my products to be available for purchase across Nigeria and hopefully abroad in the nearest future. What is your passion and how do you sustain it? I am a foodie who is also very passionate about healthy living. My passion for healthy food keeps me focused on coming up with creative ideas that I believe can help redefine our traditional and indigenous foods. If you’d like to share your story with She Leads Africa, let us know more about you and your story here.