Funmilayo Esther Famuyiwa is a social entrepreneur, climate change advocate, and data analyst passionate about leveraging technology for innovation, sustainability, and food security in agriculture.
As an advocate for female cassava farmers, she is committed to enhancing food production, reducing carbon footprints, and driving economic growth through sustainable agribusiness practices.
She is the co-founder and CEO of Ayosifam Integrated Service Ltd, a company that processes and packages gluten-free food products, including cassava flour, fufu flour, potato flour, rice flour, garri, lebu, and CASMA flour.
Funmilayo Esther Famuyiwa shared with Today Africa about her entrepreneurial journey.
Who is Funmilayo Esther Famuyiwa?
Funmilayo Esther Famuyiwa is zoologist turned social entrepreneur. I am a climate advocate and a certified data analyst. That’s who I am.
What inspired you into starting your business or into venturing to the agri space?
That’s a very good question. Thank you for asking that question. Like you mentioned earlier, I started the business in 2018. And what really inspired the business is this, around 2015, I actually moved from the urban area to a rural area.
So I saw our farming activities were going on in that environment. All the farmers find it so difficult to transport their produce from that area down to the town for people to buy this product.
When they have harvested already, I saw how the middlemen would come and just buy it at any high price from all these farmers. So from there, that ignited something in me that is there something I can do?
Since I’m about rounding up in the university, then I was already in my 400 level when I moved to that area here. So I was like, okay, is there something I can do to actually help these farmers?
Instead of me finishing school and going out there to look for a white collar job, which then I have, I didn’t even know where to even start from. Let us just be sincere. I don’t know where to start.
So I have the thought of, okay, what can I do to help myself to do something? That’s what actually birth Ayosifam Farm.
Let me take cassava from thes farmers, turn it into gari. At least while we fry the gari, we sell 2,000 Naira per day. And at least I’ll have something to support my family as well.
That was what gave birth to Ayosifam Integrated Services Limited. So helping the farmers solve the problem of their post harvest loss, the middle men extortion. Okay, let us add value to this cassava and also I’ll be able to earn a living and employ more people as well.
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What led you and your family to move from the urban area to the rural area?
During the 200 level break, I got married. So I had my first child in my 400 level. You know, after getting married, after everything, things actually were not going well. Life happened.
And we have to leave that area where we are living, where we could afford was the rural area. So that was what informed us moving away from the urban area to the rural area.
Tell us more about Ayosifam Integrated Services, including your products, services
I forgot to mention earlier that I’m also the co-founder of Ayosifam Integrated Service Limited. At Ayosifam, we help health conscious individuals to embrace a healthier lifestyle by processing cassava and sweet potato into gluten-free food products.
So we take this produce from the local farmers, the cassava, and sweet potato from the local farmers. We take it down to our factory, process it and package it into high quality food products.
We have sweet potato flour, fufu flour, and cassava flour. Also we have what we call casma flour. So the casma flour is a blend of rice, maize, and also cassava flour. So these are our products and we actually innovate food products to help health conscious individuals live a more healthy lifestyle. That’s what we do at Ayosifam.
The service we also provide is for the farmers. Having worked with the farmers over the years, it’s not just enough taking the produce from the farmers. There is still some support that these farmers lack at the rural level, that we are also bridging that gap.
So we provide extension service for the farmers. We also provide imputes and personal protective equipment for the small holder farmers. And what we also do at Ayosifam is to actively seek for collaboration and partnerships just to make sure that we help the small holder farmers.
One that we got recently is with a company to actually help them in soil regeneration, to help the farmers in regenerating the soil and also help them to also earn while they are also regenerating the soil. These farmers also earn from this activity as well.
So these are the things that we do at Ayosifam to ensure that we achieve that food security that we are talking about.
You took a loan from the Bank of Industry using your NYSC certificate as a collateral. What motivated you to take such a risk?
Thank you so much for that wonderful question. I mentioned something earlier that while in my 400 level, I started thinking about life after school.
Then I actually look back, look to the left, look to the right, look to the front, I was not sure of even getting a job after school, to be sincere. I wasn’t that sure.
So when that opportunity came, okay, you can actually drop the certificate as a collateral and we give you a 2 million non-interest loan to start that business idea that you have.
As a serving corp member then, if you have any business idea, come and submit your application. After submitting the application, if we vet this application and we know that yes, it’s something we can venture, and we can also put our money into.
Two million naira non-interest loan is yours and you pay for over a period of four years. So I believe that it is easier for me to take that risk than taking the risk of carrying that same certificate and be looking for a job.
It was easier for me to take that risk to what I can be able to do with the two million. Rather than carrying my certificate like that without getting anything.
That was actually what actually pushed me into doing that, taking that particular decision at that point.
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What were the challenges you faced in the beginning and how did you overcome them?
The first challenge I encountered after taking that $2 million is getting my products to the market. Not just only to the market, to the right people that actually know the value of my products and they have the financial capacity to purchase that product.
“Instead of me finishing school and going out there to look for a white collar job… I have the thought of, okay, what can I do to help myself to do something? That’s what actually birthed Ayosifam Farm.”
It was really a big challenge. I did not know anything about entrepreneurship. I did not know that buying and selling is different from being an entrepreneur. So I wanted to be an entrepreneur, not just buying and selling. I did not know.
The idea I have is, okay, let me start garri production. It is everybody that eats garri, at least 9 in 10 homes in Nigeria have garri in their home. So I was so sure that when I start producing garri, I will sell.
But now I started producing, I have my bags of garri there, I couldn’t sell. So that was the first challenge I encountered.
Not able to reach my target customer, not able to know that I have to segment my target market to reach those people that I know the worth of my products.
My factory is located in Ilorin and the garri that we have in Ilorin usually have sand, it is not clean, and it’s not of even size. That is what people are used to. Now I am coming in, I’m producing a very clean garri that is sand free, that is with even shape and sizes.
That means it will be more expensive and is a premium product to what the other people have in the market. So getting those premium customers became a major challenge for me.
When I started, I just wanted to sell. But I got to know that for me to sell I have to segment my market. You have to know your market, your target audience. You cannot sell to everybody. That is what I learned in the process of doing this business.
So after attending some entrepreneurship training, I’ve attended a lot of training to be able to position myself well in the market. And then I got to know that, no, you have to segment your market.
Who are you selling to? Where can you get these people? So that was what pushed us into getting NAFDAC certification for the garri product.
If this product is well packaged and has NAFDAC certification, I’ll be able to distribute to everywhere in the state and even beyond Nigeria. I’ll be able to distribute my products to them.
And anybody going to the supermarket should not be asking for the price. They just want a good product. They just want something good for themselves and they will just pick on the shelves and just go.
That was when I understood that these are the kind of people I need for the products that I’m selling. As I was also growing in the business, I discovered that product diversification is key.
You cannot just be selling garri, what if people are not buying garri? You must have other products to complement this product. So that is what finally gave birth to five more products.
We started with just garri, just frying garri in the traditional way. Along the way, we were able to introduce some technology in also making sure that our product is very clean, it’s sand free, and we are giving our customers that quality that they really want.
So that’s how I’ve been able to navigate all those challenges.
What marketing strategies have worked in attracting and retaining your customers?
Let me talk about the current strategy that we are using now and it’s really working. So earlier this year, we adopted a marketing strategy to use social media advertisements.
We started running ads on Instagram, Facebook, and other platforms. These particular ads made us understand the exact place that our products are needed. We’re able to know that more customers are coming from this state.
What do we need to do to be able to retain all these customers that are coming? The major thing that we had this particular year and is really giving us results is the social media advertisements.
Because we’ve actually tried so many ways before, like there was a time we did a radio jingle on two radio stations in Ilorin, although that also converted but not as the way the social media ads are converting.
So for the social media ads, we are not just getting individual customers, we are getting bulk orders. People that need products in bulk and want to repackage to sell as well. The social media ads enable us to get to these particular customers.
I will say the targeted ads really work for us. And from there, we are able to get people that want to distribute our products. Other than that, we have been marketing only in Ilorin before.
Now we are able to actually spread our tentacles to other states as a result of engaging in a targeted ad on all our social media platforms. This has really been helpful for us and it is really working.
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For people to buy and repackage with their own brand names means that you’re producing in large quantity
Yes, we actually have the facility to produce about 500 kg per day. Although we have the facility to produce about 1000 kg per day, the one we are utilizing currently is about 500 kg per day.
So we are still hoping we’ll be able to fully utilize the capacity of all those equipment that we have. But for now, we have not been able to fully do that.
And it is not just only the garri that people buy in bulk. People also buy in bulk the sweet potato flour, fufu flour, and the cassava flour. So we even have more people buying in bulk for the fufu flour and cassava flour.
For that particular product, we have more bulk purchase. It is not only garri that we are selling in bulk. We sell all other products in bulk as well.
How did you meet your co-founder and what really convinced you that he is the right person to venture into this business with?
(Smiles) You can see that smile. My co-founder is my husband. When the business was registered in 2018, it was just an enterprise, just a business name.
For you to be able to get some opportunities, you have to go beyond just a business name and move up to a limited liability company.
When we get to that point that we know that yes, for us to be able to get into certain opportunities, we have to upgrade from just the business name to being a limited liability company.
That was when my husband came in and now he is also a co-founder of the business. So we are both running the business together.
How are you people running the business without conflict of interest?
Let me first also mention what you said earlier, that it is not easy. It’s not easy because we know two people coming together, we actually grew up differently, from different homes.
Now we are coming together now to become one, not just one, now we are now running a business together. So I would say the basic thing that has worked for us is communication.
We make sure we communicate effectively with each other. The way we are running our business, we are not running it because, okay, it is a family business. You are my wife, you are my husband. No.
When we are in the house, we are husband and wife. But when we step out in the factory, everybody knows their roles. I’m the chief executive officer. My husband is the chief operating officer.
He has to ensure that every raw material needed for a particular product is in order. Everybody knows their roles and we are performing effectively in each role.
But like I said, the basic thing is effective communication. We try as much as we can to communicate. Whenever he has an opinion, he has to be able to convince me the reason why we must do this thing for this business.
So if I’m also bringing anything on the table, I should be able to convince him as well. We are not running it as if we are husband and wife. When we are at home, we are husband and wife. But when we step into the factory, we know that we are working for this business and we are colleagues.
I think when each person understands their role and responsibility, it will be much easier for us to be able to work together.
Another key thing is when looking out for a co-founder. You have to understand your strengths and weaknesses. It is that particular weakness that you have to have somebody to complement that particular space.
You know you are weak in this area. So your co-founder should also have strength in that area that you are weak. If you are doing it that way, you’d be complementing each other. You will not just be fighting on something because you understand that this is my strength.
In the business, we are complementing each other, not competing with each other.
“At Ayosifam, we help health-conscious individuals to embrace a healthier lifestyle by processing cassava and sweet potato into gluten-free food products.”
How do you get the raw materials used for your products?
When we started the business earlier, we faced the challenge of the scarcity of raw materials. It is something that was very deep during that period. But when challenges arise like that, you have to come together as a team.
You have to come together as a team to know that, yes, this is a problem. How do we solve it? And what we have done in our way of solving is to go to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Kwara State.
We went to the Extension Agent Department. Okay, you are the people that are relating with the smallholder farmers. How do we get to the rural smallholder farmers so that we will be getting our produce directly from them and we can be sure of a constant supply of this raw material.
We have that partnership with Kwara State Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. So we are working together with the extension agents. That is why I said earlier that there are some support we also provide for the farmers as well.
We don’t have the money to employ extension agents in our own company, but we can partner with people that already have these systems in place to also come and complement what we do.
This is what we have been able to do to go to the Ministry of Agriculture, reach out to those people that we know that can help us. So they are the ones that help us get these customers.
And as I speak now, I can categorically tell you that we have a network of over 500 farmers. We are also supporting them with imputes, training, and this particular year, we’ll be able to position them to also earn carbon credits.
“I believe that it is easier for me to take that risk than taking the risk of carrying that same certificate and be looking for a job.”
These are the things that we do to make sure that we are getting a constant supply of raw materials from the farmers.
How has the Nigerian economy affected your business and your decision as an entrepreneur?
It has really affected us in a number of ways, we cannot fix prices. When they make an inquiry for the price, we tell you for this price, it is just valued for 48 hours.
Because if you are going back to take the raw materials, the price has changed. It might not even be for the raw materials. It might be a fuel issue because it has increased. So once you are making another product, something might have popped up that will increase the cost of that particular new product.
Now imagine telling your customers you are selling at this price, tomorrow you are selling at this other price, it’s a bit challenging. The economy of the country is not even smiling at all.
And another thing, the potential buying power of people is also reducing on a daily basis. There is a limit for you to be able to increase your price because how you’ll increase your price, they might not be able to buy.
If you increase your price beyond their limit, how would they be able to purchase this thing? So the economy of the country is not just affecting us, it’s also affecting the people we are selling to.
If the consumers don’t have the financial capacity to buy our products, we’ll not be making the profits that we need and the revenue we need to generate as a company. The economy of the country generally is not just affecting us as a food processor, the farmers are also affected.
The amount they use in preparing their farmland now is on a very high side to what they used to prepare their land with. And for the business to work, it is not just only the equipment that we need. We need the people, the farmers, and the consumers.
If the economy of the country is not suitable for all of us, that means all of us are affected in this value chain. So the economy is not smiling at all.
But in all, we are trying our best to make sure to keep our head high and we keep pushing in the business and keep navigating. We keep navigating the process to ensure that we come out stronger while navigating this situation that we find ourselves as a business.
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What strategies are you to navigate these economic situations?
Like I mentioned earlier, one of the strategies is to calculate our cost very well. So if you are making an inquiry for the price, we tell you the price is valid for 48 hours.
So that when you are ready to buy and you are coming with that old price, you should know that we already tell you that this price we gave you is valid for 48 hours.
There might be a review of the price because if you are not reviewing the price, we might be running at a loss as a company. This is another strategy that we have been able to put in place.
Another strategy that we also try to put in place is to buy our raw materials in large quantities. Although for the kind of raw materials we use, after three days, degradation will start to set in and it deteriorates and we might not be able to use these raw materials again.
So what we do is to buy the cassava in the farms. When we are ready to harvest, we go there and harvest this cassava and sweet potato as well. These are the ways that we navigate this because the raw materials are very key to the amounts that we sell these products.
These are the things that we have been able to put in place to make sure that we actually strengthen our supply chain in the company.
What are the systems and processes that you put in place that helps in the smooth running of your business?
We are able to leverage existing relationships. There are some services that we enjoy that we are not paying for, all because of the existing relationships. There are some services that if we want to pay for it, we cannot afford it.
But because of the relationship we have with those people, we are able to have access to them. And they are able to help us to navigate that process and be a member of our team without expecting pay on a monthly basis.
I’ll tell you, most of the team members are not on the payroll. But when the need arises for them to step in and do something for the company, they are always there to help.
For example, the auditing of our accounts, and for any financial advice. We have somebody that we can run to, a chartered accountant attached to our company that we can go to, but we are not paying that person.
It’s okay at the end of the year, we have something for you as a company, but he is not on our payroll. But for all the services he’s rendering, the advice he’s giving us is not something that we can’t pay as at the stage that we are now.
But because of the existing relationship that we have with him, when the issue of the company came up, he was able to come on board as a team member.
We have other people like that as well that are able to come on board too. For instance, there’s no extension agent in our team but we are leveraging the existing relationship to have them on board as a team member.
Relationships are very important and as a small business owner, there are some services we cannot afford. That’s the basic truth. But are you able to leverage the existing relationship that you have?
If I attend accelerator programs and training. What I look out for, are people that can complement what I’m doing? How can I have access to them?
Because some people that are in the accelerator program, you cannot just add that direct access to them. But now a program is bringing you together.
Like I always advise small businesses like mine, you are still very small, yes, but you have to think big. Seek for opportunities, and leverage more on relationships when you know you are not able to pay for certain services.
There might be someone sitting next to you that you need in your company that can come on board. So don’t have the mindset that you want to be the only owner of the business. You cannot walk this journey on your own. You can’t walk it alone.
“When I started, I just wanted to sell. But I got to know that for me to sell, I have to segment my market.”
So you have to leverage people and their expertise. You have to leverage that relationship to be able to bring your company up and to that level that you are dreaming of taking it. But the basic truth is we cannot walk that journey alone.
The journey of entrepreneurship is a long one and not just a long one, it’s a very difficult one to navigate. You need people that have passed through that route to be able to lift you up and hold you.
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How is your business doing today and what does the future look like?
For the business, I’ll say the future is very bright because if we are able to start with a 2 million non-interest loan and we have been able to pay the loan. Now, we are enjoying the second loan facility from the Bank of Industry.
Anyone that has tried entering the Bank of Industry will know how difficult it is. So if as a small business, we have been able to navigate that process, not just one loan, but the second loan, and we have been able to move from just one product to about six products now.
So the future is very bright for us and the impact that we are making in the community also is an indication that the future is very bright for us as a company.
Because we are not only focused on the profits, which we need as a company but the impact we are making outweighs the profits that we are making, including empowering the small farmers, and the rural women.
Most of our workers are rural women, thereby, giving them a source of livelihood. They are able to go on every day with something to cater for their family. There are times that some things will come up and I’ll feel like, no, I don’t think I can continue.
But when I look at the impact that we are making at Ayosifam and I look at all these women. would say, that means all these men will not come to work again once you close this place.
This thing keeps me going in the business because of the impact that we are making.
What are some key lessons that you have learned in your journey as an entrepreneur?
The first lesson that I learned is to fail fast and fall forward. And another lesson that I also learned is be ready to pay to gain access. Because I actually learned this the hard way.
The kind of amounts that I have lost in the business, if I had paid for the access to somebody that has been in the field to put me through, I would not have lost that money. So as an entrepreneur, a small business, look for people that have passed through that process.
Go and cleave to that person, you might be older than that person or the person might be older than you. But the kind of experience that person has in their feet, if you want to go through the experience yourself, it will cost you a whole lot.
So I will say that you don’t have to walk the journey alone. Because from the experience that I’ve gained, you have to work with somebody in your field to be able to navigate that process.
What took that person 10 years might eventually take you six months because of the experience this person will share with you.
Because this person will be able to advise you to know where to get this equipment and why you should not get that type of equipment that you think is the best for you to get.
One thing that I’ve learned is for every challenge that comes our way, we have to learn a lesson. It’s telling us a lesson. And as we are learning, we are moving from that spot that we are to another high level.
So when you see challenges, you don’t have to run away. Embrace every challenge. Learn as much as you can from the same challenge because it is this challenge that will propel you to that height that you want to get to.
And the other interesting thing that I’ve also learned is as you are solving one challenge, another challenge is coming up. So as you are solving one, be prepared for another one.
What advice would you give to people, especially women who want to start their business?
For my fellow women who are in the business or you are thinking of starting a business. I want to encourage you that being a woman doesn’t stop you from doing so many things.
Because I’ve seen people that when they are still single, the kind of zeal they have, the kind of passion they have once they get married, it reduces. And once they start having kids, I would say it’s reduced from maybe 100% to about 10%.
It actually really goes down. So I want to encourage every woman out there that you can still be who you want to be, whether you are married or you are single. Don’t allow being a married woman or now that you are being married to actually take that thing away from you.
That passion that is really burning in you when you are still single, you want to do this, you want to help this, you want to have an impact. But now that you are married, you don’t want to do much again.
Because you feel it is your husband’s responsibility to feed the family, it is his responsibility to do this, to do that. Or maybe there are certain challenges as a woman that will really come up.
But I will tell you that if you have that positive mindset to make that thing happen. It’ll definitely happen. Having kids, having a husband doesn’t stop us from being who we need to be.
So as a woman I’m telling us today that being a woman doesn’t stop us from being who God wants us to be. Let us stand up. Let us rise up and be who we want to be.
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