The Agege Bread Podcast
I wanna have conversations with people about things that affect us all as a society. I find that I have lots of interest in many topics from public finance, taxation, government spending, to health and nutrition, personal development and finance amongst others.
The Agege Bread Podcast
SHERIOLOGI, THE PAP MERCHANT
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This is the story of Sheriologi Fresh Pap, an authentic Nigerian fresh pap, proudly made right here in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. 🇨🇦🇳🇬
With 9 unique variants, we have something for everyone, across different ages, tastes, and nutritional needs. And for our little ones, we have specially dedicated kids' variants, fortified with highly nutritious ingredients to make every bowl not only delicious but also nourishing.
Freshly made and never powdered, you can always count on Sheriologi for freshness in every purchase.
With vendors across 6 provinces, 22 cities, and 60+ stores in Canada, your favourite Sheriologi Fresh Pap is never too far away.
Sheriologi Fresh Pap: the authentic taste of home, freshly made for every generation
Inspiring and thought-provoking conversations with eminent thinkers and...
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Good morning my sister. My name is Emeka. Here on the Agege Bread Podcast, I am sitting here with popularly known as I don't know her real name to be honest. I just know that she is Shiri O Logi. Today, she tells us everything we need to know about her, where we can find her and the amazing products that she has. So good morning. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
SPEAKER_00Good morning, Emika. Uh, thank you so much for the privilege to have chat with you today. Uh, it's really uh appreciated. I really appreciate the opportunity to tell people who Shariulogi is. The start of the journey. So, my name is Sharifat Bwari. I know some people say, Oh, is it Bablu Blue? No, this is not Castina Shizuari.
SPEAKER_02I was gonna say that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, this is Sharif Abwari Ubuatu. I'm from Ubomoshow or Yosta. So no connection to Baba Blueblue. This is just Bwari from the Oyost the southwest of Nigeria, or your state, obumosho precisely.
SPEAKER_02Oh, nice! Wow, okay. Now I can see where the sherry or lodi comes in. Okay, okay. You took your name and you fused it with a popular delicacy in Nigeria. We're gonna get to how you did that because uh I don't think I've seen in in Igbo, I'm Igbo from Nigeria as well. We call it Akamo. You might know the name, but in your language it's called O logi. Uh, if did I say that right?
SPEAKER_00Ogi.
SPEAKER_02Ogi.
SPEAKER_00So ology means the person selling ogi. Okay. Oh, but the product itself, akamo, is ogi.
SPEAKER_02Beautiful. Thank you for teaching me that. Okay, okay. Uh, when did you migrate to Canada?
SPEAKER_00I came to Canada December 12th, 2018. Almost eight years.
SPEAKER_02Wow, okay. And if you don't mind me asking, why did you make that move?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so uh back in Nigeria, I was working with uh federal government agency, uh, Industrial Training Fund as a trainer. And uh my husband is a lecturer in one of the universities in Nigeria. Uh, but he did his PhD outside Nigeria and he came back and he felt that for him to make impactful, uh great impact to teaching and learning in Nigeria, he needs to explore outside the world.
SPEAKER_02That makes sense.
SPEAKER_00That's why he was the initiator of the migration. Uh that he wants to come to Canada to you know uh explore, give the children the best opportunity they need to to succeed in life. So that was what led to migration.
SPEAKER_02That's no booth, and then to the meat of the matter. What inspired this business of yours?
SPEAKER_00Great question. Uh, you by my heart here before I dive into how I started uh Sharing Hoggy business. I have been I was born into business family. My mother is a teacher, uh, my father, but my mother has been doing business before I was born. So I I I was born into a family where yeah, it is a medium. I was born into a family where every day you have something to sell, and my mother sells a variety of things, you know. As a teacher back then, it was really difficult to sustain the family. You need to have side also, from going to a leche lawyer to buy kitchens, you need to utensils, to going to Baggy to buy food stuff, to going to Bodija to help her get food stuff to buy be sheets, to buy materials, to buy anything that people in our school need. So I was exposed to business at very early age. I would say as far back as 1997 when I finished my secondary school. So I was the supporter. I traveled virtually every week from Oyotown to Ibado to get her varieties of things that she needs to sell. When I finished from in when I got to the University of Illorin, I finished from University of Illinois, I did industrial chemistry. In my 200 level, oh no, in my 100 level, I observed that there was need for majority. Don't want to go to pottery where we buy things, they want to buy their stuff right in their, you know, the the the old stell. I saw that majority buy noodles a lot. So I started selling noodles in my dorm, in my hostel. And I'll go to town, buy noodles, and before the end of the week I've finished selling. So when I got to 200 level, 300 level, that was the uh that was when we started using mobile phone, buying recharge cards to load. My elder sister was working in a bank where we buy box purchase of credit card, um, phone card. So I had the privilege of buying in bulk to resell to people selling in office stores in the University of Lauren campus. So I was like selling B2B back then. In 300 level, I used to wear cut and sew material, people love it, and they'll say, Oh Shefa, where do you buy this thing? I said, Don't worry. I'll go to Alex Lawyer, buy material to Lauren, sell the buy, the use for a job, the use for its cats. And when I was struggling to ensure that I had 2-1 because my family will not accept anything less than 2-1, I had to stop the business in 300 level, and I focused to ensure that my 2-1 nothing happened to it. So 400 level, I did not do anything, so I just graduated with 2-1, and since then I have been doing one business from the other. While waiting for service at NYSC, I told my father I want to go to Kano to buy fabric, Guinea, to buy gold and resell in Illinois. And I went, I didn't know anybody in Kano other than a senior. I put up with them, I bought material, I said selling. While um I went to service, I came back, I served in Kano, luckily. So I bought material from Kano and people saved by, and since then, till I left Nigeria, I was selling fabric from Kano, Guinea, Materia, and Kara. And three other things I did in Nigeria before I relocated is I was in Ilore where they don't have good Gary. So I started buying, and I love Gary, my husband loved Gary. We couldn't even, we couldn't stand the quality we found. So my husband started saying, Shaifa, maybe we'll tell Grandma to send Gary to us and we'll be repacking. So we started the packaging of Gary in Lauren. We met one product, but by the time we launched our package, Gary, Essential Gary is still operating to today as I speak. Essential Gary was packaged, and we we do what we did is to focus on audience, corporate audience. We started selling to cooperative in our institutions, selling to stores in Lauren, and I did that for nine years. Alongside, I'm a Muslim, I I want to do, I want to lose weight. There was no female gym in Laurie, and when I went to service, I was able to do gym uh in a very secluded place because canoe. I saw it as a niche that oh, I know so many people that want to do even not Muslim only, some people want their privacy as a female. I launched pretty essential female gym in lawrence. I did it for like four years, but I enrolled in my my master's program. My other says, Sherry Fa, you can't lose in both sides. You want to do gym, do gym. If you want to do master's in industrial chemistry, do masters in industrial chemistry. So I ran that gym for four years and I now left it to focus on my uh masters in industrial chemistry. So I did that. That was another major business I did in Nigeria, and to now wrap it up on the Nigerian side, I usually supply schools, stationeries. I like quality things, I can't compromise on quality things. So there's this product called Nataraj, and I know most schools that are high-end school, they would like to assess it. I try my best to get in contact with the company supplying Nataraj in India. They told me that they have a distributor in Nigeria, so they connected me. I was on my bed, I spent two weeks searching to get connection with an Ataraj, and I did. And since then, even while I'm in Canada, I still supply schools, stationaries. So moving to Canada, it's something I just it's is a is an in I would say inbuilt skills. When there is a problem, I need to look for solution to solve it and to earn from it. When we're I have four girls, when we're coming to Canada, my oldest was 11, my youngest was 18 months old. And as you know, in Nigeria, majority of us introduce breast milk. After breast milk, we switch them to ogi. And all my four girls, I struggle with them to eat, they don't normally want to eat, they weren't eating, so the only thing they were eating is ogin. And I was like, Ogi is just carbohydrates. What can I do to enhance it to ensure that they are taking something nutritious? And that was what led to fortifying the ogi. So when we're coming, in fact, when I was working in ITF in Illori, myself and a colleague, we had baby together. So I will process the fortified PAP and give her a portion, and we're feeding our babies.
SPEAKER_02And this is here in Canada.
SPEAKER_00That was in Illinois, okay, Nigeria. That was where the idea of I was just doing it to enhance the my daughter.
SPEAKER_02That makes sense.
SPEAKER_00So when we're coming, I just brought 2 kg pop with the hope that we'll continue. When we got to Canada, by end of January, we couldn't get we exhausted what we brought as fresh pap. I was hoping I would get fresh pop. I went to all African stores here, reach out to Calgary. I couldn't get any fresh pap. I told my husband, I said, I will still be. He said, You started your life. I told you I brought it to Canada to come arrest. Don't do any stress, don't do I was like, ah I faced the guy. I said, This is a niche that I need to keep into. So that was what led to Sherry Lubi. My daughter ran we ran out of the products for my daughter, we couldn't get any, and I was like, There's I can't give her process back. I don't know what he put inside. So that was what led to the death of Sherry Lubi Fresh Back.
SPEAKER_02Interesting. You know, I I didn't want to interrupt you. The way my brain functions, there's a lot of gems that you've dropped. If I start seeing them, people will run with them and go set them up. So, listeners, if you want to know the gems that she dropped, just either you contact her, I'll tell her the gems when we finish, or you can ask me. But it's best you ask us because she is the owner of the idea, she will sell it better than I can ever do. But wow, what a story! What a story. I am going to um she brought some of her products. I'm looking at it, and I am mind-blown. I've worked a lot in manufacturing, and in my head, I'm wheezing. Like, how? How is this possible? We're not gonna ask her those questions, we're gonna just praise the product because it comes in a resealable bag, it's frozen, which means it's very no mess. You you you can use the product and not have mess everywhere. You take it from your freezer, you take out what you need, you reseal the bag, and you put it back in the freezer. If I understood correctly before we started recording, you have various brands of this. Could you expand on that?
SPEAKER_00Okay, uh, thank you very much for that question. And for pressing our product, uh, we will not compromise on quality. Um, when I identified the gap, the first thing I did was to do my validation of hypothesis.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00Because it is something to have idea that there's a problem, is another thing for you to see that other people have that problem, and that is why the majority of the business fold off. Find the need, find the need and validate it, and fix it, feeling that is the same pain you are feeling, other people are also feeling it, or you're just the only one. If you are just the only one, then if you learn the business, you'd be the one to pay for the journey.
SPEAKER_02And she's just dropping another gem, okay.
SPEAKER_00So, what I did was to prove I just got grains. I went a friend, took me to a store here. I got grains, did sample, and I went to an event where Nigerians are, and I gave them samples. Please give me feedback for free, for free, and you know why what I wanted to do? Because for me, I want something beyond PAP. Right, I want people to pay for something unique. I told my friend, I said, I'm not going to do white camp, I'm not going to do white pap. Now, what is in it? I said, Don't say that. You're not the one that you're buying. I said, said some people might buy it to make a gidi echo that might not just be drinking. I said, I just want to bring something unique about PAP that are formulated in Nigeria. So I did this sample. I started with five, uh, six products: plain white, plain yellow, ginger yellow, plain brown, ginger brown, and the baby pop that I formulated, both the plain and the ginger. Along the line, I started seeing people asking for millet vitality because it's very unique in terms of sugar content, it's very healthy for diabetic patients, it has both soluble and insulin fiber. So I added that one to it as well. And we started, we grew with eight product for six years, but you know, parents they want more, they want more. People started asking me, what can what can we add this to our path? I said, the nutrient combo is nutritious enough for your kids. But to listen to the audience, because they are the one paying for the journey, we needed to launch something different to give them options to choose. So we launched Nutritor this January. We added carrot and dates to our NutriTort so that the parents can enjoy and have, like, oh, they're having vegetable, they're having protein, they're having all the nutrients that is required. Another thing we did is to ensure that we have the nutritional value run in the lab. We didn't just go and copy and paste on the internet, we sent our sample composition to the lag, they gave us the nutritional value. So if you see anything, whatever you see at the back of our pouch is what we are consuming.
SPEAKER_02Beautiful.
SPEAKER_00So we have nine products.
SPEAKER_02Beautiful. I feel so oppressed. I'm being sarcastic because this is an industrial chemist talking. I worked for 12 years in the pharmaceutical industry, so I very much understand what you're saying because you don't just compound, because I'm not a pharmacist, but I've I've worked a lot with pharmacists. You don't just compound anything, you compound, you take it to the lab. They have to you do your uh I don't remember the spectrophotometric analysis to find out the unique uh quantities of each active ingredient because you did industrial chemistry that ties into so I can tell that you know this product has gone through rigorous um uh design uh process, and I I have no doubt that it will do well. I know that a lot of our listeners will be wondering where can we find this product? Please, please, if I didn't have you bring it to me, where can I go now? Because I'll finish this maybe in the next one week. Where can
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SPEAKER_02I get more?
SPEAKER_00Thank you very much. Uh, one of the things that I learned in the NBA, because I did my NBA when I came to Canada, as I was producing, struggling to grow this
(Cont.) SHERIOLOGI, THE PAP MERCHANT
SPEAKER_00business, I went back to do my NBA. My husband has always been on my neck back in Nigeria. I should have you have a passion for business. Why don't you do NBA instead of MSC and chemistry? I said no. My business period as in skills is inbuilt. He said no. So when we came to Canada and we are struggling to settle down, another reason why, aside that my daughter needs PAP, we there was no means to sustain. I applied for a job, I couldn't get it, and I saw this as an opportunity to sustain the family. So I started selling PAP gradually, but along the line, I was like, okay, what can I do for myself? I went, I applied for NBA. I used this OG as my entrance exam interview. I showcased OG in my engagement in my second interview. And you know what it earned me? It earned me $2,000 entrance award. I got our award for entrance entering MBA.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_00So in anything we do, we might not appreciate it. But the people we are engaging with, the OG people we are working with, see values in our resilience, our entrepreneurship spirit, our ability to solve problems that we found in our environment by providing product. It means more to them than we appreciate ourselves. So anywhere I go to, I introduce OG before myself because I know it will bring an open doors for me more than individual knowing who I are. But my product has opened doors for me. So where can we if I can get my product in Edmonton? We we ensure that the product is okay. I went, I talk about MBA because one of the things they told us is be in front of your audience, right? Ensure that you're in front of your audience. The product might be fantastic, but if it's not accessible, then you are not making any impact. So we ensure that we get vendors across Edmonton and across Canada. In Edmonton, we have 12 vendors, in uh Calgary we have 10 vendors across Canada. We have six provinces. Our product is in six provinces, 60 vendors. Ontario, BC, Saskatchewan, uh Calbata, New Brunswick. Wow, Winnipeg.
SPEAKER_02Nice.
SPEAKER_00So we we spread, and we also have vendors in the US.
SPEAKER_02Nice.
SPEAKER_00We have in Texas, we have in Ohio, we have in Maryland.
SPEAKER_02So you are in Georgia, you are part of the Tariff people.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm also born. Um I've been born sincerely. My business has been affected with the time.
SPEAKER_02Tariffs, yes.
SPEAKER_00So we have in Chicago, we have in Texas, and we have in Ohio.
SPEAKER_02Nice. Are there specific stores that we can go to here in Edmonton?
SPEAKER_00Yes. For people in the north, right? You can get from Clareview, close to you, uh, from Agape. Okay, you can get from the food plug in the north.
SPEAKER_02Right. I know that I know the store.
SPEAKER_00You can moving to the west, you can get from Adam Tropical Sun, uh Tropical Store, you can get from Marvelos, now going to the south, where we have a lot.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00We have in the food, we have in food baskets, we have at uh favorites, she sells from home. We have from Boomies, we have from Piers and Pamas, we have from Equafromat, we have from the food club in the north, in the south, we have from Bella African store in Edgemont. Is it Edgemont or Beomont? The one close to Edgmont. Beaumont. Beomont Beaumont. Yeah, and we also have Triple A in the Millwood side. I hope, and we have from Yeg Buck Ye, too. She's our vendor. So across Edmonton, we have a total of 12 vendors selling our product.
SPEAKER_02That's fantastic. That's fantastic. Um, I'm gonna say something that I've observed. We haven't met before, we chat always because there's this group, Edmonton Greatest, where there's a convergence of Nigerians. We chat a lot, we don't meet as often as we should. Um, I like to advocate for men. And my interaction with you, I see that in in almost every third sentence you say, you say, My husband. Yes, so that tells me that you have a lot of support in your business, in the family, in your education, in all the pursuits. That tells me, so I just wanted to shout out and say thank you to him for giving you all of this support because it's it's not something one person, it doesn't matter whether you're male or female, this is not something one person can do on their own. So the fact that and he even drove her here and is sitting patiently and waiting, the fact that he's doing all of this in the background. I want to extend the handshake to him and thank him for all that, and also to you for acknowledging that support. I am a man, most times, what we in in all the social uh uh uh issues, I don't know what to add to that social, but in all those issues that we have, one thing that is missing is that people misunderstand men wanting acknowledgement to and mistake it for whatever thing their narrative tells them. But thank you for acknowledging his support. Thank you for that. Um, you also mentioned that you're a Muslim, so that's important, and I like that because my next question will focus on how have you um been able to do all this being a woman of color and a Muslim in Edmonton.
SPEAKER_00Great question. So uh my personality, I'm someone who takes no part, I I won't take no. I I go above and beyond to pursue my goal. I don't stop at the first try. I have strong appetite for taking risks. I've taken so many risks with this business, and I'm not stopping. Because the end the the end goal is to make this product. When I talk to people, I say my name is Cherylogi of North America.
SPEAKER_02I don't say Sheryl Logie of Canada.
SPEAKER_00Okay, because I my goal is to take my products across Canada and the US, and I am someone that is very passionate with business. If uh I'm sick today, I tell my husband I'm not feeling too well. Tap me after 10 minutes. If I say you should come and supply 10 cartons of the year, I will jump up. I will go get that organic. It's passion. It's difficult, but it's passion. And if you don't look at side news, side complaint, distractions, you just focus on where you are going, where you want to achieve. You don't look at you keep moving. And one thing I told myself is that I'm in a country where it might be difficult for them to accept us or whom we are. I want to make an impact as an African, as a black. That because we have some limitation in our country is why we are here. It doesn't mean that we are dull or we are stupid or we are not smart. We can bring the uniqueness of Nigeria to anywhere we find ourselves. I want to be able to stand tall and talk where other people are talking. I don't want hijab to be a barrier for me. I don't want the color to be a barrier for me. And I know I have four girls and I know they are going to try here. I need to show them that it is possible to do this. When I go out and I come back, I tell them this is the environment you are going to try. You need to be exceptional in your academics. You need to do well in anything you want to do. Praise the name of your country, praise the name of your religion. Let them see the good thing about you before even asking which country did you come from?
SPEAKER_02Wow! I talk with people, I have all kinds of conversations. In fact, I just finished an article where I say we don't, it's not risk that we don't like, it is productive risk. And one of the examples I gave is that you will find a man who you talk to and you tell him, Let's go into this business. Oh, it's so risky. The same man is married, is having an affair on the side. That risk is okay for him to take. When he's found out, he will lose his family, his finances will get destroyed, and all the other negatives that will come with that. But the productive risk he tells you, nah, I don't want to get into that. I asked you a question, and I'm trying to point out that mindset. We left Nigeria because of its inadequacies. We came here, there will be inadequacies. There are inadequacies. When I ran a business, people would ask me, How do you survive as a black business owner? And I was, if you saw me, I was I was vibrating when you were speaking because that's exactly what I tell people. I don't see these things. You didn't speak on any of the words that I threw at you. I said Muslim, I said black, I said woman. You stylishly ignored all that and you put the substance on the table. I have what I took from what you said is I have girls that I need to set an example for. I am not a victim. I am me. I am here and I have to make an impact.
SPEAKER_00I need to try.
SPEAKER_02Everything else is to me, to me, an obstacle. Now, she did not deny these things, she just didn't buy into them. She's setting her own path. And this is the Nigerian spirit. That is why we are Nigerians. A lot of people see us Nigerians and think we are arrogant. It's not arrogance, it's just that's that's that's that's that's what drives us. It's not arrogance, it's passion. So thank you for that answer. And um, if Sherio Logi decides to become prime minister today, what happens to this business? I i'm saying this because I don't want to use the negative. Most people say if I die, that now. So let's say you become prime minister today, what happens to this business? And this your answer will pull me to there's another question, there's where I'm headed.
SPEAKER_00So, great question. Um, this I see it as an investment for generation to come. And what I do with this is that when I sell my product to people, those that I know and those I don't know, when they get back to me, it is the feedback they give me that delights me. It delights me more than the profit. The profit. I'll give you two instances out of numerous. I was in Calgary two years ago. I went to I went to attend an event, maybe supply, or I went on business street to supply Ogi. Either to showcase Ogi or to supply. I got a call from someone who I don't even know. She said, around 10:30, 10 o'clock night at night. He said, Is this Sherry Ogi? I said, Yes, this is Sherry. He said, I need your help. I said, Okay, my daughter, my son was just out of surgery now, and he said we should look for something very light that is easily digestible for him. Okay, and I know that you have had that people recommend your product. Where can I get it? I said, Where do you say? He said, I live outside Edmonton, but I am willing to go come out tonight to get it anywhere I will get it. I said, Unfortunately, I'm in Calgary, but I can connect you with a vendor that I know if you get to a house, you'll be able to get. And I called food plug because we've known from 22 years from the University of Belgrane. I said, I have someone who wants to buy o gee. And the baby is sick and they need him to get okay. She drove from outside admitting that night, she got to food plug, she got the pub, and she called me and she started praying that you are able to help me. My son was not eating anything, and the pub was just the best thing to happen to them after surgery. That was one. So it is not about the pro the profit, it's about the problem that we are solving. Imagine that woman, dynamite, not being able to get something that is unique, quality is not processed for us. The second one is recent. Someone just called me from nowhere. He said, I am originally from Winnipeg, but I went to BC to visit my sister-in-law, and they said your pack for me for breakfast, and I enjoyed every bit. I can't remember the last time I had this encounter. I only remember the memory of Nigeria. I want to buy 30 kg, send it to me to Winnipeg. So these are the things that keep me going. The ability to meet people's needs, the ability to say, Yeah, grandparent coming. I'll give you an example. My mother-in-law came one a week ago. Within one week, I serve her ogi four times. She said, Shelly, I want more ogi. I said, Is it truck or bath? This is Cheyologi factory. Imagine so many people coming to Canada, worrying to adjust with the food to be served here. I used to tell people, tell your parents not to waste their kg. Let them use that kg to bring stock fish for you. Ogi is there.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00And to look to cap it up, someone called me, said, My mother came to do omega for my brother. But we just relocated to Canada. And she told us when she got back to Nigeria where we were packing, said, Don't bother packing ogi.
unknownWow.
SPEAKER_00Sherry logi in Canada. You are just it's better than what you even have in Nigeria.
SPEAKER_02So if Sherry Ogi is not available to me.
SPEAKER_00So answer your question. So it's a long-time, lifetime product. Like I said, I get I involved my kids and I told them, if I get hold, will you still be able to? Should we are we selling this business? They said, no, we are not selling this business. We'll do the business, we'll continue to do the business, but in a different way. We'll bring automation, we bring uniqueness to it that will suit us with our own career, but we are not stopping this business. Even if I become prime minister tomorrow, cherry continues until we get that goal of becoming the known brand, brand that serves young baby, pregnant woman, lactating mother, visiting age parent, will continue to delight them.
SPEAKER_02Beautiful. Now to my next question, because my experience, I've I've had to con people have had to consult me with respect to scaling their business, seeking finance and things like that. If I had and recently we saw in the news that a woman raised seven million dollars because she built a robot that can braid hair?
SPEAKER_00I saw it on the right now.
SPEAKER_02If I had 10 million dollars and I come to you and I say, I have this to invest, will your business have the structure to because you know, scaling up and investing and all of that will ask you asking questions. Are you running this business in that way that in the future someone can come in and say, here's 10 million dollars for whatever 10%? Like you go on Shack Tank, and because our businesses as small as they are, we need to start structuring them in a way that in the future they can become the next Google, Apple, Facebook, and things like that. Is that something you're working towards?
SPEAKER_00Very good question. I used to tell people because um, as an entrepreneur, I like engaging, I like helping people to thrive as well. I've supported so many businesses, you them reaching out to me, I want to launch this, asking them the why, the solution you want to fix, the problem you want to fix, the sustainability plan. One of the things I tell people is that I I recently contested in a grand competition.
SPEAKER_02Right, right, right.
SPEAKER_00And before then, I did one in 2024. It was stage in US. I won. I had a for I came first, I won 5,000 USD. And one thing I've always told myself is that I want to get to a stage where I will go to the shank uh what you call tank. Yes, I want to be able to showcase that as small as Ogi can be, it can be a sustainable business. Now, to answer your question, if you want to grow, if you want to expand, if you want to actually build in the chariology of North America, we might not be able to do it even. We might be open to investment to be able to capture all the markets, opportunity we want to tap into. So it's initially I used to say no, but now if you want to grow and get to where you want to be, we might be open to that.
SPEAKER_02Okay, because when I talk to, I'm gonna do uh I I reached out to you first, but I want to do a series of all the sorry to men, all the female entrepreneurs in Canada. Sorry to all the others, Nigerian female entrepreneurs in Canada. There's a lot of them. I don't think they are getting the visibility that they have, and even if they are getting the visibility, I don't think anybody has sat you down to listen, have you tell this story because it's important, it's inspiring, it's it's critical to me that as black people we we we we we we stop engaging this victim mentality that is out there. I'm not saying it doesn't exist, I'm saying that we can thrive in spite of it, right? Because we are resilient, we're Nigerians. That Nigerian-ness has to shine. Doesn't matter how deep a hole we're in, that light of Nigeria in us, it has to shine. We have to find a way to make it shine. So, um, one last question is are there other Nigerian businesses? I know that you've mentioned the provinces that you uh operate in. Are there Nigerian businesses or businesses that you partner with in the course of running your your your trade?
SPEAKER_00Great question. In terms of partnership, is it like a like for instance, transporting?
SPEAKER_02I know there's this logic X. I don't I'm not I'm not I'm not I'm not sure I'm getting the name right. There's this guy who developed an app where you go in and you ask for a location and somebody takes it up and delivers. Is that are you doing any kinds of partnership with that? You don't have to, I'm just curious.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, yeah, very quick question. Uh, a few things. When I said um, okay, I forgot to mention that we are product is now at Caswa, Caswa product seven years to get into Caswa, and that is what I talk about resilience. I wasn't giving up until I was able to put my product in on their shelves. Now to partnership, we partner with vendors that sell our product and we also promote them, like a cross-promotion. But in terms of using other Nigerian services, uh, what I I've not used any logistics that is Nigerian, but what I've done is that um because of the peculiarity of our product, uh, the first risk I took was to send Sheryology out of Edmonton, not minding whether it was spoil on the because just so you understand why she said that the product is frozen. Frozen. Someone said, Can you send the I I can't even recall the force city I sent to. She said, Can you send me the product? I said, Let's use you as a dryer. And what I did is I got an insulated bag, I got ice pack, I put the product there, and behold, the product got there.
SPEAKER_02Because HelloFresh ships, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I was like, Oh, and that was the start. If I didn't take that leap, that's that effort, I would just admitting local business today. I ship conveniently to US. If I had ship a product to US to someone, it got there within 24 hours.
SPEAKER_02Nice.
SPEAKER_00So we are looking for whoever can give us a competitive price and can deliver on time. Okay, because the challenge we have is we want to make our product as easy, accessible, and as well as as reasonable in terms of pricing. I shop around before I sit with the company I use currently for my logistics, it's like a marketplace. You choose and pick whatever career you a career you want to use and deliver on time. So if we have a better pricing, why not? If not, and it can deliver and delight our customer because one thing I cannot compromise about is ensuring delighting them with the product and delighting them with uh services. I know so many people have told me, Oh, someone told me in my 16 years in Canada, I've never enjoyed this kind of service, and it's made my game. Wow, it's not about selling products, good, but at the same time, ensuring you're treating your client like a king that yeah.
SPEAKER_02Nice. Thank you very much. Wow, I wish we had more time, but we're gonna do this again. Um, this has been very, very insightful, and I am very, very happy that um like I can see I can see the passion, I can see the the the drive, I can see the joy that you have in delivering every pack of your product to represent everything that you carry. Thank you very much for all the work that you do. Thank you for promoting Nigeria, thank you for feeling the needs of people because this product, from what I've heard, is fantastic. It's something that everybody who has heard this should go and try. It is great, it's not just PAP, it's nutritive. In Nigeria, we take PAP for granted, everybody can make it, but here, when we're so busy and everybody is going out hustling, you don't have time to mash and sieve and do all those things that PAP requires. This is it. Sherio Logi is your plug. Sherio Logi is the PA queen or king, however you see it. But she is there, she's number one in North America, not in Edmonton, not in Alberta, not in Canada, in North America. That vision has to be there for it to be fulfilled. You have to think it first before you can achieve it. Thank you very much, and I wish you all the success. I wish you all the best, and thank you for having time to come speak with us on the Agege Bread Podcast. My name is Emeka, also known as Uncle Pizza. Till we do this the next time. Bye bye.
SPEAKER_00Thank you so much.
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