Road side vendor now owns big restaurant in Enugu
From PETRUS OBI, Enugu

Wednesday, December 30, 2009
When Mrs Emily Oguadinma started food vending in 1985, she used to carry her wares in a wheel barrow, going about the Enugu new market area to feed hungry stomachs. Then, she never imagined that her business would one day grow to the level of becoming a household name in the state.


[img]http://odili.net/news/source/2009/dec/30/sun/restaurant[1].gif[/img]
The Restaurant





When the government of the day decided to build a motor park at the market, Mrs. Oguadinma was among the food vendors and petty traders that were chased out for their inability to pay for shops in the park; yet she was not deterred in her bid to display her special cooking gift from God.

Today, different people of different classes, especially those at the top echelon of the society are queuing up in her restaurant’s headquarters, a one-storey edifice, to be served a meal that you may never believe that this was the same woman who was selling ‘mama put’ few years back at the New Market, Enugu.

Mrs Oguadinma who is the director of the popular Emily Restaurant in Enugu said that at the most difficult of times, “I believed in my business and I always put in my best hoping that one day things would be better; even when I was sacked from new market I was not deterred and, of course, I had to feed my family.”

She said she did not go for any special training on how to cook, saying that “what I know was that whenever I cooked people always appreciated my food; I learnt cooking the ordinary way every other person would learn from his or her parents, but the difference here was that people so much appreciated my food and would always bring their friends around to share the experience. My cooking is a gift from God.

“It is even now that I am thinking of going to catering school to learn more about foreign foods because everything that is local food in Igbo land I learnt it even in my mothers’ womb, but for the foreign dishes I will want to learn more about them.”

I was once a house maid

Emily who is from Obodoukwu in Ideato North Local Government Area of Imo State said she grew up in the village in Urualla, also in Ideato North Local Government Area.

“My father was a wine tapper and my mother a petty trader and they managed to train us to the best of their ability.

“When they couldn’t continue I went to serve as a house maid from there I got married, had children and became Emily.”

I‘ve cooked for 24 years

I started in 1985 as a ‘mama put’ carrying about food in a wheel barrow at the Enugu New Market. I started real small then; I remember vividly how sometimes I used to carry the food on my head to new market. I carried on until at a point when they wanted to build a park at the market; they requested that we pay for shops, but I didn’t have the money and could not pay and was thus forced out of new market. I came into the town and continued until I got little money with which I paid for a shop and then settled at No. 21 Obioma Street Achara Layout Enugu.

I acquired the shop at Obioma Street in 1989; and there I started at a very small scale, but before long the business continued to grow and it kept improving until I got another good site which God Himself provided and which is even better than Obioma.

That was how we expanded to 28 Moore House which was opened on the 13th of November 2008 and which today has become the biggest restaurant in the Enugu town and which has continued to record patronage from Enugu residents.

Looking back over the years ‘Akaraka’ as she is fondly called noted that God does not forsake anyone who works had.

She said there may be hard times and bad times in a business, but with perseverance God will surely see one through.

“Yes, I may have suffered and passed through hell in the past, but today God has remembered me and that is how He will remember every hard working person.

She urged the youths to take her story as an encouragement and not to be so much in a hurry as God will surely bless their endeavours.

He urged them to put God first, do their best and surely their blessings will follow.

Challenges

I want to thank the government of the state led by Barr. Sullivan Chime, he is an example. Since I came to Enugu, the government has not disappointed me, but the problem is that those working with the government sometimes use their positions and impose so many levies on the people.

She lamented the unending levies which she said sometimes tend to claim all the profit accruing to the business and urged the governor to look into the excesses of revenue collectors which is threatening the growth of business in the Coal City.

However, my happiness is that Enugu is not as it was when I first came here; very soon, it would be competing with London.

Christmas

Emily said she was preparing a special Christmas package for her customers, “if not for every other thing at least for the love the people of Enugu State have for me. I also pray that God should grant all my customers long life and prosperity.

http://odili.net/news/source/2009/dec/30/502.html

interesting story of a successful business woman, a "truly from rags to riches" story

@OP, what's the purpose of inserting the word "Almajiri" into the title of this thread? What advised your calling Mrs Emily Oguadinma, Almajiri?

Aloy how is she an almajiri

Aloy - change the title you betta pass dis nah.

Pardon my ignorance fellas. . .

Who or what is an Almajiri??

I genuinely have no clue. Please school me.

This title is very demonic.

AloyEmeka's bitter-sweat thang with Igbo plays out again.

Mekusxyz:

AloyEmeka's bitter-sweat thang with Igbo plays out again.

You metamorphosed into XYZ again?

OMO IBO:

Pardon my ignorance fellas. . .

Who or what is an Almajiri??

I genuinely have no clue. Please school me.

A beggar or street vendor and this woman was vending God knows what before she hit it big. Was she not an almajiri?

Resturant looks nice

Street vendor nah work. Work is honourable, to disparage her efforts in the manner that you have, is simply misguided.

The woman has been selling food for how many years not begging. Change your ways.

I stand corrected. I thought street vending is part and parcel of almajirism.

Aloy~Emeka:

I stand corrected. I thought street vending is part and parcel of almajirism.

Are trying to be funny?

Aloy~Emeka:

I stand corrected. I thought street vending is part and parcel of almajirism.

No na, almajiri's have a very bad name, for begging, stealing and killing.

Aloy~Emeka:

You metamorphosed into XYZ again?

Wanna have multi IDs like you.

Beaf:

No na, almajiri's have a very bad name, for begging, stealing and killing.

sounds like MEND

Beaf:

No na, almajiri's have a very bad name, for begging, stealing and killing.

Almajiris neither steal nor do they kill. They are harmless urchins in the society. Get your facts right.

Aloy~Emeka:

Almajiris neither steal nor do they kill. They are harmless urchins in the society. Get your facts right.

So this woman is an urchin in her society?

Mekusxyz:

Wanna have multi IDs like you.

After XYZ, what next?.

^^^^^^
Resolve the following issues first, then we can talk about what is next for me:

1. Your multiple ID
2. Your being seen here as Funmi
3. Your claim and denial (covertly) of being Igbo

Mekusxyz:

^^^^^^
Resolve the following issues first, then we can talk about what is next for me:

1. Your multiple ID
2. Your being seen here as Funmi
3. Your claim and denial (covertly) of being Igbo

asha 80:

[/b]

Are trying to be funny?

Nope

Mekusxyz:

So this woman is an urchin in her society?

When she was a peddler.