It was a chance encounter, but last week, Saturday Tribune’s KATE ANI discovered on a street around the Fodacis area, along Adeoyo Road in Ibadan, a young man of about 27 years cooking moin moin (a local delicacy made from beans) beside the road, wearing a green chef attire, sweating while moulding the moin moin into leaves and arranging the wraps in a huge pot balanced on a tripod, preparatory to cooking.

Apart from seeing a vibrant young man enthusiastically doing a ‘woman’s job’ – and that beside the road , it was even more interesting that his customers, many of them ladies and some of them with fancy cars, were ready to wait for the moin moin to be ready.

She stepped aside for a closer look and, as it turned out, a chat with this handsome young man, who constantly dished out jokes to his customers while they waited.

Reporter: Mo fe’ra moin moin (I want to buy moin moin).

He looked up, smiled, displaying a white set of teeth, and replied in impeccable English).

Moi moi seller: Good morning ma’am, moin moin is not yet ready. If you can please come back in the next 15 minutes, you will surely get your money’s worth,” he replied as he peeled off some egg shells.

Reporter: No problem, I’ll wait.

He caught the reporter staring at him, in amazement).

Moin moin seller: It’s like you want to laugh? It’s okay for you to laugh; people always give me that kind of attitude, looking at my moin moin chef uniform and the strangeness of a man selling moin moin, a woman’s job.

Reporter: Well, I’m sorry; I couldn’t help it (laughing heartily). But what led you to this?

Of course, he could not immediately tell his story, having to attend to his customers; but he did give an appointment for another day.

“It’s a long story,” he said when Saturday Tribune eventually met him.

“I was three years old when my father abandoned me, my mother and younger sister and travelled to the United Kingdom in search of greener pastures. Ever since then till today, we have not heard from him.”

Olanrewaju Adeyemi, an Oyo State indigene and an Ordinary National Diploma (OND) graduate of Computer Science, The Polytechnic, Ibadan, said he he had to jettison his plan to acquire a Higher National Diploma (HND) due to lack of funds. He said he was frustrated because he could not get a good job to take care of his mother, a petty trader, and little sister, a student of the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye.

“I worked with so many organisations but they owed me. I have also done some menial jobs like bricklaying. One day, in frustration, I locked myself up in my room and prayed to God for a revelation. To my astonishment, I kept hearing moin moin. I went to my pastor, and he encouraged me to continue praying, as he was equally surprised.

“I went back and prayed again and heard the same words: moin moin. When I told my pastor again, he dipped his hands into his pocket and gave me N5000. I started this business January last year, during the fuel price hike crisis.

“The reason I have not been able to achieve much in this business is because I also support my mum with her petty trading business from the little profit I make, because she later remarried but life hasn’t been fair to her. I also save up for my little sister’s university education.

“Although I have extended families that are financially okay, for reasons known to them, they have refused to help.”

Olanrewaju told Saturday Tribune that his friends were initially ashamed to associate with him due to what he does for a living. He said it was not easy for him as well to get used to it, but he persisted.

“When I first started, I was so conscious of my environment because of the kind of friends I kept – they happen to be kind of ‘exposed’; and the first day they saw me doing this, they exclaimed and asked if I was out of my mind. For the first two weeks of starting, I felt ashamed of myself and the business. There were lots of discouragement but I took it as a job,” he said.



Speaking about the challenges he faces, Olanrewaju said he constantly takes ill because of the pressure of the job.

“Every day I must wake by 5am, prepare the wood, and cook the moin moin. It has not been easy. There was a time I employed a helper but she left due to the stress of the work and couldn’t cope with it.


Asked how much he makes daily, he said, “It varies. Sometimes I make N5000, and sometimes it could be N4000. Sometimes I gain up to N30,000 as profit in a month.

“I intend to still go back to school soon. It pains me a lot when I look at my purse and the money I have is not enough to finance it. I don’t want to go back to school and still drop out again.”

But how does he manage to attract so many customers who are prepared to wait for his moin moin to be ready?

He said, “Actually, it’s my personality that attracts them. Being a man and doing this kind of business intrigues them. Also, my chef attire attracts them the more. In fact, a customer once came in his Jeep and gave me N2000 because of my chef attire and how neat and coordinated I was. The spot I was using at Challenge (area) before relocating here, some of my customers over there still come down here to patronise me, not minding the distance.

“Each time I go out to hawk moin moin at Aleshinloye market (because as soon as it is 11am, I hawk the remaining one at the market), I always put on suit and tie. I have a slogan too; I would say E fi ole tu eko wo (meaning, in Yoruba ‘taste the sweetness of my moin moin with eko (a Yoruba meal made from corn). People stare at me; they find it strange to see someone dressed in suit hawking moin moin. That draws customers to me.

“A guy actually walked up to me one day and said ‘Are you serious? See the way you are dressed and you are hawking moin moin’. Sometimes they don’t even believe until I open the cooler of moin moin to show them. Some hesitate to buy it because they think it might be expensive, but they will eventually find out how cheap it is when I tell them it is between N30 and N50. In surprise, some end up asking me why I am doing the business. That is what I face almost every day, but they buy it.

“I have been able to build my customer base in Aleshinloye. Everybody knows me at that market: from the beginning to the end of the market. Anytime I go late, they would call my mobile phone asking me not to kill them with hunger (laughs). And it might surprise you that there are other six women in that market also selling moin moin.

“I enjoy what I do, and even if my luck should shine tomorrow and I get another job offer, I will still be doing this moin moin business, but of course, in a more ‘corporate’ way.”

Olanrewaju also sent out words of encouragement to those who are still searching for white collar jobs to discover what they like doing and put all they have into it.

“Personally, I need a job too, but I think we should also come up with some sort of ideas. I have discovered that many of our youths feel they can’t do a particular job probably because of how dirty it is. Some have the mentality of ‘what will my girlfriend say? What will my friends say? They end up getting themselves involved into dangerous vices to make quick money. But I actually know a lady who makes beads and she uses it to sponsor her education at the University of Ibadan.

He told Saturday Tribune that he was once tempted too to join bad gangs and go into Internet fraud when the jobs were not forthcoming “but I was able to convince myself that it was not the best solution.”

“When my customers make fun of me by saying ‘look at this handsome guy selling moin moin’, I answer them whether they see me carrying a gun and robbing people.”

Olanrewaju’s customers alerted him and he quickly went back to work to check if the moin moin was ready, while apologising to them in a courteous manner.

. . .it was even more interesting that his customers, many of them ladies and some of them with fancy cars, were ready to wait for the moin moin to be ready.

Although I have extended families that are financially okay, for reasons known to them, they have refused to help.

nitrogen:
Lastly, can a degree holder do this #just a question#

Mustay:

Why not, if not

This man needs venture capitalists which I'm not to re-engineer his business processes.

1. People in the 'upper-class' like neatness; most of his patronizers are women; they (and every other prson who cares about his/her hygiene) are usually concerned if the guy uses clean water, washes the beans well, where he grinds the beans, cooking utensils etc - once the production process is safe, there's more or less like a 'quality assurance' certification on his product. His business can go very bad once food poisoning occurs.

2. He can always deliver the moin-moin to the addresses of his corporate clients. Sometimes, they'd prefer someone just brings it to their houses or offices. Additionally, if they need to entertain impromptu guests or host parties, he can mass produce.

3. Moin-moin isn't so elastic; he has already observed this. He hawks the remaining at his base at Aleshinloye. That market serves as his niche, come rain or sunshine, they'll always buy.

4. He needs money for branding; he can snap himself in the chef outfit and package his goods. He needs some staff and has to cook varieties (which is the spice of life) - some like eggs in their moin-moin, snails etc

5. With a gas cooker, he can cook faster under more hygienic conditions. If the Ministry of Environment comes to seal this place, they'll site environmental hazards bla bla bla - that's a threat to his business (L in your PESTEL analysis).

6. His income is being 'chopped' by his family - one thing that kills entrepreneurs is 'eating profits'. His case is understandable because 'man must survive' but if he intends to do this in the long-run, it'll die. he also stated he wants to go to school - since he stated HND, he'll come across the practicality I hope.

7. Lastly, as a graduate, he may no longer be involved in the daily activities, he'd be more interested in administration of his outfit. There are examples of people who studied economics and running automobile workshops - all they need is the knowledge and they become the entrepreneur that gathers people to 'run the dream'. Business Administration looks more like a course relevant to him. Or maybe Marketing.