‘Women must make networking with like-minded people part of their growth strategy’ — Guardian Woman — The Guardian Nigeria News – Nigeria and World News

Amaka Emmanuel-Makata is an expert in circular business development and expansion, with an interest in sustainable consumption, production and nutrition. She founded Fresh County and is leading change in the agricultural sector to reduce food waste, curb food insecurity and increase the intake of nutritious food. In this interview, she speaks to IJEOMA THOMAS-ODIA.

You are a champion of agricultural technology, reducing food waste and a supporter of food safety. Tell us about this passion.
It all started when I noticed that farmers in the rural areas of our country are blessed with fresh produce but have minimal access to market, zero cold chain preservation and five percent fresh food processing solution, causing both food and wage losses. I saw this as a problem every time I traveled to a rural area and my hatred for waste drew me to come up with a solution. How can farmers in the rural areas have excess fresh produce, to the extent that it simply goes to waste and people in the urban areas turn to processed and canned foods with less nutritional value? I didn’t like this, so I created a path to bring freshness to the table. My passion is to bring longevity back to humanity by creating income for small-scale farmers and helping health-conscious individuals and those battling lifestyle diseases to enjoy nutrient-dense meals.

Technology is at the forefront of our business to improve yield, efficiency, profitability and overall sustainability. We use various world-class machines to preserve and process fresh agricultural produce and achieve value addition. It is a technology that enables us to extract milk from plants and also helps us to reuse its waste to produce other nutritious and value-added products. We are an agri-tech company that operates from farm to table and back to farm. Some of our waste products are reused as compost for agriculture and as feed for livestock. In short, technology helps us reduce waste, enables us to achieve circularity and ensures nutritious, healthy and sustainable food for all.

How easy was it for you as an entrepreneur with more than ten years of experience to change course and take this path?
When I was 11 years old, my family traveled from the big city where we lived to my village for Christmas. In my village, you have to walk 2.5km to go grocery shopping to our only market called Eke which happens to trade once every four days. I saw that as an opportunity to make groceries available and make money. With the permission of my parents and the support of other children, I built a small bamboo shop in front of our house, broke my piggy bank and started doing groceries on a table shop with my savings of four hundred naira. I registered my first business during my NYSC year in 2004 but I was not confident that I had enough experience to grow the business so it was small scale and in the second year I took a paid job. But while I was working, I continued to do small trading activities from time to time.

Entrepreneurship seems like a path that I find interesting. My mother followed this path. She was a manager at K. Chellarams in Kano State and had a retail business where I had summer jobs and apprenticeships during my secondary school years. My father worked for the Ministry of Education and was also involved in the transport sector. My childhood was surrounded by entrepreneurship. When I was employed, I would not just do the tasks that were assigned to me but would volunteer to take on more tasks and work as if it were my own business. This helped me learn more and gave me some good knowledge in people and enterprise management. When I left my paid job, I was already preparing myself for entrepreneurship. So I did a formal training in entrepreneurship at the Enterprise Development Centre of Pan Atlantic University and was sponsored by Goldman Sachs to learn entrepreneurship management in 2012. During this training, I realised that I was in a business that I could not scale easily, so I changed industries by focusing on something I had developed a passion for. That is how Fresh County was born. In setting this course, my family background helped me, my work ethic while employed helped me, and the formal business education all contributed to making the journey possible for me by giving me knowledge of the platform to walk on.

Nutrition and wellness are the key to a healthy society. How can Nigerians stay healthy on a budget at this point in the economy?
This is the problem that Fresh County Wellness Foundation is designed to address by educating and empowering people especially in urban areas to eliminate food waste and use agriculture to take charge of their nutrition and wellness experience. Urban gardening will help us grow fresh produce that is packed with vitamins and micronutrients in our environment. Every Nigerian can use the free land space in their environment to develop a garden. This will help reduce the food we have to buy, also provide the nutrients needed for our well-being and reduce the carbon footprint of transportation.

What challenges do you face as an entrepreneur and how do you stay afloat?
There was very limited money in the start-up phase, I had to bootstrap and take a loan from friends and family. As we progressed, most of our money was pumped back into the business to enable us to grow. Managing perishable agricultural produce was also a challenge for us, we had introduced technology and started developing cold chain transportation and storage solutions to mitigate this. Another major challenge we face is energy management, to mitigate this, 47 percent of our energy requirement is now sourced from renewable solar energy to reduce our carbon footprint in the environment and also to help in the effective preservation of fresh agricultural produce.

You also run a foundation that focuses on a healthy lifestyle. Tell us something about it.
Fresh County Wellness Foundation was established to promote wellness through nutrition and wealth creation. We empower women and youth in wealth creation and urban agriculture to address malnutrition and food insecurity. Growing and eating your food helps reduce food waste and the carbon footprint of food transportation. We will start with capacity building sessions on urban agriculture in September, where women and youth will be empowered on different types of gardening and how to use municipal waste for composting.

As a businesswoman, what is your advice to other women who are active in this field and are trying to give meaning to their business?
Seek education and mentorship in areas where you lack knowledge. Make networking with like-minded people part of your growth strategy. Learn to study the finances of companies. Don’t skimp on salaries, hire good hands, and build a structure that will allow your business to thrive. Finally, as a leader, you need to develop good leadership skills for yourself and your team members.

What important lessons have you learned over the years?
Hard work is essential to progress in business. Integrity and good people management skills will earn you favor on a platter of gold. Building your leadership skills is very essential to grow a business so that people can follow your lead willingly and proudly.

How do you effectively combine your many sides?
My business grew organically, so in the beginning, work-life balance was hardly an option. I had to wear multiple hats to keep the business growing, it was like a war zone with no option to fail. It was so intense that without the reminders on my phone, I could easily miss family events. However, after a few years, I started hiring staff to take charge of different areas of the business so that I could have a good work-life balance. I currently follow a calendar plan where I still work intensively in the business, but for a designated time, so that I can also take some time for myself, my family, and my community.

What motivates you to be successful?
Man is the most intelligent being on earth and I believe we are born to conquer, so failure is not something to choose. You can fail at one thing and succeed at another, or you can fail at one endeavor at one point and still succeed at that same endeavor at another point. What matters is that success is achieved in one’s life in general. Success for me is necessary in multiple aspects of my life such as spirituality, health, family, relationships with people and finances. Success is having a positive impact on society, wealth without impact is failure in my eyes. My goal is to build an impactful system that leaves a contagious story that my generation will be proud of. I want to create courageous footprints that show the younger generations that with consistency, integrity, work and prayers it is possible to be successful in life.

What is your life mantra?
We are already here; this is life, so live it with others in mind and make it count. Find your purpose and make it the most important thing on your to-achieve list. Don’t hold grudges, treat everything as temporary, because no one lives here forever. Life is beautiful.