By Josfyn Uba
She belongs to Nigeria’s modern bred of change makers. Their belief lies in challenging the norms towards realizing hidden potentials of an individual for economic empowerment.
And so for Chizoma Chukwueke, the brain behind Firewood Rice Nigeria, when she identified a generational gap in the Nigerian culinary space, she charged her antenna to bridge it quickly and made the best business idea out of it. Since then, Chizoma has not looked back.
Chizoma Chukwueke’s love for Nigeria’s traditional way of cooking jollof rice brought her full circle on brand positioning of her outfit, Firewood Rice Nigeria brand.
In this interview, she tells Daily Sun that apart from creating a brand from a taste many Nigerians may have forgotten, she is intentional about her entrepreneurial strategies to further preserve Nigeria’s cultural heritage. Hence, she is currently cooking up a business idea called JOLLOF FESTIVAL
Can you recall where you got the inspiration to start Firewood Rice Nigeria?
I was in a paid employment job at the time when I conceived the idea to open a business called Firewood Jollof. We were in our office meeting and one of our colleagues was celebrating her birthday. She told us she brought jollof rice and we were excited to eat the food. We also had expectations of how the jollof rice would taste. We wanted it to taste like that jollof rice we were used to eating when we were children that come with that great taste of our heritage and traditional way of cooking jollof rice, but upon tasting it, we were disappointed. It tasted like the regular jollof rice. We said to ourselves that we are beginning to lose our heritage. Jollof rice used to be cooked on firewood. It used to be cooked in a traditional way that gives it a certain taste that cannot be rivaled.
In that room, someone said, if someone opens a business and calls it ‘Firewood jollof’, the person will make a lot of money. I put that name down in my jotter. I didn’t know what I would do with the name at that time but I knew I was not going to let that catchy name go. I did a little bit of research and found out that there is demand for firewood jollof out there. I called my mother and told her and she gave me her nod. That was how my mother, my sister and I started Firewood Jollof on May, 3rd, 2016. Eight years down the line, the business which started with just three people has grown to a staff strength of over 120. Now, we will be hosting our first ever Firewood jollof Festival.
What is the main reason of hosting the Firewood jollof festival?
The festival is a way of preserving our cultural heritage in the traditional way of cooking our jollof rice. We want to preserve this culture so that the next generation coming will know that there is a traditional way we cook jollof rice. We are gradually losing our way of cooking to globalisation. Not just in cooking this meal our culture generally is being eroded. We also want to have a flagship food festival event in Nigeria where people look forward to visiting from both home and abroad.
We are witnessing some major health challenges due to climate change, , burning use of fossil fuels and charcoal and the intense advocacy going on against all of these. Can you give us a sense of the choices you are making in pushing your business project vis-a vis people’s health and the environment?
We have suppliers for our firewood. For the health part, we cook in a controlled environment. We also run tests for our staff regularly. We make sure they are healthy. In our company, we place premium on the welfare of our staff and our customers. We treat them with a lot of care and we have adequate HMO for our staff.
If someone asks you what difference does firewood make in the taste of this particular jollof rice, what would you say?
There is something natural about cooking with firewood that makes it different. Try cooking with gas and cook same with firewood and you would certainly see the difference. Though, we have our peculiar recipes which I can’t share.
Before you became an entrepreneur and started Firewood Rice Nigeria, you mentioned that you were working in a paid job at the time. Where were you working?
I was working with Etisalat Telecommunications, the one that left Nigeria.
I was in a department called Brands and communications. I think that was why when I started my business, it was so easy to transition and position the brand.
Did you leave the 9 to 5 job immediately to start the Firewood Rice business?
I didn’t leave my salary job immediately. I left two years after Firewood Rice Nigeria was launched. I noticed that the brand was growing faster than I imagined and it needed my presence. So I had to leave the employment to focus on it fully.
Since you left your job for the business full time, have you had any regrets at all?
Not even one regret. It is the best decision I have ever made.
As the brand lead, do you still tie up your hair and join the cooking or that is no longer part of your job?
Of course, yes. I still join in the cooking process. We have to do refresher courses every time so that we don’t lose the recipe and the taste that people know us for. Sometimes I take off the suits and I take the position of the head chef. I do that as often as every two months.
Would you say this multi-million naira business started out of your passion for cooking?
Funny enough, I am not that passionate about cooking but God blessed me with mixing recipes. When I started Firewood Jollof Rice, I knew I had to be in the kitchen, so I love it now. I will say that I am a recipe specialist. I can combine recipes to give you the best flavours you can ever get. I don’t like to cook but I mix recipes. I write down my recipes and give to the kitchen personnel. They work through that recipe to create the mouth-watering dishes we have.
Have you had any kind of professional training as a chef?
I have no training. It has all been just passion and skill.
I am gifted with combining recipes. What I intend to do is teach people how to combine recipes.
Other countries like Ghana have continued to create jollof rice war with Nigeria. What do you make of that?
We are open to any brand that would love us to have a competition to prove the winner. Like I have said before, the response to the jollof rice wars is the Firewood jollof. I strongly believe that if they taste it, they will end all the wars.
You said earlier that your mother played a big role in starting the business. What role did she play?
The idea for Firewood Rice was mine but I gave it to my mother because she has a fantastic way of cooking jollof rice. When I told her about it and we had our first order, I had to go to work. She was the one that built the first recipe. Firewood Jollof rice recipe is my mother’s recipe. The other recipes are mine. I will be doing my mother, Mrs Bennett Ernest Chukwueke a disservice if I do not mention her name.
What did you study in school?
I read Geography and regional planning at the University of Lagos.
Is there any other passion you have aside the business?
I used to sing, but Firewood Jollof has taken my voice. I can’t sing anymore. I also like travelling.
Where do you foresee this brand in the next three to five years?
I’d like it to see it become an internationally recognized brand.
Also in consideration of the issues in climate change, using firewood entails constantly felling the trees. Do you have any plan to clean your carbon footprints by planting more trees or replant as you engage in the use of firewood?
We have that in our books. We have sat down as a team that loves to help the environment to map out plans on how to acquire large expanse of land where we can plant trees.