Sifa Asani Gowon and Oluwatosin ‘Tosin’ Olaseinde of KoKo’s Kitchen are looking to raise $30,000 to kick-start their dry confectionery mix business and they have resorted to Indiegogo to help with this.
According to the team, they were inspired to start KoKo’s Kitchen because of “Sifa’s flair and passion for all things ‘baking’ and Tosin’s skill and love for financial analysis and business.” They saw an opportunity in the growing confectionery market and decided to take a leap and begin creating mixes to rival those of imported competitors.
When asked about the real story about KoKo’s Kitchen in a recent interview with “The Guardian”, Sifa said;
Earlier this year, in March, my beloved dad passed away quite unexpectedly. While my family and I were in mourning, Oluwatosin Tosina Olaseinde, who had been my sister’s flat mate back in their university days, came to Jos from Lagos to commiserate with us over one weekend. During that time, even as she caught up on old times with my sisters, I offered up some cake as a snack and she loved it. We got to talking about everything ranging from life to business and somehow the subject of cake mixes came up. I mentioned that I had tried making cake mixes before and she was all for the idea of starting it again, noting that it was a viable business idea.
We both decided to partner in registering our company, Tosif Foods ltd, with KoKo’s Kitchen as a trademark. The name KoKo was what my kids called my dad, which means Grandpa in Swahili. We wanted to honour his memory and Tosin was extremely supportive of that.
Koko’s Kitchen needs the sum of $30,000 for the following:
- Renting a proper facility (12 months) and redesigning it to suit government requirements for production- approx. $7000
- Government licences per product (we have 3)- $1200
- Machinery (mixer, auger filler, generator)- approx. $12000
- Employees- Salaries for 10 employees for 5 months- approx. $3000
- Marketing and Distribution:- Adverts, Firms, Distribution) for 6 months- $3000
- Inventory – (ingredients, factory items, miscellaneous)- approx. $4000
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE7vkbeig-Y
The production takes place in northern Nigeria, an area that has a large number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and camps. There is such a camp in Bauchi, where they hope to situate their factory. They plan on hiring such persons and equipping them with skills to work for them. They also source all our ingredients within Nigeria, thereby strengthening the economy by buying locally.
If you want to back this project, go to their page on Indiegogo and do so now.
