PHOTO CAPTION : Rhodwell Ikekwame, CEO of Ogabole Food, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria.
By Lucky Okoedion
I have been privileged to observe the entrepreneurship evolution of my friend and brother, Rhodwell Ikekwame, the CEO of the famous Ogabole plantain and grilled fish/chicken in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria. As a very curious person with an analytical mind, I have the natural tendency to x-ray everything I observe to see how the pieces fit together. Why things fail when they fail and why they succeed when they succeed. So, while others may look at a tall building and see just the tall building, I am also interested in the details that make it possible for the building to stand so tall. Most times in Africa, when things fail, it is attributed to “the work of the devil”, and when it succeeds it is called “good luck” or “hard work”. But we all know that not all hard work pays. And not all success are a product of luck alone. Such is the case of the Ogabole brand in Benin City.
It seems on surface value that a guy who was more or less broke few months ago, started a business and in few months “got super lucky”, he bought a car, got so many customers and became a form of sudden business superstar in town. But it is not so. That business was simply plugged into a rich network that the CEO has already quietly built for almost a decade in Benin City. He didn’t make much money from that network with his previous business as he does now with food because the product he had to offer then did not rank high enough (or low in the pyramid) in the Maslow Hierarchy of needs. More on this later. First let’s understand the CEO’s background.
Rhodwel is a graduate of the prestigious Benson Idahosa University. A private university in Benin City. Of which most people believe that only wealthy parents send their kids to private universities in Nigeria. Although that is not always the case as the founder’s Church – Church of God Mission has scholarship schemes for church members and other forms of support, yet one of the advantage of attending a private university in Nigeria is that you get to have as course mates and friends at least, a lot of fellow students who are not in the poverty bracket in Nigeria. That becomes a powerful network for you if you are smart. At the early phase of the Ogabole brand, Rhodwell got patronage from early customers who he knew during his time as student in the University and some staff members. Note that people in the poverty bracket cannot regularly afford the packaged food that Rhodwell sells. They can only buy once in a while – not enough for a business to thrive. For good turnover you need people who can afford to eat in a fastfood everyday in a month if they so wish.
Again, food is something all human beings spend money on everyday, whether they cook themselves or eat out. You must eat. That is why your good network of friends may not be able to frequently patronize your shoe selling business but when you start selling well packaged food which they need everyday, then you see how powerful a network is for a business.
But it is not all tall, dark and handsome graduates of a private university like Rhodwell that will have the humility to stoop low to start selling Bole instead of looking for a white collar job. That is the answer in case you are wondering how come we don’t hear of such success stories often. When we build our networks to levels where it has the potential to start paying us, many of us usually make ourselves too big to provide the goods and services that our network would buy. Our ego stands in the way of our opportunity.
I remember when he newly started selling packaged plantain and grilled fish, I was having a discussion with a guy during which I mentioned his name as one of those who we once worked together on a particular project in the past, this guy interrupted me and asked in a very derogatory manner, “Do you mean that Bole Guy?” Then he followed it with a long and hard laugh. He practically made mockery of Rhodwell my friend simply because he was usually seen going into the market, sweating, buying plantain, grilling, packaging and distributing. He didn’t know at the time that Rhodwell was already averaging his monthly salary in a week of sales. But I knew.
Soon, Rhodwell planned and organized ‘Bole Festival’, the first of its kind in Benin City. The plan was grand. As his friend, at first I was scared for him whether it will be a success, but I never voiced it. I was only praying, “God please, let it work. I beg God !”. At the same time, I was inspired.
A huge setback came, there was an impromptu nation-wide protest for that same date. He asked me in the night before whether I was aware whether the protest would hold in Benin City. I told him I wasn’t sure. But on the day of the event, there was so much uncertainty. Yet, his network showed up for him. Almost every main player in show business in Benin City was there. They were not his family members or church members. They are people he had rendered social media marketing services for in the past through his previous business which did not succeed as much as his current Bole business. He offered free services to some of them in the past. Many of whom were upcoming comedians who needed someone with social media following to help promote their skits or events. He was a part of their growth. They did not pay him much then. He knew he had to do something else to make money. But little did he know that his labor was not in vein.
Those small brands he helped promote on social media would later grow and become big names that would keep ordering for his packaged plantain and grilled fish, introduce their friends to it, and also show up in his event. That is how the Ogabole brand is succeeding today. It was not luck, even if the CEO himself tells you that he “stumbled” into the success. But it is a simple principle; when a product that is in high demand is well packaged and there is a potential and ready customer network, a business must thrive. The only problem is that when our network grows to the point where we can begin to reap from it, our ego usually causes us to start seeing ourselves as being too big to render those services or produce those goods that our network needs.
The difference between Ogabole and any other person who may want to “steal” his idea or copy it is that the new guys will need to spend alot on marketing. And in addition to that, they will have an endless marketing battle with most of the big names who are in show business in Benin City who all love Ogabole and its CEO who was a part of their own success when they were also just coming up.
I remember when months ago I saw a flier of a copycat Bole business that was about to open. I drew Rhodwel’s attention to it. They were going to open the spot with the presence of a big name like Cynthia Morgan ( an internationally recognized music artist). All I advised my friend to do is make sure his customers are happy. I knew that with his customers happy, there is no way someone can use the image of a music star to beat a CEO who is the star of his own brand. Rhodwel who gets people to buy his product because of him will always excel in a competition above another person who uses a third party’s image to sell his/her product. So, everyone should better leave the plantain and grilled fish/chicken business alone for Ogabole in Benin City. They better come up with another idea.
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