From a little beginning, 60-year-old Zainab Isah has established herself as a prominent food seller, specializing in traditional cuisine, masa. She is so successful that she now turns in tax in thousands of naira, to government.
Zainab Isah, a 60-year-old widow and mother of nine, started her rice cake business also known as masa or waina, a Northern Nigerian delicacy in a small corner along College Road in Unguwan Dosa, Kaduna North Local Government Area.
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Today, after putting over 15 years into the business, she has moved from the streets to renting about three shops located at an area popularly known as signboard in the same Kaduna North. She also has about 12 workers, some of them widows who have been with her for almost 10 years.
Our correspondent observed many buckets in her shop and when asked, she said about six of such buckets are fried on a daily basis totaling about 150 litres of rice cake dough.
Zainab, who recently received an award as one of the committed taxpayers in the state by the Kaduna State Internal Revenue Service (KADIRS), said she enjoys paying her taxes because of the many projects being executed by the state government.
In a chat with our correspondent at her shop, the jovial and focused widow said she has always engaged herself in one form of business or the other.
“I started this business about 15 years ago; I just estimated the years because since I got married and even before my husband passed away over 10 years ago, I was in the business and I thank Allah because I have passed through so many problems and challenges but I persevered and Allah in his mercy brought me to this level I am today.
“I thank Allah for giving me the wisdom of being a person who likes business because even before my husband died, I used to hawk ‘Kuka’ (an ingredient for Hausa local soup) and potash, later on after my husband’s demise, I thought of the business I could venture into and I began to scout around.
“I came in contact with a woman selling ‘waina’. I sought the woman’s advice on the business I should venture into so that I could provide food for my children. The woman told me to start making ‘waina’ but I told her I did not know how to do it, but she encouraged me to learn it and that was what I did that brought me up to this point I am today.”
She mentioned that though she has faced many challenges in the cause of doing the business, she is thankful to Allah that she was able to surmount the challenges and has survived thus far.
Going down memory lane, Zainab said, “I started the business myself in one corner where I used to sell it for N5 each and sometimes for N10 down there (she pointed at a location close to her present place), at that time, a man approached me, he is late now, and told me he was going to build a bank down there (she pointed at a Key Stone bank branch not far from her present location). He came to me and said, ‘Maman Aisha, you need to get a better place to continue your business because your waina is delicious. Anywhere you move to, customers will come and buy your waina.
“He told me he was afraid that when he finished building the bank, I might be displaced from the spot because he was giving out the bank for rent and he would not like that because I lived peacefully with the people.
“I laughed and told him I didn’t have the money to rent a place, but he told me he would open a restaurant for me and I rejected and told him I enjoy doing my business where the locals and poor people are.”
According to her, “This place I am presently was initially a refuse dump. I met one of my neighbours and told him I was evicted from my place of business and he took me to Jama’atu Nasirul Islam where I am currently, occupying three shops. One shop is for customers to seat and eat; we use one to pray and one to keep our equipment and items.
“Like I told you, at that time, this place was a refuse dump. JNI later built the shops, so I met with the security man here at Jama’atu and explained my predicament, then he allowed me to do my business at the spot which was by then wall and all I needed to do was to clean it up. After that, I went and told the man building the bank at my former place of business that I had got another place and he asked his workers to go and measure the place and erect a temporary shop for me.”
She said that she can now afford to rent three shops and employ people for the waina business which now sells for N50 each.
Commenting on her staff strength, she said, “I have four workers who fry the waina, four who serve and take the waina to customers, two who wash plates and two who put soup and meat on the waina.”
Asked how much raw waina is fried daily, she said, “We fry about six or seven paint buckets of raw waina everyday, but you know business is a secret; some days you earn so much while some days you earn little or even incur loss, whatever the case may be, I thank Allah.”
On the award she received, Zainab said, “I am happy with the honour (award) given to me, and I am urging my fellow business men and women to always comply with government directives by paying their taxes. I do not joke with payment of tax, whenever the bill is brought to my shop. I don’t hesitate to go and pay.”
On how often she pays tax, she said, “There is one they bring monthly and one yearly. I enjoy paying tax because I am happy with the roads and other projects being executed by the government and we can see construction everywhere. I never felt angry or thought that the money I pay as tax is useless because I take care of my needs with the business.”
She then called on women to try as little as they can to engage in businesses even at the comfort of their homes in order to assist their husbands and children on day-to-day activities of life, adding that, “Before I got to where I am today, I sold tiger nuts in front of our house for as meager as N5. Instead of waiting for your husbands to provide you with everything, sell something of even N20 each that the people around you need in order to generate income to buy at least bathing soap.”
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