‘To venture into bakery, you need substantial cash’

Farida Abubakar Halilu Jikamshi is the CEO of 99J Bakery in Abuja. She tells us how she has been able to take the family business through its teething period to the stage it is today, supplying bread across Abuja.

What inspired you to go into bread baking business?

It is a family business. I and my siblings came up with the idea of the bakery. Bakery is a capital intensive business. The oven alone costs almost N2 million. So, to venture into bakery business, you need a lot of cash.

I had to take classes in bread making before we started. The business is almost two years old now.

How is patronage for bread generally?

The patronage is good but we are scouting for more customers because there is huge competition in the business. Many people are going into the bread making business. So, if you are not patient, you will give up abandoning the business.

We distribute our bread across Abuja. We have our main clients in Life Camp, Wuse 2 , Area II, Utako among others.

Mostly, we market the business through word-of-mouth. The best way your business can be popular is through word-of-mouth, because one person will eat and tell the other. I also market through the social media, like Facebook, Instagram and others.

How do you cope with competition in the business?

Ours is unique. We use the best products. So when preparing our bread, we carefully select our ingredients. We use margarine, eggs, milk, and more which other bakers don’t use. This gives our bread the freshness/softness people enjoy.

We have maintained our recipes since the onset of the business and have not changed the quality.

 Have you had a ‘bad day’ in the business?

So many ‘bad days’. When we started, sometimes, we mix the bread and electricity will go off. Then, we preserve the bread in the freezer for four to five hours, but then if the light is not restored, we have to throw the dough away. Sometimes, we threw away dough worth two bags of flour. This forced us to acquire our own generator. So when AEDC takes light, we switch on our generator. But sometimes, there is no light and the generator, too is faulty. In those cases, we have to go and plead with AEDC officials to restore our light.

How long does it take to bake bread?

We mix ingredients for 35 minutes and then for between 25 and 30 minutes, the bread is baked in the oven.

The good thing about buying good products is that, if there is power blackout when the dough is in the oven, the oven still bakes it into bread.

What challenges do you face in the business?

Mainly, it is poor electricity supply. As early as 6am, they will take the light. We use generator mainly. In a day, we spend N8,000-N10,000 on diesel for our production. How much is our profit?

Also, we face the challenge of multiple taxation. There was a time we put up our signboard in front of the shopping mall. FIRS, AMAC, FCT internal revenue and Abuja Environmental Protection Board all came at different times to collect revenue so we had to remove it.

Again, we passed through a lot of hurdles before our business was certified and registered with NAFDAC. There are so many challenges faced by small scale entrepreneurs in Nigeria.

 How many people have you employed?

We started with two, then three but now we have seven staff. Six are permanent staff.

 What key things have you learnt doing this business?

To be patient; the moment you get into business, even if you don’t make so much profit, you have to be patient. So, you can carve a niche for yourself.

To break even in the bread baking business, you have to bake up to five to 10 bags of flour every day. But we are doing about four bags each day and we sell everything.  99J Bread is growing.

 How has technology helped you in the business?

Formally in bakery, people used hand to mix ingredients and then sweat can get into the dough. But now, it is machine that does everything. You mix your ingredients, the machine will mix it and mill it. All you do, is clean your pans and put it inside. But the machines need monitoring. There must be someone watching it.

Where do you see the business in the next five years?

I will like to see, 99J Bread in every house.  We supply super markets, the small shops, Mai shayi, kiosks and we do home delivery as well.

How do you want government to assist small business owners?

The Federal Government has come up with different funds to assist entrepreneurs, but the banks are not willing to give out the loans. Even when you meet the requirement, they are reluctant to give SMEs loans. Again, even where they give the loans, the interest rate is high. So, government should relate with us entrepreneurs directly. We have a lot of women going into business but they don’t know how to access funds.

For electricity, government should increase the capacity it is distributing to help SMEs. And also, explore the use of solar energy. We have enough sunlight in Nigeria.

What is your educational qualification?

I attended LEA Jabi, then went to GSS Bakori. I obtained a diploma from the University of Abuja, then got married. Now, I am a 300  level student  of Business Management and Entrepreneurship at the National Open University, Abuja.