You studied Computer Science, how did you end up becoming a caterer and event manager?
I have always had passion for cooking and organising things. Even when I had not started cooking, I was always with my mum in the kitchen. I really loved trying to help. Growing up, I was always in the kitchen with mother.
Much later when I told my dad that I wanted to go into catering full time, he said no, but when I got married, I got all the support I needed from my husband. That was not too difficult anyway. But he insisted I had to get further training in that regard. So, I got further education in catering and event management in the United Kingdom.
I later got to know that the business was not so much in vogue as I thought at that time. When you introduced yourself as a caterer they could engage for their parties, you got discouraging answers such as ‘my sister could handle the cooking,’ etc. But I got some encouragement from the church. People patronised me from the church setup. When I came back from abroad, I took it headlong.
Meanwhile, when I was in service, I tried my hands on local beverages like zobo, kunnu and so on, because I schooled in the North, Niger State precisely. At a time, I started producing ice-blocks in commercial quantity. My husband always marveled at how industrious I was about these things. In fact, at times, when we had visitors and I prepared meals for them, they commended my meals and asked why I didn’t venture fully into the business of making meals. That was why I said getting my husband’s support was not a problem.
Cooking happens to be my own comfort zone. It is the interest that has kept me going. I convince people with my service and strategy. I make every of my service a memorable event. And that is what brought about the name ripples, because each service rendered always produced a rippled effect.
How did your dad take it later, when you had become deep into it?
He heard testimonies from other people. When the family had an event to organise and they were looking for a caterer or planner, people would tell him, ‘why the stress, when you have someone in your home who can do it well?’ When my younger sister wanted to hold her wedding, people told him he had a daughter who could plan the event better than the person he wanted to engage. It was then he appreciated that I took after him in terms of business acumen. He is a businessman himself; he is into oil and gas. So, he saw in me someone who had developed a business sense of her own and was pursuing it vigorously.
As an entrepreneur, how has it been coping in this difficult economic environment?
It has been really challenging. Despite the discouragement in terms of money and other resources, I have the will. I develop relationships. I maintain integrity with my customers, suppliers and clients.
At times, when I have a project, I approach those suppliers, like the people selling tomatoes and peppers, and get inputs from them. If I told them that at so and so time, they would receive their proceeds, I do not allow such time to fail. That is integrity; keeping to my words. Keeping such relationships, based on truthfulness and service delivery has been of help. People might not be ready to support, but with will and integrity, we are doing it.
Is that all you have to tell those who are aspiring to go into this kind of venture?
Not all. Do you have the passion? If you do, go for it. There lies your fulfillment. It is the passion that makes you overcome all the challenges. It is a very tedious job. I almost left at a time. Thank God, I am not a routine person. I might finish an event today and get into another tonight.
It is all about satisfying the people. The business also has to do with referrals. If you do one very well, you can be sure to get more. I know that every customer looks for added value. If they get service, you sustain your clientele.
What other things do you do?
We have confectioneries. We manage the entirety of an event. We do social and corporate event handling, whereby we are registered with banks and other blue chip companies right at their headquarters. We also do daily deliveries. We have ready-to-eat and semi-finished products.
Even for the Muslim clients, we have special Ramadan evening. Muslim clients come to us to break their fast in the evenings. We do moinmoin, pap, milk and so on. We have had influential Muslims and parastatals asking us to give such services.
Which is the most memorable of all the events you have handled?
We did one in honour of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in Ekiti State. We have had many memorable events in Nigeria, South Africa, etc. We had one in Kotonu, Republic of Benin and it was fantastic too. My memorable services are those in which my clients expressed satisfaction. Another was the 40th birthday of the Ooni of Ife. He was so happy that he asked for the caterer and gave us royal blessing.
The Iyaloja too, Senator Tinubu’s daughter, we also handled her event. We handled the 80th birthday of the Alaafin. They have all been very good referrals. They recommend us to other clients oftentimes.
Does the flow of your business have not to do with political parties?
When you do business that has to do with people, do it well. It creates ripples. If we had an event and a senator is present there, for instance, he could call us to do same in other places. And we will respond in a way that other clients might come from those other places. It is a versatile business. It has nothing to do with politics; no bias.
Do situations not happen when you have clashes of events, or you have to cater for more people than you planned? How do you handle that, if it occurs?
It happens a lot. I have had six events in just one weekend. That is what makes me to delegate duties. It makes me to breed leaders and it informed the catering academy we are working on now. You need to pass the knowledge and expertise to upcoming people.
Over-bloated guests also put us under stress. When such situation arises, I assume my solution-oriented person. Experience has taught me to have backups, though. We need to face the fact; we are Africans, particularly, Yoruba and Ibadan people. I love the people of Oyo State so much. We love family. You might invite one person for an event and he comes with four others.
Professionally speaking, contract is contract; when you plan for a thousand guests and that is your contract; that is what you ought to get. But I don’t take chances. This Yorubaland, the Omoluabi creed is very important in all we do. If you exhaust the preparation for 1000 guest, for instance, and they say there are people not yet catered for, you might become a bad person, until the client realises you had played your own role accordingly. You cannot restrict everything everywhere.
Have you encountered any disappointing outing?
There was an event I handled. It was a birthday, but I forgot the date. When the client called, I said I thought it was the next day. But we later approached the issue and came out of it. My strong point is that today, the client is one of our biggest referral. We had done many other events for that client . I think they also agreed they had fault by changing the date at random. Mercy of God spoke for us on their matter.
What other formal education did you get?
I attended primary school in Niger State, as I said. I went to Olivet Baptist High School in Oyo. I was the Assistant Head Girl in my time. In fact, former Governor Lam Adesina tried for our education then. He encouraged us on all fronts and I used to participate in debates. I represented my school in a debate competition and we won. We got scholarships.
Then, I went to the University of Ilorin and studied Computer Science. I later obtained certificates events and wedding planning and Level Three Catering in the United Kingdom. I did the MSMA programme at the Lagos Business School too. I was one of the three best graduands. It was sponsored by Sterling Bank.
and then