How mobile food-seller makes mouth-watering N30,000 daily

How did you start this mobile food selling business?Kingsley Iseacho: I was a chef and working with a big man before I left and started my own kind of business. I once had a corner shop in Utako, but it was demolished and so I was left with no other option. That was how the […]

How did you start this mobile food selling business?
Kingsley Iseacho: I was a chef and working with a big man before I left and started my own kind of business. I once had a corner shop in Utako, but it was demolished and so I was left with no other option. That was how the whole thing started.
You are now moving with a wheel barrow and a food flask, selling food to these people at Nyanya market. Do you go to other places?
Iseacho: I go to virtually all markets in Abuja
How do you achieve that?
Iseacho: I have a car. You know in Abuja there’s the everyday market and those that take place weekly. Yesterday we went to Karimo, the day before yesterday we went to Dutse Alhaji, today is Nyanya and tomorrow is Madallah. Sometimes there may be two markets in different places. For instance, on Friday there are four or five markets. We have Masaka, Karimo, Garki and so on. People know me. This is my twelfth year of doing this business and I now have a staff of three.
Are they with you now?
Iseacho: No. one is in Garki market. When we arrive every location, we park the car a small distance away and push the wheel barrow around and people buy. I however stopped coming to Nyanya market for a while after the bomb blast because people were afraid to come around the market. But on a good day this is a major place I frequent.
So does that mean you make more profit at Nyanya market?
Iseacho: No, I make profit in all the markets.
How much do you make in a day?
Iseacho: It depends sometimes I make about thirty thousand and sometimes less.
When was your worst day ever in the business?
Iseacho: The week when the first bomb blast took place people were afraid to turn up at the market, the same at Masaka. Soldiers were everywhere checking and molesting people. That was my worst month because Abuja was shaking. Also when the plaza around Banex area was bombed. We were here selling on that day when the news reached us. People immediately started parking their belongings and went home with my money. This is because I usually go around serving them first and in the next three or four hours I collect the money.
At what point did you decide you wanted to enter the food business?
Iseacho: I was previously an importer and exporter of commodities, then customs seized my goods worth about N5, 000,000. I had a friend who ran a restaurant in Garki Modern market. I felt like committing suicide at that time because staying in Abuja without money is a nightmare. But he gave me hope. He usually got wedding contracts and gave me responsibilities so I could make some money. That was how I picked interest in the food business. I now told him that I had learnt a lot from him and would like to go to Catherine school and start my own business. Right now I have eighteen pieces of buffets, three thousand pieces of breakable plates, coolers and so on. In my area I am the only one that rents such things. For renting a single buffet I make N1, 000 or N1, 500.
What was the last event you were involved in?
Iseacho: Last week I was in charge of food in the grand opening of a club.
What words do you have for those that desire to overcome certain circumstances and start something they can be proud of?
Iseacho: Whatever you love and do, do it with all your heart. I don’t have a shop but I am doing this with all my heart. At the beginning people may look down on you, but when they begin to see your worth you would have earned their respect. I was the first to start this kind of food business in Abuja many years ago.