Why I started JB's Suya Spot

In 2008 I was on a four month trip back to Nigeria. I was in a car with a driver and we were stuck in a queue of traffic along a small road. We realised it was a police checkpoint, and the policemen were searching the car ahead of us. One man was resisting and wasn't letting them search his bag when suddenly, they dragged him out of the car window and started beating him with the butt of their AK-47's. 

As a sixteen year old this led me to ask many questions. "Why were the police behaving like this?", "What was the man hiding?" and other questions went through my head. I got a few answers, and learnt things like the police often haven't been paid in months by the government so they have to turn to alternative means to feed their families. But mainly, I felt glad my family had moved from Nigeria to the UK when I was younger and that I didn't have to experience things like this in my day-to-day life. It also made me want to give back to people that weren't as lucky as I was, and to help make a change somehow.

This experience ultimately led me to study economics in university, thinking that it could lead to a job at the World Bank or some other big organisation or charity where I could help make a change (particularly in Nigeria). But during my studies I learnt how slow and ineffective these big organisations are at times. Or how they often make decisions for political reasons that aren't always in the best interests of those in developing countries.

And I learnt instead about how supporting smallholder farmers in developing countries had positive knock-on effects for the rest of the people and economy. Supporting farmers by giving them access to new markets, and investing in improvements in the supply chain was a strategy that could help make peoples lives better.

After graduating, I was disillusioned about working for big organisations and instead I'd worked in all kinds of businesses in the food industry, from wholesale food markets to growing microgreens myself and selling direct to chefs. During lockdown, I decided I want to chase my childhood dream of becoming a chef but I also wanted to put to use everything I'd learnt during and since university, 

I realised that I could create a food business that introduced adventurous foodies to Nigerian food, while sourcing ingredients from farmers in Nigeria and helping to improve their farming infrastructure so less food is wasted. And what better Nigerian food to introduce people to than suya, one of my childhood favourite Nigerian foods! People like you and me could enjoy the food we eat, while knowing it's helping create a positive change in the world and making someone's like better. 

This is where your help is needed though as positive change isn't guaranteed. To be able to start sourcing from farmers in Nigeria, we'll need to be doing this at a large enough scale. So for now:

1. Buy JB's Suya Spice, other products, or attend pop-ups (the profits are being reinvested so that the business grows faster).

2. Tell a friend about JB's Suya Spice and the mission behind it, so they can support it too (oh, and also enjoy amazing food!).

3. When we're at a large enough scale, we'll be importing direct from farmers in Nigeria and you'll know you helped make that possible.