Kevin Eze: Meet Passionate Nigerian man Pioneering Food Network in Africa: "I Want to Solve Problems"

Kevin Eze: Meet Passionate Nigerian man Pioneering Food Network in Africa: "I Want to Solve Problems"

Although Kevin Eze holds a B.Tech in Project Engineering, the winsome and hardworking young man is making a bold statement as an entrepreneur with a focus on the African food networks. The self-styled digital strategist who owns startups in both food-entertainment and tech industries tells Legit.ng about his life as an inspiration to a legion of Nigerian youths.

Tell us about yourself?

I am Kevin Chukwuebuka Ezeokoli, most people know me as “Kevin Eze”. I am an entrepreneur and digital strategist with startups in both the food, entertainment and tech industries. I hold a B.Tech in Project Engineering from the Federal University of Technology Owerri and also a Diploma in Strategic Management from IBMI Berlin. I’m very passionate about African Creatives and SMEs. My aim is to spearhead the revolution and exportation of African Food, Tech and Culture to the global communities.

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Kevin Eze: Meet Passionate Nigerian man pioneering food network in Africa
Kevin Eze is a young man who strongly demonstrates that Nigerian youths are not lazy.
Source: Original

How was life for Kevin Eze while growing up?

I can say it was a smooth ride but hit quite a few bumps at the later stages of my life. I was raised in the suburbs of Lagos alongside my three brothers and a sister by my parents who are successful business people in their different niches whom I give huge credit for my entrepreneurship exploits. So I can say the idea of being an entrepreneur comes from a young age of managing branches of my mum’s business; I had always had this knack for being pro-active which is what I learned from a young age. This helped me when I ventured into tech and entertainment.

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You’re an entrepreneur proving to the world that Nigerians are not lazy; did you ever envisage that you would be leading a successful business like African Food Network?

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Honestly, right from the conception of The African Food Network, I knew it was going to be a global brand. Aside from the persistent nature of Nigerians when trying to make ends meet, if you have an idea that is focused on problem-solving and offering value first to your ideal market or industry you can never go wrong with the success probability of the brand. Africa is truly blessed with a huge cultural heritage and food is a major part of our ethical DNA so we focus on the vision to create a global brand that portrays Africa more positively to the world and fill in the information gap of African food online while fixing the poorly publicized image of African cuisine to the world.

At what point did you discover that opening a page that curates various African dishes is the way forward?

Well, food is an important necessity of life and a huge industry but on a global scale, apart from our raw materials exports, African food isn’t doing so well, from the observations I made years ago. I notice there is a huge PR gap for African cuisine and 90% of African food recipes isn’t available on the internet. We have amazing chefs, food bloggers promoting our food and culture but no major platforms to recognise and promote them. So that’s why we created the African Food Network as a community for African food lovers to interact.

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What were the challenges you encountered before getting the business to this level?

There were a lot of ups and downs, disappointments, self afflicted failures but these only served as a learning curve for me to build on to get to this level. I had a few failed startups, investments, etc.

For African Food Network, though the idea was conceived way back in 2010, I started gathering data and building the brand in the year 2015 but with a couple of amateur decisions, I lost the entire data gathered for 3 years and had to restart from the scratch in late 2018. It wasn’t an easy ride but here we are back up again as one of the leading African food community in the world.

Any advice for young African entrepreneurs?

Create a brand that solves real problems and offers value first while staying original and consistent. There is a huge demand for Africa now, utilise it. Check for what you’re most passionate about and monetise it from an African perspective, this should help you navigate through the tough times you’ll face while growing your brand. There’s no better time to be proud of being African than now.

Source: Legit.ng

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