Culled from Daily Trust
In Kano, two young women are changing the narrative by stepping into the muddy space of vegetable processing.
One is a graduate of Agricultural Economics and the other, a graduate of Chemistry, both using the knowledge they acquired in their respective fields to create value chain wealth in the horticultural space.
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Weekend Trust caught up with them recently in Ibadan during the learning event organised by HortiNigeria Project, funded by the Kingdom of Netherlands in Nigeria with support from various partners where they showcased their products.
Aminat Mohammed Sani, the founder and chief executive officer of a tomato processing company in Kano, processes tomatoes, pepper and onion into paste and other soup-based products.
She currently processed different types of products like mixed condiment, stew paste, jollof paste, pepper soup paste and traditional soup paste.
She has been in this business for about 11 years. The idea of the business started from what she was doing for personal consumption.
How it started
“We started doing mixed tomato preservation at home using my chemistry background. I know how to preserve perishable items for a long period of time without any chemical preservative or artificial something added to it. I started doing it for my own personal use, but neighbours started asking for it.
“Some of my neighbours advised me to start selling it instead of giving it out for free. So, I started selling it in small plastic containers. From there, the business started,” she said.
‘I have cried, smiled’
Asked how she would describe the journey so far, she said, “It is full of obstacles, so much pain, so many ups and downs; but Alhamdulillah, today, my company is the second largest tomato processing company in Kano.”
She added that the journey “has been tough. I have cried, I have smiled. There are so many cries and smiles along the way, but Alhamdulillah, we have achieved it.”
Speaking about some of the challenges that have confronted her and the inexperience of nurturing a business she said, “I did not start it as business, it was for my personal consumption. I read Chemistry, so I didn’t have any background in marketing or business administration or something like that before entering into an entrepreneurial world. I only knew about the honey inside the entrepreneurial world. I don’t know the other outside.
“But when I entered the entrepreneurial world, I realised that the place is not for a lazy person. It is not for someone who wants quick money, and it is not for someone who is not hardworking. You have to stand on your feet, you have to struggle, you have to suffer and cry before you smile because there are so many things I cannot even tell you.”
She started in her kitchen and now has a company. She said, “As I told you, we are the second largest tomato processing company, apart from Dangote.
“We have to buy so many things. We have to source money from others. My personal savings, my husband and other resources helped me. I won a grant during Goodluck in 2014. It is with that money that I bought some of my machines from China and started producing in large quantities,” she said.
Ms Adaora Akojuru is the founder of Better Agric Ventures, another tomato processing firm and one of the business champions of HotiNigeria, which has helped her get links to farmers, where she sources raw materials to process into 100 per cent natural tomato and pepper mix paste.
Adaora said, “We have four varieties of product – the 100 per cent natural tomato paste, tomato and tatashe mix paste, pepper and onion mix paste and hot pepper mix paste. All of these are under the brand, ‘Bera,” she said.
How her dream started
The young woman read Agricultural Economics at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, but it was during her National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) days in Kano that the dream came to her.
“I went to a local government area in Kano, Gaya and saw firsthand, what post-harvest losses looked like in tomatoes.
“I saw a large expanse of land where tomatoes were cultivated but they were left there to rot. They were not harvested and they started spoiling on the farms. The farmers said they couldn’t take any produce to the market because the markets were saturated. So we started looking for an alternative. Could anything be done? We started researching on why tomatoes have a high volume of post-harvest losses every year and the answer came out – Nigeria has inadequate storage and processing mechanisms, especially for perishables that have very short shelf life. We came to the conclusion that one of the ways you could extend the shelf life of the crop was by processing (value addition). I asked how we could add value to tomatoes.
“Nigerians love tomato paste a lot; even when you buy fresh tomatoes in the market, they still buy the sachet paste to mix together. So why couldn’t we just give them something they would always have. But it was going to be 100 per cent natural. And it was going to save their time in the kitchen, as well as their gas or kerosene; and they can have it all-year round. That was how we brought about this product,” Adoara said.
For her, the current inflation rate is a huge problem. She added, “Look at the cost of everything. Before now, we were selling our product at N1,300, but the increasing cost of raw and packaging materials brought the total cost of our product to N3,500.”
As at June 2025, Adoara was able to produce 5,000 tomato jars, but her current target is 10,000 jars.
Weekend Trust observes that with more support from development partners in the horticultural space, many young women will do well in the tomato sub sector as they are identifying positive opportunities.
