Many Abuja residents are shifting their culinary preferences from fast food to local dishes. This has compelled operators to adjust to emerging realities of effective online marketing, even as they have to contend with multiple taxes. FRANCA OCHIGBO reports
It has been observed that people in the working class and business people in Abuja hardly have the time to eat decent meals at home, except on weekends. As mild as Abuja traffic is, compared to Lagos and other very busy cities, many people still leave for work as early as 7:30 a.m. and come back home between 4:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., depending on the nature of their jobs and businesses.
This has necessitated the need for local food joints at different corners within the federal capital city. It has also been observed that hunger for local and homemade food is gradually replacing the quest for fast food such as burger, sharwama, meat pie and others.
Even the so-called tasty Nigerian jollof rice does not stand a chance with the local Nigerian dishes such as amala, akpu, pounded yam, eba and the rest. They go smoothly in combination with efo riro (vegetable soup) gbegiri (bean soup), ewedu, oha, ogbono, edikaikan and other local soups.
These days, local food sellers smile to the banks more often than owners of fast food restaurants with their heavily pied foreign dishes. So, for many Abuja residents, amala joint is the in-thing.
The bug has also caught up with the surrounding satellite towns and the trend is spreading by the day. Apart from the fact that you watch as the meals are being prepared, they come out hot from the pots.
Above all, you are sure you are not eating left-over from the previous day. Apart from the fact that the meals are cheaper than what is sold at fast food restaurants, owners of the joints have been observed to maintain some appreciable level of hygiene in their services.
Some even operate in cosy environments with modernised system of packaging their meals. Those operating in open spaces and under canopies are not doing badly also. For many of their customers, it’s not about the environment, but more about the taste. Go to such places during lunch hours and you will see fleet of exotic cars parked close to the joints as the owners busy themselves sweating over hot plates of their choice dishes.
The meals are mainly sold a la carte and you are at liberty to choose your favourite parts of cow meat, goat meat or fish. This is where orisirisi (innards) comes in, as people now prefer them to beef or red meat.
Imagine the scenario of watching pieces of beef, mutton and innards simmering temptingly in different pots of soup, with a familiar tantalising aroma enveloping the environment, mmh… It’s tempting.
You have a choice of taking your seat on one of the plastic chairs neatly arranged in rows behind plastic tables. You may as well opt for takeaway, packed in disposable plates that attract extra N100 each.
For regular customers, cutleries are a taboo. After washing their hands with soap and water made available by the seller, the next thing is to descend on the meal with their God given phalanges. Some prefer a mixture of gbegiri and ewedu on top of their amala as they arrange their fingers in the form of scissors and tear away at the mass on the table. Many residents of Abuja continue to shift towards local dishes; the elite are beginning to invest in the business.
Visits to some of these joints by our correspondent revealed that some retired top civil servants have taken to the business.
One of them, a retired director and the wife, Henry and Sharon Otowo run one of such restaurants called Mix Culture Foods at the Jahi part of the city. Mrs Otowo, who was very enthusiastic about the couple’s new business venture, said the name of the restaurant derived from what it represents.
On offer are various local delicacies such as amala, rice and beans, semovita and the rest.
According to her, the restaurant also offers delicacies indigenous to different ethnic groups across the country. There is also a section for foreign cuisines for those who are so inclined.
She said: “We have continental dishes and various African dishes from the North, South, East and West. In Mix Culture, apart from Yoruba dishes such as amala, ewedu and gbegiri which are handled by our partner, Iya Balogun, we also have Igbo dishes such as oha, ofe onugbu, ofe nsala.
“We have food native to Calabar, Akwa Ibom, the Northeast and the North Central. We have continental dishes, shawarma section and others. I cook the Isoma okoho soup as well as the ijangada and obije. I cook Tiv soup very well too.
“Food making for me is a passion. I am gifted. I am a very good cook. I started cooking at the age of nine. I am a South African but Idoma (in Benue State) by marriage. It has always been my passion. I have been praying about it that God should set me up and this is what God gave me. I am really thanking God for bringing this dream to fruition. I know no other thing than cooking. For me, Mix Culture has been a vision. It is a food court where we make all kinds of foods from Nigeria.”
However, owners of the business, just like other businesses in the country, operate in a hostile environment, in terms of infrastructure and social amenities. The Otowos complained about poor electricity supply, which has compelled them to depend on power generators most of the time.
Mrs Otowo said sometimes they operate without public electricity supply for two days. Another burden comes in the form of what she described as multiple taxes by different layers of authority within the capital city.
She said: “We have issues with power supply, sometimes for two days stretch. So, we always run our generator. To compound the problem, there are issues of food registration and certification, signage and Department of Environmental Services, among others.
They various tax authorities clamp down on us daily. In some instances, we are being made to pay as high as N528,000. Then we have officials of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) that screen of food handlers. Those ones collect as much as N150,000 to N200,000 in form of taxes.”
She also said the officials always insist that workers at the restaurant must obtain medical fitness certification, including HIV and Hepatitis screening. The outfit, she said, had complied with the rules.
Otowo, who said the restaurant was set up about three months ago, complained that the business had paid more in taxes than sale receipts. She is, however, hopeful that business will pick up as time goes on.
Not relying on sales by personal contacts alone, she said the business is also being marketed on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter handles.
“So, we do a lot of internet marketing which is what most people embark on these days. At present, we are about to go to radio stations for more advertisements. We distribute our flyers to everyone we meet too.”
Also, Mrs. Timilade Oluwalana, a lawyer-turned restaurant owner, runs an amala restaurant called 1401 Food Fiesta located at the highbrow Wuse Zone 3 area.
The restaurant is tucked inside the AMAC Commercial Plaza. A new entrant into the business, Oluwalana said she had been running her local food business from the comfort of her home before venturing out. In addition to offering solid meals, which are referred to as “swallow” in street parlance, she also serves pap and moin-moin (a derivative of beans) for breakfast.
Speaking further on the venture, she said: “I opened this restaurant six weeks ago and patronage has been wonderful. I started this business seven years back doing outdoor catering. I did mobile catering from my house for two years. I was getting orders on the Internet and I was giving my dispatch riders to deliver to clients at different business organisations.
Six weeks ago, we decided to open a restaurant with an outlet where people can come relax and eat. And here we are today.”
Talking about some of her challenges, she said: “One of the challenges I have right now is from some clients. Some people want quality food but they are not ready to pay for it. For you to give quality to your customers, you expect the payment to cover the cost.
Two weeks ago, a lady walked in here and brought N350 asking my member of staff to give her pomo (cow hide), meat, water and food for that amount. Funny enough, she started screaming about how expensive the restaurant is. I had to calm her. I told her that it is not like we cannot give her food for N350 but that what she listed was too much for that amount.”
Oluwalana also has complaints about taxes even though her outfit was registered only a few weeks ago.
“In the eye of the law, the registration is new because it is not even up to six months. So, I cannot say I have started paying taxes fully, even though I have my Tax Identification Number (TIN) and it is a registered body under the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
“Our turnover for now is not bad. We make profit but it is not as high as we expect, considering what we had in mind when we set up the place. In a way, we see it as a gradual process because we have not even spent one month. We intend to improve on our social media contacts, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, among others when we have a lot of people coming in to eat, it will cover a lot of expenses.
Continuing, she said: “I am a lone worker; I am not working with any consultant whatsoever. I do internet study a lot, Goggle is my good friend. When I noticed I am derailing, I go on the Internet. I read food journals; gather experience from deep and wide reading.
“Before I set up this place, there was no amala joint you would mention in Abuja that I do not know. I go round testing their food and know how to handle my own before I started.
“I love cooking; it has always been my passion. I love making people happy. When my customers come, I move around to ask them if they enjoyed the food. And if there are complaints, I give them a listening ear. In most cases, it is not about the money. I want to see that joy in you knowing you are eating my food. I am also an event planner and it gives me joy knowing that you are happy with what I am offering. We do our best so that when you even spend more, you will know that it is worth it.”
Another of such restaurants, Amala 360, located at Wise 11, is also competing for customers. The manager, Adeola Amusan, said sales have not been too bad as patronage has been good.
She said: “On our part, we do our best to give our customers what they want, which is quality. Most of our challenges are tied to high taxation and electricity problems. We spend a lot on electricity. By the time we calculate what we make and what we spend on electricity, the account does not balance at all.” Lamenting further, she said: “Power supply is not constant at all. We buy diesel a lot to power our generator. Every day we run our generator for several hours to make up for the little power supply we get at a very high price. Power is the greatest limitation to the growth of this business.”
Amusan also said local authorities go around every day demanding one type of levy or another.
According to her, about 10 different officials would come over demanding one form of levy or the other, all within a space of one month.
“They just brought one levy a few hours back for N50,000. There are others ranging from N150,000 to N200,000. That is how they bring these huge bills at regular intervals. If you don’t pay, they come here to cause trouble for you. They embarrass you and do all sorts of things in the business premises with customers watching.
“We have not even started talking about the normal government’s Value Added Tax (VAT) which customers find it hard to pay. Apart from taxation, there is stamp duty that they collect from us through POS machines. But customers are not willing to pay because it is heavy on them.”
On sales, Amusan said: “In a day, we make between N500,000 and N800,000 or above and we are just five months old here. The business is actually encouraging but all the limitations you face trying to run a successful business can be very discouraging. But what can we do? You just have to keep pushing on.
“The taxes the government collects from our business in a month is about N500,000 to N1 million. So, imagine a business is making about N500,000 and above and in a month you pay 10 per cent of it through one form of taxation or the other. Salary for members of staff is staring you in the face, which you cannot over look. It is top priority. It is really stressful and challenging.”
Perhaps, one of the oldest amala joints is Iya Oyo’s place where the high and the mighty queue up with their plates in hand, waiting for their turn to be served. A good number of residents know the location, which is around the Wuye area, close to the head office of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC).
What you notice as you drive into the premises is the long line of exotic cars parked on both sides of the expansive restaurant. As you step into the large hall, you see customers on queue waiting patiently to be served.
In view of the prevailing harsh economic realities, operators of the business have been pleading with the FCT authorities for reprieve, in terms of lower taxes. But judged by its aggressive revenue drive, it’s doubtful if the authorities will soften their tax grip on these business owners.
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