How Nigeria’s catering industry is thriving despite COVID-19, economic downturn

As COVID-19 continues to distort businesses across Nigeria, some have deployed means to cushion effects of the pandemic by diversifying and leveraging technology to not only stay afloat but thrive.

The catering industry which is one of the hardest hit during COVID has seen players in the industry shift from planning and organising events and parties to delivering food to people’s homes and using technology to create awareness and drive patronage.

Speaking during a one-day Summit tagged ‘Spend the Day with Successful Business Women in Catering and Events,’ organised by Nonos Catering Mentoring Initiative (NCMI) programme, Abumere Uto, managing director, Nonos Catering and founder NCMI said COVID-19 is forcing caterers to diversify and change the way they provide services.

Uto acknowledged that events are not being held as they used to, so caterers now provide food to people’s homes.

“There is something we call ‘Food in bowls’ to feed families. Speakers at the summit are talking about how they made so much money from supplying food to people’s homes during the lockdown because food is an essential service. That way, they are making more profits and they are being empowered.

“Catering and events industry is huge. I am a caterer, so I can only talk about the food industry and I know that everybody eats and people party. We are encouraging more women to become entrepreneurs and go into the food business.

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“There are no parties now and we understand that the government is trying to control the spread of COVID but you can supply food to people’s houses, you can cook in the comfort of your homes. We are teaching women to make profit from what they do. If COVID is making people lose their jobs, caterers do not have to lose money or your jobs. We provide a lot of jobs and we want the government to recognise that,” Uto explained.

She hinted that through the mentoring initiative, caterers and event planners collaborate and network with other women who are doing the same things they are doing in order to help them grow their business and give them profitability and feasibility.

Also speaking at the event, Morenike Okupe, (Centre), CEO, Malas Foods reiterated that COVID-19 has altered the way caterers do things but assured that the market is still huge.

“We all have to be COVID compliant. We now take hygiene very seriously and it gives us a better opportunity to satisfy our clients at this time. The industry is large and going by data, we contribute quite a lot. The industry spans across different areas from employing waiters to ushers, to event coordinators, bouncers amongst others. The industry is wide and the workforce is a lot.

“Cost of things going up eats into your profit, increases overhead and infrastructure but we have to find a way of coping and doing things better so that we can reduce our overhead,” she said.

The CEO of Malas Foods said that with the advent of social media, so many mentoring talks and experiences people share, everyone is improving themselves in what they hear or what they do and people are getting more confidence in themselves.

Panellist at the summit include Ono Abumere, MD Nonos Catering; Moranike Okupe, MD Malas Foods; Chichi Yakubu, CEO, NyoNyo Essentials; Mojisola Gbajumo, head chef/CEO Culinary Wok catering; Veronica Emily Odoemenam, CEO Veritas catering Ltd; Oreoluwa Adeleke, director, Cruise Events; Ibrahim Opeyemi Rukayat, CEO Foodcrush catering; Dorcas Pius Jerome, CEO Royal Touch Events PH and Maria Pamella Nwonu, CEO Nwandos Signature Events.

These panellists shared their experiences with participants and tips on how caterers and event planners can grow their businesses.