How Ifeoma Uzoma Is Changing Local Ògìrì Business With The Help of Social Media

After a video of Ifeoma Uzoma selling Ogiri,  went viral on Facebook, many wanted to know who she is.

Apart from consistency and hard work, another lesson learnt from the Ogiri Woman is the transformative effect of social media on brands. The Ogiri woman’s story is similar to how social media created another Nigerian brand.When Olajumoke Orisaguna walked into the street set of TY Bello’s photo shoot with Tinie Tempah, she unknowingly took the first step to stardom.

Now known as Ogiriwoman, Ifeoma, has been given the platform to express her unique marketing talent in cooking as well as packaging her products to meet international standards.

Below she talks about her business and the story behind the viral video.

HOW SHE GOT INTO THE OGIRI BUSINESS

Ogiri is not just an afterthought. I had ran a lot of businesses, but Ogiri came as an inspiration from God. I had tried selling pepper, pap, nylon and all of them were moving slowly but I needed something I could relax while doing.

I ran into an elderly woman who was selling Ogiri in the market. I was amazed by the fact that she would come and sell out in a few hours every day while we stayed for hours and hours before selling out.

So I approached her to ask her to teach me. She was sceptical at first because where I come from Ogiri is a skill mostly reserved for really elderly women. She felt I was too young but gave me a test to prove my passion. She asked me to prepare a simple one based on a recipe and I did it perfectly.

HOW THE VIDEO WENT VIRAL

One day, I was just around my normal character of going around the market hawking. I always come up to the market with a song and with energy to make people feel that they have to get something.

So, this lady came as a customer to buy. She bought some and we laughed a bit, then she said to me, I love what you are doing; I will put you on Facebook. In my mind, I thought it was just a joke. I playfully did my usual thing as she recorded and forgot about it.

WHEN SHE STARTED GETTING REACTIONS FROM THE VIDEO

The video was done around May and it was in June that I started getting calls and people stopping me and saying “I saw you here, I saw you there.” So far I have received calls to supply Ogiri from people in Lagos, the US and even Australia.

ON HER DICTION

The diction is inborn. Although I stayed outside the country for a while, I won’t go into details about that now. If I go into details, they will be amazed but the things are, I am here now.