How Hakeem Jimo & Bola Adeyanju started Nigeria's First Plant-Based Food Tech Company Veggie Victory

<p>Meet <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/hakeemjimo/" target="_blank">Hakeem Jimo</a>, the co-founder of <a href="https://veggievictory.com/" target="_blank">VeggieVictory</a>, a Lagos based company that was the first to introduce vegan meat substitutes into the Nigerian market on a commercial scale. </p> <p>Hakeem and his wife <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bolaadeyanju/" target="_blank">Bola Adeyanju</a> started VeggieVictory as a vegan restaurant, after Hakeem, himself a vegan for many years, came back from a trip to Asia where he found many vegan restaurants through the app <i>HappyCow</i>. Back in Lagos, he didn’t find a single one. So he and Bola decided to change that. </p> <p>Once the restaurant had taken off, they wanted to reach more people and decided that instead of starting more restaurants, they would bring out a product, a 100% plant based meat substitute on soy and wheat basis that is suitable for the Nigerian cuisine and unlike many more premium priced meat alternatives abroad, is actually cheaper than meat. </p> <p>In the interview Hakeem shares about</p> <ul><li>How he came up with the idea</li><li>How they developed their <a href="https://veggievictory.com/vegmeat/" target="_blank">Vchunks Plant-Based Meat </a></li><li>And why he believes the Nigerian market needs its own plant based meat alternative</li></ul> <p><br /></p> <p>We also get a taste of VeggieVictory’s veg-Suya, which tastes amazing and hear what Hakeems advice for young Nigerians is. </p> <p>There is a lot of gold in this interview for budding foodpreneurs and so we hope you enjoy this conversation as much as we did. </p> <p>And now, without further ado, enter Hakeem. </p>