Mr Kareem Yunus, the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Danyus Foods, a popular food production company based in Akure, Ondo State, has revealed that the catalyst that spurred him into the business world was a lesson he learnt from a mistake his brother made.

Mr Yunus, who made this revelation during an exclusive interview on ‘Meet your African CEO’, an online television programme on CEOAfrica, stated that he made the determination not to follow in his brother’s foot-steps when he learnt that his brother had wasted N200,000 saved during his National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) on job search.

The graduate of Banking and Finance explained, “When I was in 100 level, my brother had just finished NYSC and had saved N200,000 during his service year. So one day, I asked him how he spent the money and he could not provide any reasonable explanation. All he could say was that he spent a larger part of the money searching for jobs and visiting cyber cafes to search for jobs online.

“When I heard this, I was speechless. I wondered why he would waste such an amount of money on searching for jobs when he could have started a business with it. That was when I decided that when I go for NYSC, I would use my savings to do something more tangible and worthwhile.”

Mr Yunus further explained that during his NYSC at Nnewi, Anambra State, he saved about N500, 000 which he made from both his monthly allowance and organising tutorials for secondary school students. “Recalling the way my brother spent his NYSC savings, I started thinking of how best to utilise my N500,000. So my friend and I deliberated and we decided to go into food production,” he said.

* Mr Kareem Yunus, CEO, Danyus Foods (R), Mr Cletus Ilobanafor (L) during an interview on ';;Meet your African CEO';;

Explaining his reason for venturing into food production, Mr Yunus said that he observed that people take foods that have high sugar content which is a major cause of diabetes. According to him, this need motivated him to go into production of unripe plantain flour. He also added that he started the production of bean flour because of the stress and complexity involved in peeling and blending beans to make foods like; ‘Moi moi’(Bean Pudding) and ‘Akara’ (Bean Cake).

Sharing some of the challenges he encountered when he started up Danyus Foods, Mr Yunus recalled that in the early years of the business, he was arrested by the National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) for producing foods without NAFDAC number. “In the early years of the business, I was packaging my product in nylon with a sticker attached. Then, I received a call from someone one day ordering huge number of my product. I was elated and went to meet the person. However, the person turned out to be a NAFDAC official.

“I was promptly arrested because I was packaging and selling food without NAFDAC number. I was devastated because I thought that would mean the end of my business. But I took courage. I pleaded and told them that the business was my means of survival. So they told me to first register my business with Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), then register with NAFDAC and get a proper ware house for production. It took a lot of hard work but I was able to meet all these criteria,” the entrepreneur said.

Mr Yunus also stated that Danyus Foods, which currently has staff strength of 35 employees, still has lack of electricity as its major challenge, adding that the company consumes about 3000 to 4000 litres of diesel per week.

The entrepreneur further noted the difficulty in exporting manufactured product to other countries is another challenge affecting the business. He said “Recently, I got an order to send a carton of my product to Canada. When the carton got weighed at the place where I was to send it, I was charged a sum of N80, 000 for a product of just N10,000. As a business man, I had to think of the profit which in that case was non-existent.”

Having represented Nigeria in other countries like Togo, Mali and Ghana on ‘Made in Nigeria’ exhibitions, Mr Yunus noted that a lot of people in other countries request for goods produced in Nigeria. He therefore urged the government to provide the enabling environment for manufacturers to export their products without stress, adding that doing so will beef up the economy of the country.

 * Mr Kareem Yunus with journalists during an interview on ';;Meet your African CEO';;

Mr Yunus also mentioned that the loan he obtained from Bank of Industry (BoT) has greatly assisted in the financing of his business. He added that many entrepreneurs are not able to access loans from BoT because they cannot provide the organisation with a viable means of paying the loan, noting that BoT puts loan applicants through tough screening process to ascertain if they can repay the loan.

In his advice to up-coming entrepreneurs, Mr Yunus urged them to be courageous, determined and be risk-takers. Using his experience as an example, he narrated how a feasibility study he conducted when he was about to start his business showed that he required N11 million to begin. “When the feasibility study I conducted revealed that I needed N11 million to start the business, I had just N500,000 but I did not let that faze me. I started with what I had and here I am today. Start with whatever you have and learn how to be a risk taker,” the businessman advised.