Engr. Onuorah Emmanuel is the managing director of Bumpahav Nigeria Limited, a bakery and agribusiness company.
According to Emmanuel, the business started after exiting the oil and gas industry in 2015, having worked their for 24 years. Then the company, Sapetro, gave him an exit package and approached a bank, which agreed to partner with him after providing his counterpart funding to start Bumpahav Bakery.
Motivation
According to him, “many things motivated me to go into baking; one of them was to become an employer of labour. An industry is as good as its practitioners. People made the oil and gas industry what it is today, and I felt that, with the knowledge of those going into the bakery industry, it would become an enviable one for its practitioners.
“Another motivation for me is to change the way bakers are viewed and treated in the country. I felt very bad at how bakers are treated with disdain in Nigeria. They are viewed as the dregs of society, despite their efforts at feeding the nation.”
Lucrativity
The bread bakery business, he said, is one of the most lucrative businesses in the food industry as it is a staple food in Nigeria and Africa and is consumed by millions of people daily. However, he said, the cost of production has soared above the rooftop with an attendant serious drop in capacity utilisation.
Challenges
“There are many challenges in this business; even the cost of baking input has hit the roof. Do you want to mention diesel, which is used to power the oven? Generators and vehicles are almost out of reach of bakers. The agribusiness is equally faced with a reduction in yield, part of which is attributed to security challenges,” he noted.
Advice
“My advice to young entrepreneurs and intending ones is that they must develop a thick skin and never give up despite any challenge. Also, invest in knowledge by attending training to build up their managerial capabilities. Most startups fail because of a lack of managerial skills and a lack of mentors who will advise them.
“Furthermore, as an entrepreneur, you may not get all the necessary support from the government that you desire. You must be the type that does not take no for an answer to succeed, and most importantly, you must be streetwise and know your business very well.
“The challenges of being an entrepreneur in Nigeria are not easy at all. One must be self-motivated and dogged to succeed. To me, it is more like if you are given a lemon, then make a lemonade out of it,” he pointed out.
Biography
Onuorah Emmanuel, born in Awka, Anambra State, is the managing director of Bumpahav Nigeria Limited. He holds a Higher National Diploma in Gas Engineering from the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) in Effurun and a B. Eng. in the same course from the University of Port Harcourt.
Before setting up Bumpahav Bakery in 2015, Emmanuel had worked at Texaco Nigeria oil company (now Chevron, Nigeria) and South Atlantic Petroleum (Sapetro) as a production engineer. He later became the head of the Health, Safety, Security, and Environment (HSSE) department at Sapetro.
The proud baker has attended various technical and leadership trainings in Nigeria, the United States, the United Kingdom, and other African countries. He is a chartered environmentalist, member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers(ISPON), member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), and president of the Premium Breadmakers Association of Nigeria(PBAN).
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