Nigeria: Promoting Nigeria's cuisine worldwide

Winifred Nwania is the founder of Nigeria's Zeelicious Foods.

How did it all start?

When I was a young girl living in Lagos, Nigeria, in a family with limited resources, I did not have many opportunities, but I loved to cook and wanted to share the culinary delights of Nigeria with a global audience.

At that time, I did not really like the way Nigerian food was presented to the rest of the world. So I wanted to do something about it. I started by looking for opportunities from big companies to have a show on their channel but I had not proved myself in any way.

When a friend told be about YouTube, I realized I could share my knowledge there. I did my research and saw there were a lot of individuals on that platform who were doing well. I then looked into how to start producing food content on YouTube so that I could show people we have a rich food culture in Nigeria. I also enjoyed the support of people who believed in my vision. Together, we started making videos.

And what happened next?

Before long, to our surprise, our channel picked up viewers really quickly. One of my aims was to show fellow Nigerians they could use our country's diverse ingredients to produce a wide range of dishes for themselves. I also wanted to show that for those with more ambition, they could even start up a catering business or go into the food business in general. In less than six months, our channel attracted over 100,000 subscribers. We now have over a million.

What are your current priorities?

We have started to collaborate with local, national and international brands. I have had the privilege of travelling to many countries around the world, and that is because I took the big step of starting my own channel.

Apart from videos, we have created lots of other digital products. I have become a cookbook author, and people from across Africa have read my book. We also run a consultancy firm for anyone who would like to start a food media company of some sort.

We are now a team of 18 staff who are working with me to grow our brand.

What about AI?

We now use AI tools to streamline our processes. This helps to ensure my team is well-coordinated, our operations move smoothly, and we provide the best experience to our customers.