Rabiu, a native of Ijebu Igbo, Ogun State, in an exclusive interview with The PUNCH on Thursday disclosed his wife, an indigene of Ondo State, has been a great asset to his business growth and expansion in the North American country.
“My wife has been an integral part of the business. She keeps me going in the business. We run our business like a board. We set our plans and targets,” he said.
Earlier, a Tiktok video of Rabiu had surfaced online when the Mayor of Brampton led city officials to pay a visit to his factory.
He said the opportunity to start up the bakery business began when he observed there was no delicious bread as that of Nigeria in Ontario after relocating in 2016. He said his plan to start the business took him back to Lagos to learn about bakery.
He said, “When I got to Canada in 2016, I got a telecommunication job. I was doing that when the opportunity to start my business came about. “We saw the opportunity that there was no Nigerian bakery in the whole of Ontario.
We were eating bread that was close to Nigerian bread in taste and that is where we got the opportunity.
“If we have our own bread, our people will appreciate it and that is where everything started from,” he told The PUNCH.
Rabiu, in the interview, explained his family has always like to do business even before he got to Canada. He said the plan to start a bakery business was not initially in his plan while leaving Nigeria.
“I ran poultry farming then in Abeokuta and we were also delivering eggs to Lagos. At that time, my wife was into oil and gas business. But coming to Canada, bread was not in our plan but when we saw the opportunity, we decided we must understand the business we are going into and that was why I came back to Lagos to learn how to bake,” he disclosed.
Speaking on the challenges faced while starting the business, he said it was very difficult to get funds and equipment to run the business.
“There were equipments we bought thrice before we got the right one just because the baking process in Lagos and Canada are different.”
He, however, advised Nigerians in the diaspora to be proud citizens of Nigeria regardless of the challenges facing the country.
