The used to be called nation killers.
[LAUGH] Because, well,
they say that because they see myself and
Victor as very hardworking people.
We would never get tired and we sing to push everybody, in the same direction.
So they change the name from nation feeders to nation killers.
[MUSIC].
My name is Aviola Odogur representing Nation Feed as Nigeria Limited.
I remember a visit to a village and I saw this farmer.
He has a small poultry farm and that was what prompted
her to start the business which I co-founded with my husband, Victor.
>> I am Victor Odogur.
I'm the founder of Nation Feed as Nigeria Limited.
You know we started this business 2009 with 5,000 chicken.
They would move very rapidly to over 100,000 chicken.
I met my wife.
I was studying.
I was living in the UK.
I came home to see my parents and I saw this lady,
looking very elegant, and things just kind of happened from there.
I said hi.
>> We had a number of challenges growing the business,
particularly one of the main challenge that we faced was people management and
also positioning our products in the market.
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What has become very successful for us was what was the bedrock our marriage,
which was to be very open to each other, and
to communicate endlessly about things that is not clear to us.
We also made a good courting group, we will work as a unit and none of our
staff will see any crack in our decision making or lines of responsibility.
I can remember a time when we shared a common office, just one seat.
So I would normally give up the head seat, so
I would kind of sit on the visitor's seat type thing and work from there.
We worked like that but she feels more comfortable sitting on hers.
Also I want her to be comfortable while we're working.
So I got to the office before her, so I was sitting on the Chairman's office, so
to speak, and she goes I want to sit.
And I said to her,
if we are working in a formal setting would you actually Chairman stand up.
We commit to work as one team, that is, okay, so we talk about it, we share it.
When we get a bad then we sit down and say, okay, what's going on here, why?
And then we resolve it like such.
So we do things like this, and it really does enforces our teamwork as a couple.
I'm really lucky to have her as my teammate.
>> Where Nations Feed Us Farms is located is a little village,
a majority of our staffs are from that community.
At some point, we had to give them water supply,
we are to draw our own kind of community engagement,
our corporate social responsibility, give them electricity,
do the roads because we have the farm trucks moving in and out out of the farm.
So this has really impacted on the village.
>> It's not an accident that the name of the company is Nation Feeders.
We really do set out to feed nations.
We see the problems we have in our country and on our continent.
If people can afford good quality food, then let's give them good quality food.
If people don't have a job,
then let's create opportunities that they will have a job.
We believe we have enough knowledge and
experience base to take on problem that is pertinent to people living in our society.
So ending poverty, we want to be able to demonstrate that there is a way.
This is what we think about it, this is what we've done about it, and this works.
We want to set out to when we feed the nation, not just in feed,
but we feed the nation with jobs, we feed nations with opportunities.
When the job created adds value to their life,
then the whole structure will be sustainable.
We want to replicate this for the rest of Africa.
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