Oluwatoyin Akintayo
July 30, 2026 2026-07-30 19:45Oluwatoyin Akintayo
Student spotlight
Oluwatoyin Akintayo
CEO & Founder, Tomeli Food & Beverages and AIMS (Agribusiness Investment Made Simple) · M.Sc. Innovation, Intrapreneurship & Entrepreneurship · James Hope University
5,000+
2
Agro-processing
THE INTERVIEW
Your journey in food and agro-processing is inspiring. What first sparked your interest in solving challenges within the agricultural value chain, and when did you realize this vision could grow into the business you lead today?
My background is in Agricultural Economics, so agriculture has always been an area I understood and had an interest in. But the real spark for what I am doing today actually came during my programme at James Hope University.
I remember having a class conversation with some of my colleagues about business opportunities and the amount of value we lose in Nigeria because we produce so much agricultural raw material but process very little of it. That conversation stayed with me. I started thinking, why can't we take some of the things we already grow here, add value to them and build proper businesses around them?
That thinking eventually contributed to starting Tomeli Food & Beverages. I wanted to move beyond just talking about the opportunities to actually building something.
As I got deeper into food and agro-processing, I realised that many people were interested in agribusiness but didn't always understand where the opportunities were or how to start. That became part of the thinking behind AIMS (Agribusiness Investment Made Simple).
So in a way, one classroom conversation started a much bigger journey for me. Tomeli became my way of doing it, while AIMS became my way of sharing what I am learning and helping other people see the opportunities too
“We wanted to make buying real estate as easy as buying a bottle of Coke.”
Building a successful agro-processing business while pursuing higher education is no small feat. How has your experience at James Hope University contributed to your growth as a leader, entrepreneur, and business strategist?
I came to JHU with years of business experience, but the programme made me look at business differently.
One thing it did for me was to open my mind to opportunities I had not seriously considered prior to starting the program. The conversations in class around innovation, entrepreneurship and solving real problems made me start looking again at agriculture and, more importantly, value addition.
JHU also taught me to question my assumptions. As entrepreneurs, sometimes we believe an idea is good and just want to run with it. But I learnt to ask more questions: What problem are we solving? Who is the customer? Is there really a market? Can this business grow?
I apply that thinking to Tomeli, and it has also shaped AIMS. When I talk about an agribusiness opportunity today, I don't want to stop at saying, "Nigeria produces millions of tonnes of this crop." I want to ask the next question: Where is the opportunity? Who can participate? How can money actually be made from it?
That change in thinking has been one of the biggest benefits of my time at JHU.
Managing operations in the food and agro-processing industry requires resilience, innovation, and strategic thinking. What is one key skill or lesson from your time at JHU that has helped you effectively grow your business and lead your team?
One lesson that has stayed with me is that innovation does not always mean creating something completely new.
Sometimes innovation is simply looking at what already exists and asking, "How can we do this better?"
That thinking is important to what we are doing at Tomeli. Nigeria already produces plantain. People already eat plantain chips. So we don't need to reinvent plantain. The opportunity could be in better processing, packaging, distribution or creating other products from the same raw material.
It is also the same thinking behind AIMS. I try to get people to look at familiar agricultural products differently. Cassava is not just garri. Maize is not just food. Plantain does not have to end as plantain chips.
Sometimes the opportunity is already around us. We just need to look at it differently.
Mentorship often plays a major role in entrepreneurial success. Were there lecturers, mentors, or members of the JHU community whose guidance significantly influenced your journey as a founder and business leader?
Yes, definitely. One thing I enjoyed about JHU was that learning did not only come from lectures. It also came from conversations with lecturers and classmates.
Dr. Utulu's classes had a way of making us think beyond the obvious. He encouraged us to ask better questions, challenge our assumptions and look at business opportunities from different perspectives. That way of thinking has stayed with me and continues to influence how I approach business today.
My supervisor, Dr. Stephen Ibidunni, also played a very important role in my journey. Beyond guiding my research, he encouraged me to take my ideas seriously and gave me the confidence to pursue a new venture. He constantly pushed me to be clear about what I wanted to achieve and why it mattered. That discipline of thinking before acting is something I now apply in both Tomeli and AIMS.
So for me, the JHU community became more than a place to get a degree. It became a place where ideas were discussed, challenged and sometimes turned into something real.
“Think bigger and expand your market by reaching different groups of people.” — Dr. Ibidunni
Looking back, what would you describe as the first major breakthrough or defining milestone that convinced you your business had the potential to make a lasting impact in the food and agriculture sector?
For me, the first major milestone was seeing an idea that started from conversations become an actual product.
There is a big difference between saying, "Nigeria needs to process more of what we produce" and actually trying to do it yourself. When we started producing and packaging our products at Tomeli, it became real.
Then you start dealing with everything that comes with food processing: production, packaging, equipment, regulation, quality, pricing, and getting the product to customers. That experience gave me a much deeper understanding of the value chain.
AIMS gave me another kind of confirmation. I started sharing simple agribusiness insights online and people began responding, asking questions and sharing their own experiences. That community has now grown to over 5,000 people.
Those two experiences convinced me that there are two things worth building: businesses that create value from what Africa produces, and a community of people who understand how to find and build those opportunities.
Tomeli showed me that we can build. AIMS showed me that many other people want to build too.
Entrepreneurship comes with inevitable challenges, particularly in agriculture and food processing. Can you share an early challenge you faced while building your business and how you overcame it?
One of my early lessons was discovering that having a good product is only one part of the business.
You can make something people like and still struggle with production costs, packaging, regulation, distribution and getting the product into the hands of customers. In Nigeria, any one of these can become a serious challenge on its own.
There were times at Tomeli when we had to slow down and rethink what we were doing instead of just continuing because we had already started.
If something is not working, find out why. Change what needs to change and keep moving. Sometimes the business idea is still good. It is the way you are executing it that needs to change.
Don’t fall too much in love with your original plan.
Customer needs and market demand are constantly evolving. How important has customer feedback been in shaping your products, improving quality, and expanding your business over the years?
Customer feedback has been very important because the customer will sometimes tell you what your spreadsheet cannot tell you.
You may think the taste is perfect, the packaging looks good, the size is right and the price makes sense. Then you take the product to the market and hear something completely different.
At Tomeli, we have learnt to listen to those signals. Customer feedback makes you think again about taste, packaging, pricing, product sizes and even where and how the product should be sold.
Interestingly, I have learnt the same thing with AIMS. I pay attention to the questions people ask, the comments they make and the topics they respond to. That helps me understand what people actually want to know about agribusiness.
Whether you are producing food or sharing information, you cannot just create what you like. You have to understand the person you are creating it for.
Beyond running your business, many entrepreneurs contribute to their industries through mentorship, advocacy, or community development. How do you balance these responsibilities, and what impact do you hope to make in the food and agro-processing sector over the next five years?
This is where Tomeli and AIMS really come together for me. Tomeli allows me to participate directly in food processing and value addition. I am not just talking about what Africa should do with its agricultural products; I am also trying to build in that space.
AIMS is where I take what I am learning, combine it with research and what is happening across the industry, and make it simple for other people to understand.
Over the next five years, I want to see Tomeli become a stronger food processing business. At the same time, I want AIMS to grow into a strong community that helps develop the next generation of African agribusiness leaders.
One thing I really want young people to understand is that agriculture is much bigger than farming. There are opportunities in processing, logistics, finance, technology, packaging, distribution, exports, quality assurance, marketing and many other areas.
If more young Africans can see agriculture this way, I believe we can build more businesses around what we already produce and keep more of that value here.
“Fear and uncertainty are normal parts of building anything meaningful. Hey global talent, launch that idea.”
Many students have innovative ideas but hesitate to take the first step. What advice would you give to a James Hope University student interested in starting a business in agriculture, food processing, or the broader agribusiness sector before graduation?
Start small, but start. You don't need to have everything figured out before you begin. I certainly didn't. Some of the things you need to know will only become clear when you actually start doing something.
And if you are interested in agribusiness, don't just say, "I want to go into agriculture." Agriculture is too big. Pick one problem and understand it properly.
Maybe farmers are struggling to find buyers. Maybe tomatoes are wasting during harvest season. Maybe processors cannot find good raw materials. Maybe consumers want a product in a more convenient form. Maybe there is a logistics problem nobody is solving properly.
Make your mistakes while you are still small, learn from them and improve. That is also one of the ideas behind AIMS. When you break agriculture into different value chains, you begin to see many practical places where you can enter.
You don't need to start with 500 hectares of land or a massive factory. Start with the opportunity you understand. Prove that it works. Then grow from there. And sometimes, like it happened for me at JHU, it can even start from one simple conversation in class.
Start from the problem. Talk to people. Test your idea on a small scale. See what happens.