market women

Olapeju Umah is the content creator at mile12marketwoman. A company that delivers every food and fruit item straight from the market to your doorstep, with over 6 years and hands on working experience in Information Technology, sales/marketing and business development from working in various industries including oil and gas, telecommunications, manufacturing and FMCG. She has been instrumental to various business expansion and start-ups and she currently sits on the board of various including Afrikwell oil and gas, Prestige college of music and Nigeria enterprises.

Since graduating from Olabisi Onabanjo University with a second class upper in Electrical Electronics Engineering, Olapeju has birthed four( 4) companies .She has attended various leadership and business trainings from Daystar leadership academy, WIMBIZ and other prestigious organisations. She is happily married to Daniel Umah and they are blessed with two boys.

The beautiful and very intelligent business woman shares her journey with me in this interview.

Childhood Influence

I come from a large family of 18 children asides uncles and aunties that stayed with us. My house was practically like a ‘boarding house”. So, as expected, for shopping, we would always do that in bulk. So I guess, yes, my childhood prepared me for this kind of business.

Meet Peju!

I studied Electrical Electronics Engineering in Olabisi Onabanjo University with majors in Telecoms. I am the 14th child of my Father and the 1st of my Mum. I am God’s ambassador on earth with interests in food, interiors and relationship. I am delightfully married to Mr. Daniel Umah with 2 wonderful boys as my heritage.

Inspiration behind Mile12 Market Woman

In the year 2014, my family moved to the ajah axis of Lagos and the first shock that hit me was the exorbitant cost of food items! So, since I have always done bulk shopping, I defied the distance barrier and continued shopping from mile12 market once a month. I then noticed that neighbors would tell me to shop for them whenever I am going. I did this for years until I realized this problem was unique to a lot of people living on that axis. That is how the company Mile12marketwoman was birthed.

Leaving my core for entrepreneurship

Work-life integration for me was tough with a nine to five job as I had started my family before graduating from school so my boys needed all the attention I could give. I quit after just a month’s work! I then knew that to remain relevant, I would have to do business.

Managing four businesses

For my interior décor company (Butter Slides), we operate as the contracts come. We have staff based on contracts. For the FMCG Company, its basically on auto pilot. We have put systems in place. Mile12marketwoman is the baby we are nurturing and by God’s grace, this baby will mature with no deficiency.

Work based challenge

One of the challenges unique to mile12marketwoman has to be supplying clients not within our coverage area. Due to the peculiarity of our goods (perishables), we do same day delivery after purchase. We shop for as much as 10 clients per market day and must supply all same day. We get calls from places as far as festac town and we cannot take such orders due to the limiting factor of distance. We are currently considering ways to solve this.

Positive feedback is my reward

The greatest reward for me has been the wonderful feedback from clients. It is extremely satisfying to know that our service is not only meeting a need but also feeding more people because most of our clients are always overwhelmed with the quantity they get and invariably have to share with others.

Mile12Marketwoman in 5 years

In the next 5 years, I see mile12marketwoman being a household name especially on the lekki/ajah axis. Ion 5 years, we plan to have served 5,000 homes.

Not giving up

Often in the life of an entrepreneur, there are times we feel like throwing in the towel and running back to paid employment. What keeps us going is the vision, the WHY, the passion.

Those who Inspire me

I have a lot of inspiration. One is my Mum. She is very hard working and has experience in various sectors from banking (27years in service) to establishing business in the transport and FMCG sector. My husband also is my number 1 supporter. For every “ridiculous” idea I come up with, he is always there to support. It might interest you to know that he is responsible for our catchy logo.

Entrepreneurial Journey

Entrepreneurship is definitely not for the faint hearted. Opposition will arise when you feel like you’ve got it all together. Competitors give you a run for your money but in all, it’s a game of gladiators and only the strong willed, smart, principled and God-favored win. I am one!

Being a Woman of Rubies

I am a woman of rubies because I am a woman of many parts. There is a whole lot more that I am made for. I am yet to scratch the surface.

The first and second phase of the Women of Rubies sensitization workshop tagged “Empowering grassroots women and giving them a voice“ which kicked off on 26th of August 2016 at the Alimosho LGA Akoonjo, and the second one at the Eleganza Sport Center, Lagos East LCDA Sura Market, Lagos Island was a huge success.

Women came out enmasse from different spheres of the community to be part of the workshop. The women were not only sensitized on the need to be empowered but also encouraged to save towards the future of their Children by the Keynote speaker; Chinyere Anokwuru of Self-worth Organisation for women, while the Sole Administrator of the Alimosho Local Government; Hon. Ganiu Quadri encouraged them to attend more of such programmes to be enlightened and have a voice in the society.

In Lagos Island, Betty Abah of CEE-HOPE Foundation and the Keynote speaker; Mrs. Falana, Director, Lagos State Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, also educated the women on the need to enroll in vocational skill centres and learn more hand work, Founder of Sisters Interact Network and motivational speaker; Kathlyn Eyitemi encouraged them to speak out and report cases of Domestic abuse while using her personal life experience as a motivating factor.

According to the Founder of Rubies Ink Initiative for Women and Children and Editor-In-Chief of Women of Rubies ; Esther Ijewere-Kalejaiye; the workshop was an impactful learning experience for the women in Lagos Island and the feedback was inspiring.

Pictures from Alimosho LGA