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In a conversation with Gbemi Giwa, a 28-year-old Nigerian businesswoman in Dubai, the word “more” came up many times.
“I am a passionate entrepreneur with the ability to transform ideas into creative and influential brands… I am a person with multiple personalities…” On a hot summer day in August, she was in a sunny place. said in a Zoom interview from his residence in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Although Giwa started out as an influencer and started several businesses in this glittering Middle Eastern emirate at the age of 26, she is wary of calling herself a “serial entrepreneur.”
Now that she’s making a conscious effort to focus on her core competency – the food business – she says her passion project remains Catfish, an online restaurant she launched in Dubai in 2018 that offers “healthy African-inspired dishes.”
After some “bold moves” and the twists and turns of the Covid-19 pandemic, when Giwa was forced to close the brick-and-mortar restaurant she opened in Jumeirah Lakes in 2019, she realized it was time to focus on a serious business. Gbemi’s Kitchen in Dubai’s Towers serves authentic Nigerian cuisine.
“In 2020, COVID-19 hit, and for the first time I suffered a huge loss from the closure of a restaurant concept, forcing me to start over and focus more on building a COVID-proof business with a greater focus on digital,” she said to those difficult months.
She first started a consulting firm called Digiboss to help business women build online profiles, establish themselves as thought leaders, and continuously attract lucrative collaboration opportunities.
“I help millennial women build impactful personal brands and work on taking action, teaching them profitable action steps to validate their ideas, craft them into beautiful concepts, and take them to the real world. ,” Jiwa said.
“Using the same methods I teach my clients, I was able to secure funding to reopen my Catfish Restaurant when the pandemic ended. I am currently repositioning our business into e-commerce by taking a piece of the growing ready-to-eat industry and retail.”
The food business is nothing new to her. In 2014, while she was in design school, she launched Dubai Fit Foodie, a wellness blog she calls “the longest-paying side hustle.” Her formative years shaped her early love of African food, and she wanted to give it the respect it deserved.
A year later, she redirected her love for dance, opening dance classes in Dubai and teaching Afrofit, which she calls “the second highest-paying side hustle.”
In 2016, she specialized in creating impactful digital marketing campaigns for local and international brands in the Middle East. A year later, she made another foray into the business world, launching a boutique agency specializing in branding and content creation for F&B concepts.
“Without action, the best ideas are meaningless.”
Even as a 16-year-old, while on a plane from Lagos to Dubai to attend the American University of Sharjah, she had the idea of creating content and pursuing a career in influence. Even if, at times, it meant going against the norm and using the word “no” several times to her late father, who was also a businessman and was very interested in her career.
“I come from a traditional African family, and they said, ‘Either you become a doctor or a lawyer, or you become nothing.’
“But ever since I entered design school, I’ve been obsessed with creativity. I believe that when you explore and exhaust several bad ideas, good ideas will emerge, but good ideas are meaningless without action.”
Fortunately, she is happy to be in Dubai.
“It’s one of the easiest places to do business, especially if you know the right people and have the money… I always tell young people it’s best to work with the right mentors because they have the experience and you can keep learning from them study. “
Where there is hustle and bustle, there is heart.
“My passion has always been around creating content, products and brands that reflect my African roots and helping people embrace wellness so they can feel their happier, healthiest selves,” Giwa said.
She is currently catering for various events and is working to push Catfish into the e-commerce space, and from October she will also be appearing at The Ripe Market, a farmer’s market in Dubai.
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