Interview By Dimeji Akinloye
Two Friends, Buky Akinmboni and Bolaji Fasanya Sacrificed a Life of Comfort to Build Nigeria’s Leading Fragrance Company
B
uky Akinmboni had no intention of becoming an entrepreneur. She had a good job with one of the largest advertising agencies in West Africa, and earned a decent salary. But life had other plans as she and her friend, Bolaji Fasanya decided to start a business in an industry that barely existed in the Nigerian marketplace.
After convincing themselves that the idea was worth a shot, they started their company in 2015 and named it Scentify. These ladies, now in their late 30s, chose the complete unconventional roads, never played by the book and did everything contrary to what business experts and schools of thought would advise. No business plan, no market research and they created a product before identifying a market. All they had was passion and the willpower to succeed. Of course, the odds were stacked against them. Buky went on to quit her day job to give the business all the attention it
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required. And today, the brand is gaining cross-border traction and has become one of the leaders in its category. In this interview with Business Elites Africa, Buky elaborates on all the battles they had to fight and the price they paid to stay in business. She also admits they made lots of mistakes that other entrepreneurs can learn from.
we had only experimented with service-based businesses, and none worked out. I couldn’t wrap my head around a productionbased business. Apparently she had watched a documentary on how to make candles and saw it as easy and unique. She just thought it would be a novel idea in Nigeria because nobody was doing it. I personally loved candles and fragrances. But I didn’t really key into it at the time because I was still working a 9 – 5 job at Insight Communications. We had this conversation in 2014.
You guys started your company in 2016, at a time when that type of business was almost non-existent in Nigeria. Of all businesses, why What was exciting about it to me scented candles? was me getting to make candles for
Let me give you a bit of our background. Bolaji and I have a background in advertising, communication and marketing. So we’ve tried to do business together in that field but nothing really took off. And then one day, Bolaji calls me and says, ‘Buky, what do you think about scented candles as a business?’ I was, like where is that coming from? All this while,
myself. I just thought it would be interesting to make candles that I can use. That’s how we started researching and practicing, and I got sucked into it. And by December 2015, we sold our first product. So basically Bolaji’s inspiration from something she watched and my passion got us started. Some entrepreneurs would tell you to first find a hungry market and
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