A Nigerian baker of the popular “Agege bread” in Canada, Adewale Rabiu, attributes the growth of his business to the support of his wife. Rabiu, a native of Ijebu Igbo in Ogun State, told The on Thursday that his wife, an indigene of Ondo State, has been a great asset to his enterprise in the North American country. Earlier, a TikTok video of Rabiu surfaced online when the Mayor of Brampton led city officials to visit his factory.
“My wife has been an integral part of the business. She keeps me going,” he said. “We run our business like a board. We set our plans and targets.” The opportunity to start the Agege‑bread business arose after he relocated to Canada in 2016 and noticed that Ontario lacked a delicious bread like the one found in Nigeria. To establish the venture, Rabiu traveled back to Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub, to learn the Agege‑bread‑making process at a local bakery.
“When I arrived in Canada in 2016, I had a telecommunications job,” he explained. “We saw that there was no Nigerian bakery in the whole of Ontario. We were eating bread that was close to Nigerian bread in taste, and if we had our own bread, our people would appreciate it.” Rabiu noted that his family has always been entrepreneurial. He had run poultry farming in Abeokuta, delivering eggs to Lagos, while his wife was involved in the oil‑and‑gas business. “Coming to Canada, bread was not in our plan, but when we saw the opportunity we took it.”
Regarding the challenges of starting the business, Rabiu said securing funds and equipment was difficult. “We bought equipment three times before we got the right one, because the baking process in Lagos and Canada is different.”
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