“We run Speed Meals Mobile Kitchen, a food services company.”
Why did you start Speed Meals? “When our father died in 2010, we realized that we would not be able to support ourselves, our mother and seven siblings on the salaries we made as office cleaners. We knew that we could cook well and enjoyed cooking, so we started baking cakes and giving them to people. Over time, we started receiving orders for wedding cakes, birthday cakes and events catering.”
“If we didn’t go through those experiences we wouldn’t be where we are now. We have a learned a lot while growing this business. We have trained over 350 unemployed youth through our catering school. We also go around the country giving motivational talks. We believe in giving back to the society because of our philosophy that business is a social contract. To us, success means the ability to impact the maximum number of young people in Nigeria. We hope to inspire them to pick themselves up from adversity and start their own businesses. They should say to themselves, ‘if the Igwe Twins can make it, so can I’.”
What words of inspiration do you have for young people?“God has endowed us with all we need to succeed. You must look inside and think outside the box. Believe in yourself, work hard, look at the big picture and surround yourself with people that inspire you. Everything is possible here in Africa”
Titus and Tobias Igwe are young entrepreneurs based in Lagos. Their rags-to-riches story is an encouraging tale of how any of us can overcome setbacks to make our lives better.
Find out more about the Igwe Twins and other Nigerians who never gave up. Watch “Naija Diamonds” Saturday at 20:30 CAT (19:30 WAT) only on EbonyLife TV DSTV channel 165.
You can reach them on Facebook: www.facebook.com/igwetwins, www.facebook.com/speedmeals, www.facebook.com/titusigwetwins, www.facebook.com/igwetobias
or Twitter:@Igwetitus and @SpeedMeals