With an initial investment of $100,000 and a drive to give Nigerians greater access to healthy food, Affiong Williams founded the company ReelFruit which has now grown to a size of seventeen employees and is providing services to 80 stores in Nigeria. ReelFruit suppplies dried fruit which is dried and packages by the company in the capital and distributed throughout the country. Williams says that she saw a lot of potential in the field (using her own money and that of her family to initially back the venture). She was also altruistic in her goal of providing much needed jobs in the country, and has clearly been successful thus far.
Williams spoke to the difficulty of introducing a new product to the agriculture market. She certainly had some apprehension as ” the [agriculture” sector primarily is obviously more complicated than people anticipate. I think there are so many issues with the, sort of structural issue with the sector so for any sort of I think success, it will take a lot of planning and understanding and also a lot of technical understanding.
William’s most inspiring entrepreneurial trait is her is her determination. This is especially helpful when combined with her keen ability to see problems or holes in the market and find a solution. She remarks that she saw a hole in the market and was determined to exploit it, and she has. In reading about her experience in entering the agriculture sector, the most significant thing I learned was the ability of every sector of the market whether agriculture or computer science is very intricate, complicated, and filled with technology- all of which must be understood to be successful in that sphere.
Affiong Williams is a great example of how it is important to have multiple entrepreneurship traits in order to be successful with your idea. She needed to be a problem solver, but also determined that she was going to make a difference no matter the work or cost.