By Vivian Onyebukwa

Photo: Joseph Temitope Oluwadipe

What would ‘push’ a man with five degrees, three of them Masters and a job in a bank into being a baker? Ask Joseph Temitope Oluwadipe, that question and watch a thin smile spread across his face like butter on bread. With air of fulfillment and undiluted pride, he tells you that the profit and satisfaction from it is without measure.

Oluwadipe bagged his first degree in Business Education from the University of Benin and a postgraduate diploma in Economics at University of Lagos, (UNILAG). In between, he secured a job in the bank in 1991. After three years, he applied for study leave and returned to UNILAG for a full time Masters Degree in Economics. At the same time, he was offered another admission by the University of Benin (UNIBEN) to read Banking and Finance (Saturday only).

“So, I was doing the two together,” the chartered banker, notes. After he left the bank in 2010, he acquired yet another postgraduate diploma in Journalism at the Nigeria Instituted of Journalism, after which he proceeded to the Pan African University, School of Media and Communication for more studies.

But in spite of the chain of certificates, he strolled into the bakery and confectionary industry, ‘because I know food business is good business.

“With a bag of flour you can make a profit of N5, 000, that is, if you are not doing anything at all.”

The CEO, Global Exhibition Resources Nig. Ltd (GERN) advice to youths roaming the streets in search of elusive white-collar jobs is that they should take a cue from him and go into bakery and confectionary business.

What do you bake?

I bake bread, though on a small scale. Right now, it is a family business.

 

As a baker, how did you start?

I started with half a bag of flour.

 

How big are you now?

I have moved beyond that.

 

What is your assessment of the bakery/confectionary industry?

It is an industry that is large and open for new investment. Even if you don’t want to go into bread, you can go into confectionaries; and you don’t need much capital  to go into it. You can see women going into cake business. It is a business that people well like to go into, especially young graduates looking for something to do. They can go into bakery or confectionaries. It will save them the problem of looking for elusive jobs. It is a big and lucrative business.

 

Tell us about the exhibition you’re packaging. When did you start nursing the idea?

I got the idea in 2003. Since then, I have been nursing ambition of organizing this programme because I feel that exhibition is very important; it is an avenue to expose people to something.

The Bakery Expo 2013 is a strategic platform organized to bring together the people in the bakery industry- the buyer and the suppliers of bakery equipment, and even other associated products- so as to move the bakery industry forward. Having worked at this sector, I discovered that it is a sector that is big and wide with over 450,000 bakers registered in Nigeria. I believe it is an area one has to look into in terms of job creation, and also to bring about change in the industry because most of our bakers are still using obsolete equipment. They are not really exposed to modern equipment. That is why we are bringing in all these.

 

What do you intend to achieve?

My primary objective is for professionals all over the world to come out and showcase their latest equipment. It is also to bring professionals together where people generate ideas and rub minds. It is like a meeting point for professionals. We need to rob minds with government and other stakeholders on how we can develop this industry so that it will be an avenue for people to get jobs, to start business on their own. People can go into pastry, snacks and so on if you can’t go into bread because bread equipment are expensive. But all other ones like snacks are easy to go into.

 

If we have all these things and they are very easy to go into as you said, why do we still have many unemployed youths roaming the streets?

The problem we are facing in this country is complex. For instance, when I wanted to go into this business, people asked me, you have three masters degree, why bread? Education is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. But in Nigeria, we see education as an end. The moment you have a certificate, you begin to look for white-collar job. We need to change that orientation. People have been offering me jobs, but I told them I wanted to do my own thing. That is the issue with vocational training; they think people would abuse them. If a graduate wants to learn sewing, for instance, people would say, ‘is that all you can do with your degree? I have been a victim. Even today, people still say a manner of things about me, but I am making my money. Do you know I would do 300 pieces of bread and finish selling them before 8 a.m?

 

How long does it take to learn how to bake?

Within two weeks you are done. It does not take time. I can do chocolate bread, coconut bread, milk bread and so on. I love special bread, that’s why I do special exhibition. I don’t want to be common with the white pan bread. I do specialized bread and I know I make money from specialized bread, because whatever you call it is what it is.

I have been growing with this confidently and that is what informed my decision to organise an exhibition. I went to the university five times, getting one degree or the other, but thank God I can do this. If I have known all these things in the past 10 years, why would I be wasting my time in somebody’s office? If I had known this about five or six years ago, I would have been bigger than this.

Source: Sun