Food is always in high demand in Nigeria. Whether fuel crisis, a currency crash, or public holidays, people will eat food. Traditionally, people will either have to cook their food or visit a restaurant to eat. However, food deliveries are increasing in demand these days due to the ease and convenience that comes with them.
You don’t need millions in capital or a restaurant to start this business; being a good cook and having a trusted dispatch rider is enough.
But, of course, in Nigeria, what works in theory doesn’t always work on the street. While food delivery seems to be one area that might be promising on paper, many fail to appreciate all the grunt work, logistics pressures, and general customer-service headache it entails. It is a business of details-and people who ignore these details tend not to last.
In this article, I will highlight the opportunities and challenges involved with starting a food delivery service in Nigeria.
What's in this guide?
The opportunities: Why food delivery is a profitable business
The good news is that food is a daily requirement, unlike some businesses that depend on trends or luxury spending; food demand remains fairly constant. Here are some reasons why the food delivery market is booming in Nigeria:
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1. Busy urban lifestyles
In cities like Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, and even more places like Ibadan or Enugu, people are getting busier than ever; cooking is becoming increasingly irrelevant to many. Long commutes, grinding jobs, and packed schedules are reasons enough for many Nigerians to prefer ordering lunch to spending time in the kitchen. Food delivery saves time-and time is even more money.
2. Tech and social media integration
You don’t necessarily need a full-blown application to start a business. In fact, for many food businesses, thriving on Instagram, WhatsApp, and a dependable logistics partner is all they need.
Good packaging, nice pictures, and consistent engagement are the ingredients needed for people to build a trusted brand online, straight from their kitchens. Running a small food delivery business does not require high overhead costs.
3. Low barrier to entry
Opening a popular restaurant would take a lot of capital, space, and even employees. Food delivery is something that you can start straight from your house. If you have excellent cooking skills and can manage multiple orders and ensure that they are promptly delivered, then you can start an operation with as little as N100,000, probably even less, depending on where in the country you set up shop.
4. Various niches to explore
There are various niches in the food industry depending on where your interest and expertise lies. You can do lunch packs for offices, breakfast only, healthy meals, fitness meal plans, local soups, small chops, or even just rice and stew. If you have carved a niche clearly with trust from your small audience, then you will grow using referral marketing.
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5. Growing appetites for convenience
The common Nigerian customer seeks everything fast and easy. We are in the age of “just send me location” and “how much with delivery?” After you build a reputation for coming on time with delicious food, they have no choice but to keep coming. And the word-of-mouth spreads like wildfire within this business.
The challenges: What you must prepare for
Of course, like all other businesses in Nigeria, food delivery comes with its challenges. Most startups close within a year because most underestimate the logistics, customer expectations, and unpredictable market conditions. Here is the hard truth:
1. Logistics is the real battlefield
Food is half the work; the real struggle is the delivery. Unreliable riders, fuel scarcity, traffic delays, and sudden bike bans could ruin an entire operation. If your rider comes late with the food or delivers it cold, customers would immediately blame you, not the bike guy.
Some food businesses currently recruit in-house riders to ‘have control’ of their operations, while some are partnering with logistics companies. Both have advantages and disadvantages. The in-house riders are costlier but are more reliable if trained. Logistics companies offer flexibility, but not all of them are consistent and may cancel last minute.
2. Customer trust and payment problems
In the meantime, Nigerians remain skeptical about paying for service before-hand; rightly so, since so many have fallen prey to fake vendors online. For these reasons, customers may tend to insist on paying on delivery when you are starting up or want to use a third-party app. Yours will need to be a gradual process of building trust through customers’ reviews, timely deliveries, and consistent communication.
Payment delays and even failed ones could cause a bad experience with the customer. There must be many flexible payment options-cash, mobile, and online transfers, and then refunds for failed transactions of payments before dispatch.
3. Fluctuating ingredient prices
Food is like the weather in Nigeria, one week a bag of rice will cost ₦30k, the next week it has jumped to ₦42k. Tomatoes and onions, along with cooking gas, can suddenly spike through the roof within days. What you can measure is that the price has a direct effect on your pricing. If the cost of ingredients goes up, then the cost of your service will also have to increase for you to make a profit, and not all your customers will be able to afford the price increase.
The smart way around it will always be to plan well. Stack up ingredients in bulk, predict future price increases, and only change your price when necessary-but communication has to be clear. Nigerians are price-sensitive but very understanding as long as there is a reasonable explanation.
4. Packaging and presentation
People eat with their eyes first. If your food shows up leaking in a nylon bag or mashed in a flimsy container, they won’t order again-even if the food tastes great. Quality packaging builds your brand and keeps customers happy.
But packaging comes at a cost. Disposable bowls, branded bags, sealing machines, and food-grade foil packs add to your expenses. Don’t compromise on this. Find a balance between cost and quality-and make sure to always factor packaging into your pricing.
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5. Sustainability and burnout
There is a lot of work in running a successful food delivery business. Cooking food, packing food, taking orders, responding to WhatsApp messages, and calling riders can all result in burnout. Most small food business owners typically get so overrun in about six months because they try to do everything alone.
To avoid overworking yourself, set working hours, create standard menus, and automate wherever possible. Get Help, even if it is someone answering the messages or preparing the ingredients. Your food business is only profitable if sustainable to keep.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Underpricing your meals: If you are not making a profit, then you are a Good Samaritan, not a business owner. You need to calculate all your costs, including gas, packaging, rider cost, and time, and then decide on a price that will bring in a profit.
- Depending on one rider: People always disappoint, so always have a backup. Make sure you have a spare rider or logistics partner just in case.
- Terrible communication: What frustrates customers the most is poor communication. If there is an issue, discuss it clearly with them. Do not disappear after you have taken payment. Continue to keep the customer updated.
- Inconsistency: If your Egusi soup tastes different every week, customers won’t return. Know your customers’ expectations and deliver consistently each time.
- Overpromising and underdelivering: Do not promise what you cannot deliver. It’s better to be honest about delays than to lie.
Conclusion
It is not easy to start a food delivery business in Nigeria; there is much work involved. However, if you are passionate about food, like making people happy, and have a bit of business sense, then rewards are plenty.
There is no need to rent an office or have millions in capital. What you need is a good system and the flexibility to accommodate things when they do not go as planned-because they will. That is the entire philosophy of the business: building up trust, delivery by delivery.
