A personal health crisis spurred Ebun Feludu to switch to using coconut milk, and today, through her enterprise, she is on a valuable mission to plant over a million coconut trees with other farmers in Nigeria.
Kokari, which means ‘let the good go around’ in Yoruba, is a mantra Ebun Feludu has lived by for as long as she can remember. As the founder of Kokari Coconuts in Nigeria, she is on a mission to bring the health and economic benefits of the coconut crop to the world.
The genesis of her passion for economic empowerment, however, was crystalized when Feludu saw firsthand the impact her father’s death had on her mother.
“He died in his early 40s and it was a shock for my mom because she had leaned on him for support throughout and it was difficult for her when that support was no longer there. She was on her own with six children and that made an impression on me because his passing made me lose a piece of her as well – that had an impact on me,” says Feludu.
Since then, she made the decision to put women at the center of her business to ensure they are economically-empowered and able to weather life’s many storms. Following several stints in the media sector, Feludu also had a life-altering moment when she fell ill due to lactose intolerance.
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“In December 2015, I had some milk and fell very ill. It was incredibly scary for everyone. It was at this point that I knew that I couldn’t consume milk anymore; I knew it didn’t agree with me and I just had to find an alternative. I lived in Lagos, so coconut was everywhere,” says Feludu.
“I started playing around with coconut milk and my kids loved it, so I started moving in that way. I later found out that about 80% of Africans and 68% of the world’s population are also lactose-intolerant, but a lot of us just deal with it because, for the most part, it does not have that much of a negative impact or affect us in an extreme way anyway.”
And just like that, Kokari was born.
Feludu spent some time in India learning about the coconut value chain, from seedling to farming and factory processing, before finally returning to Nigeria to set up her own factory with $200,000 of her personal funds.
“In the early stages, I was very clear that I wanted this to be a legacy business – coconut is a legacy business because if you plant the coconut, it can stay for about 100 years,” she says.
The coconut products market size is estimated at about $4.96 billion in 2024, and is expected to reach $7.98 billion by 2029, as per data intelligence platform, Mordor Intelligence.
In Nigeria, that economic power is already being harnessed.
Stephanie Ofori, a management consultant, has been living in the bustling cosmopolitan area of Ikoyi in Nigeria, for the past five years. During the Covid-19 pandemic, she too had a life-changing experience when she endured complications brought on by lactose intolerance.
“It turned out that although I could previously digest lactose, it had caused a lot of damage to me. I was suffering from an infection which meant I had to undergo surgery on my small intestine. It was a really scary time because it happened during Covid and I honestly thought I was not going to make it,” recalls Ofori.
The condition is one in which you develop digestive symptoms such as diarrhea or gas after consuming food that contains lactose.
Since her recovery, Ofori has completely changed her lifestyle, opting for a plant-based diet which includes the use of coconut milk, which she buys from Kokari.
“After my surgery, I started researching plant-based diets and discovered the many health benefits of coconut milk. That is when I stumbled on Kokari and have never looked back,” she says.
According to Dr Nma Okechukwu-Okoroji, President of the National Coconut Producers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria (NACOPPMAN), the crop can add an estimated $400 billion to the Nigerian economy annually.
“What we are advocating for is to get the more innovative and modern seedlings from Asia. The yield is much greater with these modern seedlings and that means that the farmer can generate a lot more revenue from them because they have an average life span of about 80 years,” says Okechukwu-Okoroji.
Kokari has diversified from producing just coconut milk to over 10 products, all certified by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC). These range from coconut snacks to skincare and even oral hygiene products.
“The coconut value chain is a $38 billion market and what we found is that most of the coconuts we get from Nigeria are imported. I am on a mission to plant over one million coconut trees with other farmers,” says Feludu.
For her, this business is also a major source of economic empowerment for women, so 80% of her workforce at Kokari is women.
“I am passionate about creating value; for women to earn economic independence. We have now created Kokari Café which is our distribution model. It is solar-powered and run by women and our vision is to grow to hundreds of shops run by women so they can also share in the value chain,” she says.
Okechukwu-Okoroji shares Feludu’s passion.
“The good thing about coconut is that it can be planted along- side other food crops like cassava without it affecting the growth, so we encourage farmers to incorporate coconut in their crops. Agricultural entrepreneurs can earn billions of naira annually from coconut production,” adds Okechukwu-Okoroji.
In addition to acquiring over 10 acres of land and growing the company’s distribution outlets, Feludu supplies seedlings to other farmers.
Kokari has also recently broken into the United States (U.S.) market, with an exhibition at the PACK EXPO East in Philadelphia, which allowed them to connect with international buyers.
It has not all been smooth sailing, but for Feludu, navigating soaring fuel prices, which peaked at about 400% this year alone, as well as delayed payments from retailers in Nigeria, has only helped to strengthen and diversify her business model.
“Last year, we had a major retailer owing us so much money, we almost shut down. Our Kokari outlet helped us with cash flow; to help us deal with retailers not paying us promptly. Also, the cost of electricity and fuel to power the place forced us to move to solar as a source to power our business,” says Feludu.
“We are grateful we are doing that, and this is the model that we will take [to] the other outlets.”
According to Feludu, the goal for up-and-coming agricultural entrepreneurs should be to solve problems bigger than themselves.
“If you are solving your own problem, you can start and end it in a short amount of time. But when your ‘why’ is bigger than you, then you have the focus, the passion and drive to pursue a dream that is much bigger,” she says. Her ‘why’ is to plant the million coconut trees and create a coconut city where everything from farm to factory, as well as schools, hospitals and amenities in the entire community, is supported by the coconut enterprise. And all while placing women at the heart of economic development.
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