‘We’re an impact company, not just producing’

Social Entrepreneur and Agri-business Executive Helen Majemite is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Oeetrot Concept Limited, an indigenous facility management company with core competence is procurement and logistics. She is also the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Ceeri Foods, a social enterprise in the agri-business value chain. The women and youth empowerment advocate uses her Ceeri chin-chin and brand as test case to teach and prove to women that they could start a business with little or no capital. She shares her inspiring ‘start-small-and-grow-big’ story with AMBROSE NNAJI.

With a supposedly comfortable life, largely made possible by her successful and supportive husband who is a lawyer, she probably would have, like some other women, relaxed and enjoy her life rather than put her hand in the plough. But her strong and unflinching belief in women’s financial and economic empowerment would not allow the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Oeetrot Concept Limited, an indigenous facility management company, Mrs. Helen Majemite, choose that path.

Helen, who is an acclaimed social entrepreneur, agri-business executive and staunch women and youth empowerment advocate, has never hidden her desire to be financially independent; it was quite over-powering. “A woman should not rely entirely on her spouse. She needs to start thinking positively, she needs to know how to get financially and economically empowered, she told The Nation, adding that she has come to realise that women empowerment i.e. financial and economic empowerment, is very important.

Helen whose company, Oeetrot Concept Limited, has core competence in procurement and logistics, said she left school at 21 and started raising her family almost immediately and wasn’t working despite having earning a university degree.  It wasn’t until I was 40 years old that I realised that I needed to do something. I had a supposedly comfortable life. My husband could afford to take care of me, but that satisfaction wasn’t there, you wanted money, you had to rush to your husband.That wasn’t what I wanted,” the Delta State born social entrepreneur said.

However, her realisation that she needed to do something on her own was quite dramatic. Her story: “My mother in-law was sick. That was in 2003. I didn’t have even N5, 000 to travel to Delta State to see her in the hospital, and I could not ask my husband, it didn’t sound very good. I had to beg somebody to give me money before I could travel home to see my mother in-law. But when I came back, I said ‘NO,’ this is the turning point. That was when I started doing what I could do and as God would have it, I was able to use my network. So that was when I discovered myself.”

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According to the 1989 graduate of Botany, from University of Benin (UNIBEN), she knew that there was something missing and she needed to discover herself. “At 40, I said even if I had a supportive husband, it’s his money and not my mine. No matter how you look at it, even if he provides for you, it’s not your money. And I knew I had to start up something. I knew I had to pick up myself,” she said. And she did just that. With her flare for baking, she started baking cake. She also proceeded to FATE Foundation to further home her skill in baking.

Helen, an alumnus of FATE Foundation, said with what she learnt, she was able to improve on her cake baking, and also went into other things that were associated with or are similar to baking, catering, event management, which were all in the same line of the business. “That was my breaking point. I now have satisfaction, I now have something called my own because,” she proudly announced, noting that before now, she had to run to her spouse for whatever she needed. “Now, even if I still have to go to him, I have a bit of money that I can say this is mine,” she emphasised.

Although Helen has been running Oeetrot Concept Limited since 2007, with its educational consulting arm, much of the satisfaction the budding entrepreneur  appears to have come on the strength of the establishment of Ceeri Foods, 10 years later, precisely 2017. Ceeri Foods, which is an agro processing company in the food packaging sector, The Nation learnt, was borne out of its founder’s passion for women empowerment. In fact, it was used as a test case by Helen to teach and prove to women that they could start a business with little or no capital.

Helen confirmed this much, saying: “Ceeri was set up because of our passion for women. I’ll say it’s our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).” “I stand for women. I feel that women’s voice should be heard. Women need to be economically and socially empowered no matter how small,” she declared.

According to her, “that’s the reason I went into agro product (the Ceeri chin-chin) because I found out that when you ask women why they are idle, not doing something, they will tell you there’s no fund. So, I had to start the production of chin-chin with a minimal amount of money just to prove to them that you can do virtually anything/you can start a business with an amount as little as N5000 or N10, 000.”

Helen started Ceeri chi-chin with the sum of N20, 000. Her words: “When you speak with some of the women, they will tell you that they don’t have money to start business; that they are looking for N200, 000 or N500, 000 to start business and we said ‘NO,’ you don’t need so much before you start a business, you can start a business with N20, 000, you can start a business with even N10, 000 and grow the business. What you just need to grow the business is passion. So, that’s where Ceeri chin-chin

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