The internet is getting popular, and one of the businesses you can float is a food delivery service in Nigeria.
With this, people can put calls, send texts, contact via websites or any other ways to book their foods.

I've seen many people looking for how to start a soup business in Nigeria, and other food businesses that pay very well.
There are a lot of people who bake cakes and deliver online (mostly Instagram), and this is also another huge, though saturated food delivery service.

Introduction To Food Delivery Business In Nigeria

While you may be thinking Nigeria is not a huge market, there are others out there taking the bull by the horn.

The food delivery service in Nigeria is a highly unsaturated niche, since most people are going into cakes and biscuits deliveries.

What is the business all about?

The food delivery business is all about making of foods and taking to your consumers in their homes, offices, schools, or other places.

There are some busy parents who place food orders for their wards online and take it to them in school. Most schools won't let you bring the food to the pupils, so the parents most times do that themselves.

Also, campus students are a huge market. You can be delivering to them in their lodges and departments while they concentrate on other things.

Another huge market are working class men and women. They would place orders and you send them to their offices and other work places.

Most times, I suggest you work with a fast food, or possibly own yours so you sell to other people while awaiting orders.

This is because the market is still new to Nigerians, and they might not flock you as you begin.

Another problem you'll face is competition, as Mama Put food vendors are already dominating the niche.

You might need to keep your price very affordable if you'll sell to plenty people, especially while starting.

You can also consider getting a POS machine, as this will help you ease payments. Aside that, accepting payments via bank transfer is a huge alternative, though most times I prefer people book and pay online.

The only problem you'll have is getting trusted, and that is why you need a website.

Steps To Starting A Food Delivery Business In Nigeria

Some of the things you need to do before launching a food delivery service in Nigeria include:

• Determine your target market

Who do you want to target? Are they students or working class people? How much do you think they'd be willing to consistently pay?

These are some of the questions you need to answer while determining your target market. Also, they would be needing the food at different times of the day.

Also, if you'll be targeting a sports center, school or any other places with a large concentration of youths, you'll be preparing more of snacks.

The older generation would prefer swallows and regular meals, and some might order special diets.

• Prepare a food delivery business plan

After marking your target audience, it's time to set up a business plan. It is a simple document which will contain different things to facilitate the successful running of your business.

Some of the things your business plan will contain include:

• A brand name, it should be something catchy and of course, related to what you'll be doing
• Target market and location
• Type(s) of foods you'll be delivering
• Method of delivery ie bikes, cars
• The start-up cost
• Daily, weekly, monthly and annual cost of operation
• Probably return on investment (ROI)
• Billion format (will customers be paying based on distance, orders or both?)
• Required manpower

You'll also put in your estimated growth, so you can tell whether you're succeeding or loosing. It will help you stay in focus and know where to make amendments.

• Business Registration

You will need to do a business registration, as well as get approvals from NAFDAC and other bodies that deal with food.

This will help stop any later fines or obstructions. I have seen some food companies close after a while because they got into issues with the government.

All these could have been avoided, especially as a start-up.

• Get a location for preparation of the items and the kitchen items

You can use a flat or even rent/build a place yourself. You'll also need to make provisions for cookers, ovens, pots, coolers, a fridge(s), spoons, kettles and other things.

The deliveries will be made with take-aways so putting that in place is a good idea.

• Get the required man power

You can't do everything yourself, and hiring people is very essential. As a start-up, you can be two people in the kitchen with one delivery man.

If you're not yet able to afford a good number of people, starting with your family members is not a bad idea.

There are many mama-puts out there who function only thanks to their family.

• Make provisions for methods of delivery

The delivery guy would be needing a motor-bike or even vehicle to facilitate his delivery.

Most deliveries are made by males, but you can hire a female if you can access only them.

You might also need to give them a POS machine, and give them an account number through which payments will be made.

They will call you to confirm payments if they can't access it from there.

• Hire someone to create a website for the business

A website is very essential for running your food delivery business. Most people don't care about where you produce your food, and will take you as a big brand once they see you own a website.

You'll also have a great platform to display your products, as well as receive payments via credit cards.

You can hire us to create one for you today. All our business websites come with a Paystack integration so your users don't have to bother about the security of their cards.

We also secure them from hackers and that is a big advantage to you.

• Advertise!

You need to do a lot of advertisements, especially while you're still growing.

The biggest companies in the world like Pepsi, Coco-cola, Samsung and Facebook still advertise, so why not you?

You can pay for bill boards, sign-posts and make amazing posters. You should also invest in Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and MGID ads to help reach millions of users.

The people might not order immediately, but your name will become a household name.

Getting a blog section on your business website will help you make more money from the business, as well as get users emails to make publicizing easy.

You should also get Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages to facilitate your business growth.

• Work begins

It's time to get to work. Your website is ready, ads are running and orders are coming in.

You can also partner with a fast-food so you don't bear the headache of preparing the foods yourself.

Once you get your orders, the delivery guy zooms off to the location. I prefer bikes for delivery purposes because of the traffic associated with the top cities of Nigeria like Lagos, Owerri, Asaba, Port Harcourt and Ibadan.

Conclusion

The food delivery service in Nigeria in here to stay, and the business is only for the smart.
Even if you don't want to go into delivery of cooked foods, you can start something like a pizza business.

Either ways, you'll need good capital, as well as hardwork to succeed.
Thanks a lot for reading along.

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