A wise man once said ‘Nobody ever became a leader by following the crowd. If you must lead, be prepared to make your own path’. There are few people in the world who dare to follow a path no one else has and today we celebrate one of them.
Cynthia Mosunmola Umoru, is the CEO of Honeysuckle PTL Ventures and she is a farmer , one of the most successful ones in Nigeria. As a young girl, Cynthia’s passion was to study medicine but was forced to attend another university due to political violence in the north. It was while studying zoology in the university that her interest in agriculture grew. Refusing to limit herself, she took courses in fisheries, and multi-level marketing. She also ran a successful cake and cookie business. Cynthia also participated in an internship at ExxonMobil while still at the university. She had such ability to go the extra mile that though just an intern, she was allowed to participate in an outside vendor evaluation from where she learned so much about quality methods and assessment.
In her final year in the university, armed with the zeal to chart a new course, be her own boss and these very specific skill set, she launched Honeysuckles PTL Ventures with the main aim of selling processed food produce. Soon after launching, Cynthia got the opportunity to supply dressed chicken and catfish to one of the fastest growing food retail chains in the country at the time. However, when scarcity and inconsistent quality got in her way a lot, she then launched her own farm to meet this need. Honeysuckle focuses on high quality food products using modern packaging and fast delivery, and has its own farms and ponds.
Cynthia’s determination, consistency and hard work paid off because in 2009, she was awarded the Business Owner of the Year, a category of the Future Awards which is highly esteemed in Nigeria for recognizing talent in the younger generation. However, Cynthia realizes that the journey hasn’t been quite so easy. She once recalled she made poor business decisions when she was just starting because there was no one to talk to.
Determined to do something about this lack of mentorship and change the poor perception of agriculture in Nigeria which before now has been considered a business for low–lives, Cynthia now makes the rounds of schools in and around Lagos, speaking before hundreds of high school and university students each week. Making sure to dress fashionably, something not commonly associated with farmers in Nigeria. She then shares her success story – success that nobody would normally link to farming.
Dozens of the most entrepreneurial students sign up and she revives their school’s Young Farmer’s Clubs. To keep their initial enthusiasm up, she gets them started on simple, straightforward projects that can produce short- term cash rewards like snail farming and vegetable gardening. Cynthia then takes the students to her farm and combines them with a broader group of aspiring young agribusiness entrepreneurs. Together, both groups witness a real-life example of modern agribusiness. Honeysuckle PTL Ventures offers a year-long apprenticeship for those that choose, these young people get to learn the whole process, from production to dealing with the final corporate client. While being exposed to agriculture in this way the youngsters soon begin to realize that farming doesn’t have to look like their antiquated ideas. Cynthia then works with them to secure the land, and other resources to turn their ideas into reality.
This amazon has not just made tremendous success out of agriculture in a country where people don’t credit much success to farming, she has devoted herself to mentoring the younger generations to embrace farming and get rid of their poor perceptions of farming. She has worked with both the Ministry of Agriculture in Lagos to Lagos to establish a program to teach agribusiness to young farmers using one of her farms for research and training. She is collaborating with the Federal Ministry of Youth Development to incorporate her project ABIRA into the ministry agenda as a transformation platform for job creation and these are just a few of her projects. She also works with banks to make credit more available to these young people.
This inspirational woman is intent on proving that farming can be cool and glamorous enough for young people to get into and she is not stopping anytime soon. She has indeed shown that with consistency, hard work, and what can only be seen as a fearless spirit, young people can achieve their dreams, even if it’s never been done before.
