Vivian’s story: poultry farming with a purpose

Vivan Ademuyiwa is the founder of, Vcubeplus Ventures, a poultry farm with an online and offline shop in Lagos, Nigeria. After encountering many teen mothers in her community, Vivian decided to start training women and girls with poultry farming skills to improve their earning potential and help them achieve financial independence. Our Road to Growth programme supported her to strengthen her business and enabled her to increase its impact.

“I grew up in a family of teachers and farmers. Both of my parents taught school while also running our family farm. It could be tough, especially in Africa in the ‘80s. They instilled in me a lot of discipline, a commitment to learning, and a love for agriculture. I even chose to take agriculture classes in high school, instead of home economics. It’s something that excites me! 

While I’ve always loved growing my own food, eating organic, and using natural remedies, it was more of a hobby for me than a business. I trained as an accountant and worked in that field for many years, with no entrepreneurial intentions. My journey into entrepreneurship was unexpected, starting with a personal problem I needed to solve and turning into something so much bigger!  

The products I was using on my skin and hair were causing me to have reactions. The chemicals in the products were just too harsh for me; they were giving me itchy skin and awful rashes. I needed to try something gentler and more natural, but I wasn’t sure what to use. 

After complaining about the situation to a friend, she gave me some shea butter to use on my skin. As soon as I started using it, my skin problems completely disappeared. The rashes were gone, and I wasn’t itchy or uncomfortable. It was like nothing had ever happened! I asked her if she knew of any natural products I could use in my hair, and she recommended coconut oil. Using it made my hair look amazing, and my skin was glowing also!

I thought about all the other people out there who might be struggling with skin reactions and other negative effects from using unnatural products. It couldn’t just be me! I asked around my office to see if anyone else had sensitive skin. Fifteen out of forty of my colleagues said they had had similar reactions. I told them I knew the perfect solution! I started buying natural ingredients like shea butter and coconut oil and selling them to my colleagues. I grew plants with natural health and beauty benefits and sold those also. It became a side business that I could do while working full time at my job. Maybe it would have stayed that way, but the pandemic was about to change everything.

In 2020, we went into lockdown and had to stay home for over eight months. We weren’t able to work from the office, so I wasn’t selling as many products as I was before. People were still buying food and other essential items though, and they were more health conscious than ever. They needed healthy, wholesome products for their families, and they couldn’t travel very far to get them. 

I’d been interested in raising poultry for a while at that point, and I figured this was a good time to start. I bought some chickens and started selling eggs and other items to people in my area. Once that was off and running, I started selling my products online as well. Soon, my poultry business was paying as much as my accountant salary! That’s how I knew it was time to leave my job and work for myself. 

By 2021, we had opened a physical store. I spent a lot of time in the store, which gave me the opportunity to meet and speak to more people in my community. I became more aware of the problems people were facing and issues that needed to be addressed. I observed that there were a lot of teenage girls, some as young as 13, who were pregnant. Many of them were being guided into early marriage due to difficult financial circumstances and a lack of other options. I couldn’t stop thinking about them and wondering what support they might need as they navigate motherhood, stigma, and financial uncertainty.  

It must have been my parents’ influence that made me want to teach them what I know. I started training the girls in poultry farming so that they could have money to support themselves and their children without being reliant on men. Then, I realised the cycle of poverty that put them in difficult situations had probably started with the generations before them, so I extended my training to their mothers also. It’s been an amazing experience for me, and I think for them too.  

A major challenge for me as an entrepreneur has been finance. Poultry can cost a lot of money, depending on when you buy it. In the span of one month, the price of a chicken could nearly triple in price. You want to buy them while they are young and cheap, then raise them until they are full grown so that you can sell them to consumers for a higher price. I have to buy enough stock for myself and the women and girls I train, which means buying many poultry at once. The up-front cost is sometimes difficult to cover.

For every challenge I face as an entrepreneur, I always seek training courses or other learning opportunities. I’ve taken many courses to develop my business skills and have seen great results, but sometimes these courses can be costly. When I heard about the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women’s free Road to Growth programme, I was excited to join.

I loved every part of the programme. Right from day one, it was as if I was launched into another world entirely. It was a journey for me; a journey of information, a journey of training, a journey of networking. 

It gave me the opportunity to meet other women entrepreneurs and share our personal experiences. I realised that I wasn’t alone in my business journey, so many of us had similar experiences and challenges that we could support each other through.  

Since graduating from Road to Growth, I’ve kept in touch with many of the women from my cohort. I’ve even collaborated with one of the women I met to host a training session for 40 young girls. She is a cobbler, so she taught the girls some basic cobbling skills and gave them information about how to have a career in that field. It was great to be able to expose them to new skills that could transform their futures. 

In addition to growing my network, the programme also supported me to learn new strategies for serving different customer segments. This has led to increased sales and stronger financial standing. With my business strengthened, I’ve been able to offer training to more local women. I’ve even started training retired women, which is going very well.  

The impact of my business is now reaching beyond my own community. I’m collaborating with a school in Uganda to train children in agriculture from the age of five. That way, they will always have those skills for their future. 

My business success has totally changed my self-belief. I am now confident that with the right information, the right tools, and the right network, I can survive any business challenges.”

Photos by Taiwo Aina.