Sanni Sheriff is the founder of Sannikayz Kitchen Limited. He is a caterer with vast experience in event services and currently runs a mobile restaurant in Lagos.
An engineering graduate of the University of Lagos, Sanni started his journey as an entrepreneur in 2011 when he began his mobile restaurant business on campus as an undergraduate.
The demand for his services was very high and after the undergraduate study, he established Sannikayz Kitchen in 2014.
Sanni is a recipient of so many awards, including the Under-30 Achievers Awards in 2013, and Creative Man of the Year by the University of Lagos Engineering Society Awards. He is the Best Entrepreneur in 2014, nominated as Sheraton Entrepreneur of the year at the African Youth Choice Awards in 2014 and the Most Promising Enterprising Youth at the Nigerian Achievers Awards in 2015.
Sanni started his business with just N10, 000, an amount he spent on registering his business name, printing banners and invoice. With referral from family and friends, he was able to break even.
“I was also inspired by my dad who operates a marine engineering services firm. He always wanted to grow his business and add more value to the brand and himself. This also drove my passion for rendering services to people,” he says.
He currently has three staff members and over 20 part-time workers who also work with him, especially at weekends when demand for his services are high.
The engineer-turned-caterer has not had it all rosy as he contends with high prices of food items in the country and low purchasing power of consumers.
He also says epileptic power supply in the country is a very big challenge confronting his business as it has shot up his cost of production.
“Our business has grown tremendously since we started and we have even opened another brand of business. Our target client is corporate bodies and everybody who are interested in our services,” he says.
“We have been serving the corporate class since January and it has really been adventurous. We have customers in Access Bank, Stanbic IBTC, Investment One, Integrated Supply Chain, Akintola Deloitte, PWC , just to mention a few. We have also acquired more assets. With support from family, friends and investors, the business is now worth about N5 million,” he adds.
Josephine Okojie
