When Affiong Williams walked away from a comfortable job in South Africa to start a dried fruit business in Nigeria, many would have questioned her decision. The idea was bold, risky, and almost unheard of in her home country. But for the founder and CEO of ReelFruit, the decision marked the beginning of a journey that would take nearly a decade to bear fruit, quite literally.
Fast forward to today, and Williams’ tech-enabled agribusiness has raised $3 million in Series A funding, and broke into the UK and US market. Her story exemplifies the power of persistence, innovation, and an unyielding belief in a vision.
A leap of faith
Starting a business wasn’t always in the cards for Affiong Williams. In fact, her early dreams were rooted in medicine. After earning a degree in Physiology and Psychology, she set her sights on medical school, only to realise that it wasn’t the right fit.
A post-graduate diploma in Business Administration opened up new possibilities, but it was her first job at Endeavour South Africa, an entrepreneurship support organisation, that truly ignited her passion.
“I loved working with entrepreneurs,” Williams recalls. “I loved that they created jobs, stood for values, and took risks with outsized rewards.”
After four years, her passion for entrepreneurship had grown too strong to ignore. In 2012, she returned to Nigeria, armed with a trunk full of dried fruit and a vision to revolutionise the market.
The road less traveled
Affiong Williams’ entry into the dried fruit business was not without challenges. Initially, her plan was to produce fruit juice, but with limited capital, she pivoted to dried fruit, a market that was largely untested in Nigeria. “I didn’t know much,” she admits. “If I had done more research, I probably would have shelved the idea.”
What followed were years of hard work, uncertainty, and self-doubt. She hawked her prototype products around Lagos, slowly gaining traction. Without the resources to build a factory, she worked out of her apartment, receiving early investments from family and friends who believed in her vision.
Her husband, then a friend, provided the first significant injection of capital, allowing her to rent office space, buy a van, and hire a small team.
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Pioneering a market
Williams’ company pioneered an entirely new sub-industry in Nigeria. For the first five years, she struggled to convince investors of the potential of dried fruit. “People didn’t believe in the big picture,” she says. Instead of raising large rounds of funding, she focused on securing smaller amounts tied to achievable milestones. This strategy of scaling gradually, through measurable successes, eventually paid off.
By proving her concept in smaller steps, doubling sales, opening new locations, and launching additional products, Affiong Williams built investor confidence. Nine years after starting, ReelFruit closed a $3 million Series A round, cementing the company’s place as a leader in the dried fruit market.
Lessons in leadership
One of the most valuable lessons Williams learnt along the way was the importance of sharing her vision with her team. In the early days, she feared that discussing her long-term goal of becoming an end-to-end business with global exports would seem out of touch. But as she opened up, she found that her team rallied behind her ambitious vision.
“I’ve also learned to be more audacious,” she adds. “I used to be timid in business, always expecting the worst, but I’ve gotten bolder about what we can do. That boldness has caught on with the team, and I’m proud of that.”
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Navigating Nigeria’s challenges
Doing business in Nigeria comes with its own unique set of challenges. Williams sources raw materials from as far away as Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire, navigating complex logistics and macroeconomic instability.
One of the most difficult challenges has been building a 24-hour cold storage facility, which her team eventually constructed through cost-effective, homegrown solutions.
Despite these hurdles, ReelFruit has continued to thrive, focusing on growth and efficiency. Williams is quick to credit her team for their resourcefulness and resilience in the face of adversity.
For budding entrepreneurs, Williams offers valuable advice: “Understand your industry better than anyone else, commit to constant learning, and leverage strong networks. In Nigeria, especially, networks are crucial.”
Her journey also highlights the importance of patience and time. “If someone had told me it would take five years just to build our first factory, I would have said ‘No way.’ But that’s part of the process.”
Beyond business, Affiong Williams emphasises the need for balance. As a runner and recreational football player, she believes in having activities outside of work to maintain a healthy work-life balance.
“Entrepreneurship can consume you, but you have to create space for other facets of your life,” she adds.
She is a recipient of the inaugural Veuve Clicquot “Bold Woman Award” in 2022, the WIMBIZ Entrepreneur of the Year and Forbes 30 under 30.
What’s next for ReelFruit?
One of Affiong Williams’ biggest goals is to take Nigerian-made products to the world. ReelFruit has already exported its products to the UK and launched an e-commerce store in the US. “We want to dominate this space and demonstrate a path for Nigerian-founded companies to serve global customers,” she says.
ReelFruit’s factory, located in Abeokuta, continues to increase production capacity, allowing the company to work with more farmers, introduce new fruit varieties, and add new product lines for different customer segments.
Uche Ebi
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