SEED CAPITAL

A PERSONAL HEALTH CRISIS SPURRED EBUN FELUDU TO SWITCH TO USING COCONUT MILK, AND TODAY, THROUGH HER ENTERPRISE, SHE IS ON A VALUABLE MISSION TO PLANT OVER A MILLION CONUT TREES WITH OTHER FARMERS IN NIGERIA.

- Peace Hyde

Kokari, which means 'let the good go around' in Yoruba, is a mantra Ebun Feludu has lived by for as long as she can remember. As the founder of Kokari Coconuts in Nigeria, she is on a mission to bring the health and economic benefits of the coconut crop to the world.

The genesis of her passion for economic empowerment, however, was crystalized when Feludu saw firsthand the impact her father's death had on her mother.

"He died in his early 40s and it was a shock for my mom because she had leaned on him for support throughout and it was difficult for her when that support was no longer there. She was on her own with six children and that made an impression on me because his passing made me lose a piece of her as well - that had an impact on me," says Feludu.

Since then, she made the decision to put women at the center of her business to ensure they are economically-empowered and able to weather life's many storms. Following several stints in the media sector, Feludu also had a life-altering moment when she fell ill due to lactose intolerance.

"In December 2015, I had some milk and fell very ill. It was incredibly scary for everyone. It was at this point that I knew that I couldn't consume milk anymore; I knew it didn't agree with me and I just had to find an alternative. I lived in Lagos, so coconut was everywhere," says Feludu.

"I started playing around with coconut milk and my kids loved it, so I started moving in that way. I later found out that about 80% of Africans and 68% of the world's population are also lactoseintolerant, but a lot of us just deal with it because, for the most part, it does not have that much of a negative impact or affect us in an extreme way anyway." And just like that, Kokari was born.