Every individual has an aura. For the Yorubas, you can tell what their aura is through their Oriki, an attributive descriptive or praise poetry. For Joycee Awosika, Oriki is a lifestyle of wellness and authentic African products. Growing up abroad, Joycee Awosika discovered the power of all-natural ingredients and its potency at age 12. She speaks to her passion, Oriki, a wellness brand and its Aura.
Tell us a bit about yourself and work history.
My name is Joycee Awosika and I am the founder of Oriki. Oriki is a global farm-to-skin and wellness brand that is completely passionate about taking African ingredients and transforming them into products, as well as providing a wellness experience. Before Oriki, I was an Energy Economist. I worked in the Power sector and I worked through the privatisation of Nigeria’s Power sector. I worked for a Fortune 500 company in New York City, trading energy and power until I decided to come to Nigeria for the first time in 2012. That started me on the journey of building the Oriki dream from Lagos, Nigeria.
So, you moved from Energy to Wellness, how did you make that shift?
Landing in Nigeria back then, it was like my eyes were opened to so many opportunities. All I knew of Nigeria as a child was the issue of Power, that is what I heard. Growing up in Washington D.C, all I ever heard was that Nigeria had electricity problems. So naturally when I got here, that was the first thing I did. Try to transition and try to add value to the Power Sector and to see what contributions I could make.
Founder, Oriki
But I realised after a few years working for the Minister of Power, working for Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, that the best way I could add value at the time was to build an enterprise of my own, build a company that could employ people … provide a story. The narrative would be a story in which we built something out of Africa, out of Nigeria that could compete in the global space. So, I got to work on another passion of mine which was natural ingredients and I thought to myself that I would create a product range that could compete globally. A lot of the companies and enterprises outside of Nigeria come here and utilise our resources. They utilise our shea, our cocoa and hibiscus and they create these products and yet, we didn’t have representation abroad so that is why I made the transition.
What was the goal for Oriki then and how has that goal changed over the years?
Initially Oriki started specifically as an agro farm-to–skin brand. It was solely focused on creating products and in the journey of building, manufacturing and creating here, I began to create a strategy for how we would sell the Oriki product because if you don’t have the biggest budget, it’s very hard for people to just subscribe to a new product range, especially because it’s skincare; it’s very intimate. So, I thought of a way to capture customers and that was to create an experience, and the experience was in the form of a spa. I started with my flagship spa. Actually, I opened on the same day of our graduation from the first every TEF program. I was a TEF entrepreneur and on that day, I left Ogun state and came straight here, opened the first location in V.I. The idea behind it was that people could engage with their skincare. Experience a body scrub, experience a mask and get to play with them through facials, through massages, through body scrubs and honestly it was a strategy I took a risk on because neither was I interested in starting a spa nor interested in the operations of a spa but I started that, it took off and that was how we got into it.
Being a TEF entrepreneur, how has that experience shaped your entrepreneurial journey.
I was part of the first class in 2015 and it was an amazing experience. At that time, it was my first business I was starting in Nigeria. I was just open to learning. We got a lot of information, we learnt from mentors, we had peer to peer learning as well and I think for me, it was just being able to be affiliated with such an amazing organisation that was so committed to entrepreneurs at the time and still is, just meeting all my fellow cohort members at the time, congregating, and sharing lessons. Also, reinforcing what I was learning as I was building my company in the classroom, it was a great learning experience for me. One of the things that’s interesting is that TEF members or alumni, they have pride. Last week I was at an event and I met someone who was like “oh my gosh! You’re a TEF entrepreneur” and I was like, “yes!” So, wherever we are, we are willing to help each other. We are willing to create an alliance, give each other advice and just make sure that we all win. That has probably been the most impressionable value that TEF has added to Oriki and to me.
What is Oriki’s Aura?
Our Aura is nurture, that is our distinctive factor. We are all about nurture from the experience you get when you first book with us, up until you leave. We are completely dedicated to wellness, completely dedicated to the experience. Just imagine a new born, how you cuddle them, how you speak to them, it is the same kind of Aura that we imbibe at Oriki. Our customer service officers are required to speak with a smile even if you are speaking on the phone, you can hear a smile in everyone’s voice. It goes all the way to coming in, when you sit down and you are waiting, what are the words that we use to take you to your room? “Hi, my name is Joycee, thanks for coming to Oriki today, I’ll be taking care of you.” Those are the kind of words we use at Oriki. When you’re in the room, the complete pampering; think of a good doctor and the patients; nurture, once again. The care, the concern, once you leave, we check up on you and we make sure that you book again. We make sure that we infuse wellness into your lifestyle. That’s the Aura of Oriki; nurture.
What’s the highlight of the Oriki experience?
The highlight of the Oriki experience has to be the pampering. We pay critical attention to ensuring that you get complete pampering when you’re here. So, when you walk into Oriki, whatever you’ve booked for, be it a facial, a body scrub, a massage, a pedicure, you need to come out feeling different. We believe in something called transformation. We believe in transformative experiences. Our therapists are known to call themselves healing hands. When you come in, you shouldn’t leave the same. If you’re in Lagos, you know how stressful the Lagos life can be. We are dedicated to ensuring that people begin to imbibe the Oriki experience in their lives. By the time you say, “oh wow! two weeks have passed, one month has passed since I’ve had an Oriki experience, since I had a massage, since I had a facial let me book my experience”, that is really the highlight of it, our attention to detail and the fact that we will never rush you, we want you to completely feel pampered.
What’s next for Oriki? How do you intend to reach more people?
Oriki is dedicated to reaching as many consumers as we can, infusing wellness into as many lifestyles as we can. Because of this, we are launching the Oriki Franchise opportunity this year. Right now, we just opened another location in Lekki Phase 1 and in the past five years we have built six spas. In the third quarter, we will be launching the franchise opportunity where you or anyone that fits and is qualified can get the opportunity to own an Oriki spa. In addition, we are kicking off two more locations in the North; we can’t wait to see you, and we have another spa opening up in Lagos. That’s the plan and we hope that by 2023 we would’ve opened fifty Oriki spas.
