8 Top Truck/Vendor Food Business in Nigeria

Truck/Vendor Food Business in Nigeria: For all of you looking for a business that could take you heights, this is the right place and right topic to know about. Needless to mention, food business is a one which has proven records of making an entrepreneur successful. The demand graph of it just keeps increasing as you progress in the business.

However, this can be in your life only if the food you provide has all the relevant characteristics to pull your customers. The business is doing phenomenal in all the countries making the food industry wider and greater each day. New inventions and technological support have also been pillars of support for this drastic progress. In that line, food industry has in itself an interesting concept called Food truck.

This is simply a vehicle which is built with a kitchen and all supplies necessary to provide the service provided by a conventional restaurant.  Now let us move to the next stage where you actually understand what is it to be a food truck operator.

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photo of DF Nigerian Food Truck - New York, NY, United States
DF Nigerian Food Truck – Order Food … yelp.com https://www.yelp.com/biz/df-nigerian-food-truck-new-york

How to become a food truck operator in Nigeria.

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I personally think that knowledge about a particular position in a business is an extremely important factor to be considered before choosing the position for yourself. This is like passing in all the checklists and having the saturated level of job fit. Below listed are the major duties of a food truck operator. These points are to be checked with your abilities as you will be working as a food truck operator if you have decided to invest in the business.

Firstly, consider yourself as a supervisor. Keep yourself updated with all the activities that is being done in the kitchen.

No matter how many helpers you have, you will have to make plans and decisions for purchase of supplies or raw materials.

Here is where you will know the exact financial status of your business.

  • Health and food are just related and can never be seen separate. Thus, having a good inspection done in the kitchen is your duty. Or probably call it a responsibility as you are the only person liable to any sort of undesirable situations that could arise out of poor quality of the food. Sanitary measures are to be followed strictly.
  • Lastly, record all transactions. Records has the potential to track your business and the cross check if the business is being run as planned. Also, these records can be used as evidences wherever needed and applicable. Records does not mean the monetary transactions alone. Your business license and all other related documents should be kept ready and updated from time to time.

1. What is the demand in Nigeria?

Demand and supply are two inevitable concepts in a business that has to be clearly studied. Having said that, let us understand what sort of food is being highly demanded. Nigeria is a country which has a number of ethnic and cultures visiting from different places across the country at an extremely high frequency. It is not only a country for tourists, but also a country with number of students traveling around to purse higher education etc.

Truck/Vendor Food Business in Nigeria

Now simple calculation will show you an approximate value of demand for street food. There are a huge number of foreigners also traveling around across cities in Nigeria. This number also holds a large amount of the total population. Demand for a business is forecasted with both mathematical calculations and guesstimates. In that way, I give guesstimate of foreigners to be eating food from food trucks/Vendors. The reasons for my assumptions are as follows

  • Insufficient time to cook
  • Poor facilities for cooking due to the fact that the foreigners live there for a short period of time
  • International students with less pocket money
  • Food Trucks/Vendors assumed to be the cheapest source of food

Now, you know what level of demand exists for your business and who are your potential customers.

Photo of DF Nigerian Food Truck - New York, NY, United States
DF Nigerian Food Truck – Order Food … yelp.com https://www.yelp.com/biz/df-nigerian-food-truck-new-york

2. Food truck setup costs

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The setup costs are to be clearly planned by segregating each expense. The expenses can be categorised as follows,

  • Truck
  • Kitchen supplies
  • Marketing

Truck/Vendor Food Business in Nigeria

These three are the different areas where your investment will be spent. Out of the three, marketing takes a very less portion of the investment. Food trucks are always made famous by a word of mouth. Thus, I would suggest you to have less money allocated for marketing. Next, the kitchen supplies. Buy these in bulk so that the cost of each unit goes down. Wholesale purchases can allow you to have decent profit margins at the same time making the prices also less. In the end, setup costs range on the amounts you spend in all these three categories.

3. How much can you make from a food truck business?

On an average, food truck owners make about a satisfactory amount a month. This amount is derived after filtering other overheads of operating a food truck business. Again, you can change these figures by making alterations in factors like price, costs of making, rent and other expenses.

Truck/Vendor Food Business in Nigeria

Licenses and legal considerations in Nigeria

It is not a secret that any business to be started will require a business license. Also, the country where you are operating will have a number of restrictions and rules for businesses. It is your duty to abide to all those to have an uninterrupted business. The following steps are to be followed to become a food truck operator in Nigeria.

  • Look for available locations where you can park and operate.
  • An application should be submitted to the Urban Redevelopment Authority to obtain Non-Renewable Temporary Occupation License
  • Application forms will be available as a pdf

4. Essentials of a food truck business

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  • Licenses
  • An equipped truck
  • Raw materials for production
  • Well experienced cooks
  • Plates, spoons and take away packaging items
  • Cleaning essentials for sanitation procedures
  • Menu card with restrictions being mentioned if any

Truck/Vendor Food Business in Nigeria

5. The truck

This is probably the main element of your business. Unlike the conventional restaurants, you do not have a permanent location. It is just the licensed place where you park your vehicle to prepare and serve your food. You can buy a used truck and build it with the necessary equipment.

New trucks are simply out of concept and has no connection to the business and profits you will be making. A second-hand truck can be bought at an affordable price and further building of it into a proper food truck with the necessary equipment.

From records and other food truck owners, it is shown that you will be using about 1000 gallons of propane for your operation. The number is however not a standard figure as there may be variations occurring with respect to the size of your business.

Truck/Vendor Food Business in Nigeria

6. Most sold menu items

I would recommend you all to show variations in the cuisine you choose. Just don’t let your customers unfed. Make sure you have food for all the different preferences and establish it as a multicuisine restaurant. Bring in varieties from other countries too so that the people of afar get to experience the tastes of different cuisines.

Also, have in mind Nigerian’s famous dishes. This category is for the tourists who are in a motive to explore Nigerian’s food culture. While planning for all these, don’t forget that you come under the category of street food and not the conventional restaurant. This is because, the menu items should be selected according to the facilities you have.

See also, Top 20 Hotel Franchise Business in Nigeria

Truck/Vendor Food Business in Nigeria

8. Is location a factor driving sales?

The answer for this question is absolutely yes and here is where a number of entrepreneurs go wrong. If you notice, street foods are always left nameless except for a few names which we remember. This is probably due to the fact that people directly go to the place to eat when they find these trucks or push carts on their way. especially, the food trucks being less likely to have a dining area is definitely a place to manage hunger and not a perfect dining spot. Having all these in mind, choose a place which is actually famous for street food. Even tourists opt to eat street foods by searching on the net for the best location for street food. Often certain entrepreneurs choose the place incorrectly and end up in being idle or having less sales the entire day.

Conclusion

As an entrepreneur all of you would have come across business plans for your projects. But here in this food truck planning, I have listed some of the rare necessities you should be checking for being successful. Things like location, and tourist choices are quite uncommon to be present in any food business plan. But I feel, these are also as important as having knowledge on the financial part of the business.

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4 comments
  1. thank you for this, It was very brief, informative and insightful. I want to start a food truck business and with this information i know what to look out for now.

  2. Very informative and detailed a very nice presentation and organization I am indeed better informed right now

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