Ebun Feludu, founder of Kokari Coconuts & Company, is proving to the world how incredible the coconut fruit can be. Since a personal health crisis in 2015, the businesswoman has found a renewed love and passion for coconut milk, ultimately inspiring a mission to plant over a million coconut trees in Nigeria.
Feludu embodies the Yoruba mantra “Kokari,” meaning “let the good go around.” Her organization focuses on unlocking the health and economic benefits of coconuts while empowering women and fostering economic independence.
Her interest in owning her own business and centering women in her business began after witnessing her mother’s struggle to support six children after her father’s passing.
Subsequently, after falling sick due to lactose intolerance, Feludu turned to coconut milk as an alternative.
She told Forbes Africa, “I lived in Lagos, so coconut was everywhere. I started playing around with coconut milk, and my kids loved it. I later found out that about 80% of Africans and 68% of the world’s population are also lactose-intolerant, 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.”
This revelation led Feludu to India, where she studied the coconut value chain, from farming to processing. Armed with $200,000 in personal funds, she returned to Nigeria to establish Kokari Coconuts as a legacy business.
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