Yinka Atunde
Interview with Yinka Atunde
FOUNDER and CEO, YIKODEEN
Lives in: Lagos, Nigeria
** As a result of technical difficulties, this story sadly doesn’t have accompanying video or audio.**
In 2016, Yinka Atunde established the Nigerian footwear producer Yikodeen. Though the corporate started by making trend footwear, it has since carved out a distinct segment in industrial security boots and footwear for the safety providers.
Beginning out within the footwear sport
Atunde studied pc science at Babcock College in Nigeria, graduating in 2014. Nonetheless, he sought a unique path, drawn as a substitute to design and the creative course of. It was this curiosity that ultimately led him into footwear.
To develop his trade data, he travelled to Italy for a course in shoemaking, a programme that included placements at Italian footwear corporations. There, he witnessed the immense element and keenness inherent in Italian manufacturing.
Seeking a unique perspective, he additionally toured factories in China – the world’s largest footwear producer – to grasp their methods. He discovered the Chinese language course of was markedly totally different, characterised by a quicker tempo and a extra business focus.
Upon his return to Nigeria in 2015, Atunde decided that dismayed his household: he took a guide position in an area shoe manufacturing unit. It was a calculated transfer, designed to present him an unvarnished view of manufacturing on the bottom.
In Nigeria, the manufacturing strategy differed from the fashions he had studied abroad. “It wasn’t as formal because the Italian course of and so they weren’t as targeted because the Chinese language when it comes to making these volumes,” he says. Moreover, he discovered there was much less concentrate on high quality.
Seeing a chance to alter the way in which footwear had been made in Nigeria, he began Yikodeen in 2016. Atunde blended his experiences from Italy, China, and the native factories, focusing initially on trend footwear.
The massive break
A turning level for the corporate got here when it landed a contract to make 10,000 footwear for the police. On the time, the Nigerian authorities was aggressively pushing for public establishments to obtain regionally manufactured merchandise. Till then, most police footwear had been imported.
Atunde’s workforce produced samples and submitted them for testing. As soon as happy with the outcomes, the police positioned the order.
On the time, nonetheless, Yikodeen was producing just a few hundred pairs of footwear a month. To fulfil the ten,000-unit order, the corporate required further equipment. Though the police had paid an upfront deposit, Yikodeen nonetheless lacked the price range to import new tools.
The younger CEO turned to Nigeria’s defunct footwear factories, lots of which had closed a long time in the past however nonetheless housed equipment. He tracked down the homeowners – or their youngsters – to buy the idle tools, which the corporate then refurbished.
The growth was not restricted to equipment. Yikodeen, which had beforehand employed about 15 folks, elevated its employees to roughly 50 to provide the order.
Following that first contract with the police, the corporate added smaller defence companies and ultimately the navy to its shopper record. Atunde says the navy deal happened after Yikodeen showcased its merchandise at a safety occasion, and the military subsequently turned a daily shopper.
Though the enterprise started by specializing in trend footwear, Atunde notes that it was all the time the intention to maneuver into practical work footwear.
Regardless of the success the corporate had achieved by this stage – supplying boots to massive shoppers just like the navy and police – Atunde by no means felt the enterprise had actually arrived. “We’re very removed from the place we’re purported to be,” he notes. “So from the start, as soon as we earn cash, we all the time put it again into the enterprise.” He provides that the corporate persistently reinvests in tools.
Going into security boots
In 2018, Yikodeen started growing its line of security boots. Nonetheless, securing the mandatory certifications took a while and the Covid-19 pandemic precipitated additional delays.
Issues ultimately moved ahead when Italian oil providers firm Saipem, which had important operations in Nigeria, agreed to buy the boots after trialing them for an intensive interval. “That e-mail got here in 2022 … it was simply the happiest second I’ve had within the enterprise as a result of it was the primary time we knew the trajectory was about to alter and we’re not simply going to make navy footwear,” Atunde says.
A choice of Yikodeen’s security footwear.
The choice to first pitch to a multinational like Saipem was calculated. Atunde particularly focused a number one oil and gasoline contractor, realizing that assembly their rigorous well being and security requirements would validate his product. “I stated, let’s give the highest-end shoppers the product to check out,” he remembers.
For Atunde, the deal introduced his journey full circle: the nation the place he had initially skilled to make footwear was now house to his first main company shopper.
Yikodeen is benefitting from Nigeria’s push for ‘native content material’ – insurance policies that require oil and gasoline corporations to purchase Nigerian-made items and rent native employees as a substitute of importing them. It’s licensed by the Nigerian Content material Improvement and Monitoring Board to produce security footwear to the sector.
Nowadays, Yikodeen’s manufacturing line is dominated by security boots. The corporate manufactures a broad spectrum of protecting footwear, with capabilities starting from waterproofing to warmth, slip, and electrical present resistance. Past the oil and gasoline sector, the shopper record has expanded to incorporate manufacturing and development corporations.
“For the entire of final 12 months we did simply primarily security boots,” Atunde says. “We didn’t even [make] navy footwear. We needed to reject all navy footwear orders as a result of … we had a lot quantity of security boots that we didn’t even have the capability to make navy footwear.”
Whereas the oil and gasoline trade has historically maintained strict well being and security necessities, different Nigerian industries at the moment are inserting larger emphasis on these measures – a shift that bodes nicely for security shoe gross sales. Atunde explains that in states like Lagos, this variation is basically regulation-driven. For example, whereas staff on small development initiatives might need beforehand worn flip-flops, the Lagos State Security Fee now inspects these websites to make sure compliance with correct gear, reminiscent of arduous hats and security boots.
Receiving personal fairness funding
In 2025, Lagos-based personal fairness agency Aruwa Capital Administration invested $1.5 million in Yikodeen.
In an earlier interview with How we made it in Africa, Aruwa’s managing accomplice, Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes, defined that the funding is permitting the corporate to ramp up manufacturing volumes. “That they had the capability to do about 30,000 pairs of security boots yearly earlier than we invested. With our funding, we’re really 10x-ing that capability,” she stated.
Okunbo Rhodes additionally famous that lots of Yikodeen’s company shoppers pay in US {dollars}, making a pure hedge in opposition to volatility of the Nigerian naira, which has seen a pointy depreciation lately. That is notably necessary for personal fairness funds reporting returns in {dollars}, as a weakening foreign money can rapidly erode enterprise beneficial properties.
Watch our full interview with Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes: Behind the scenes of constructing a personal fairness agency in Nigeria
The problem of managing folks
Yikodeen at the moment employs simply over 250 folks. Atunde admits that human assets stays probably the most difficult facet of the enterprise, noting that success begins with recruitment – getting the suitable folks by the door. He says the subsequent step is making certain employees perceive the corporate’s imaginative and prescient and really feel a part of it.
Nonetheless, for lower-wage manufacturing unit staff, he argues that the corporate should first meet their fundamental wants – particularly offering meals and lodging close to the office. Atunde notes that if these requirements aren’t met, it’s tough for workers to care in regards to the firm’s mission.
Classes learnt and recommendation
Reflecting on classes learnt, the founder needs he had understood the trade’s procurement cycles earlier. He explains that company shoppers have particular buying seasons; as soon as a window closes, they received’t purchase once more till the subsequent cycle. “I assumed that they might purchase any time I introduced the product to them … That’s not the way it was,” he explains. “Some folks will purchase each two years … Some folks signal contracts for 3 years and as soon as they signal the contract for 3 years, that’s the tip, they will’t purchase from me in three years till that contract is over.”
In relation to recommendation for different entrepreneurs, Atunde emphasises the significance of merely taking motion, no matter assets. “One lesson I’ve learnt is you can begin with something,” he says. “You shouldn’t be ashamed of what you’ve… simply begin doing what you need to do and also you get it operating.”
