Ex-Banker Turns Chef, Employs 85 Staff

The Managing Director of Ark of XNatives, Ikenna Eze Uzoamaka, Ex-Chartered Accountant of the obsolete Intercontinental Bank has clinched the Restaurant business which has taken more than 500 people off the street and currently has 85 staffs.

The Ark of XNatives, located at 5b, Oju Olobun Close, Off Idejo Street, VI, Lagos, The Ark of XNatives is an eco friendly community that brings you close to nature and a reminiscent of the beauty of African heritage.

 Optimum Times gathered that The Ark of XNatives is a ten year old SME with 1 to 2million Naira as startup Income that doesn’t only have her focus on the food Business but also a one stop shop that internally recreate and remodel her former business and building to provide a veritable harvest ground for Local talents and gifts.

 The Ark of XNatives is affiliated to an NGO known as The Hidden Treasure Discovery Ministry that travels around the country, discover people with talent, encourage and give them the platform to grow themselves.

 Speaking on his passion for the country, Ikenna said “My whole family stay in the UK and I have travelled around, I noticed that Nigeria we have good food but we don’t promote that much, you go to other places they make so much noise about their food, our mission is to take the best of Nigeria dishes to the rest of the world. We want to put Nigeria in the scheme of things, on the Map. I travel around the country to get my cooking staffs, if you go to my kitchen you will see different tribes”

 “In view of our name The Ark of XNatives and our Vision to continuously take our dear customers unto a culinary and cultural journey back to their roots we choose to use the above periods to promote some of the rich ancestral heritages of the 4 major ethnical and regional settlements in the country with major emphasis on some dishes, drinks, fashion and music peculiar to these tribes. First weekend of the month is the Hausa/Fulani Day, second weekend is Yoruba day, third weekend is the Niger Delta Day and fourth weekend is the Igbo Day while fifth weekend is the The Ark of XNatives Variety Days”

 “We don’t just sell food to people, we also promote culture. We don’t make scientific or over spiced dishes all our condiments and spices are local like our Ogiri and Palm oil is gotten from the east and it is made to our specification, our tables and chairs were designed and supervised by me, as you can see, I used the normal Nigerian mat to make my roof, it high time we start producing things ourselves and let our money circulate amongst us, this was how China began”

 Relating  his background with his business, Ikenna said “I did accounting for accounting sake, cooking has been my passion, in fact one of the factors that hasten this business ten years ago was the satisfaction my friends have whenever I invite them to eat in my house, and they will always ask me what am I waiting for. I derive joy seeing people eat my food, it gives me satisfaction. The Ark of XNatives didn’t get started with a bank loan and up till date we have never acquired any loan from the bank although we are always presented with it, we started at our own pace. Generally when you talk of ICAN, people most times think it’s just accounting but it is a rounded course with multidisciplinary case study, I had that general knowledge, and also having worked in the bank, our operations here is not much different from what we did in the bank, our stock exchange here is food”

 “For logistics, we are affiliated to a logistics and taxi company called Holla caps, it a new partnership the business got into, we don’t encourage drunk driving, so when you are tipsy, you can download and call a cab, it’s like UBER but this is Indigenous, everything we do here down to the tables and chairs is indigenous”