Barbie who? Black dolls to fill gap in African market

With a booming economy in Nigeria and more black children than anywhere else in the world, Taofick Okoya was dismayed when he could not find a black doll for his niece.
Entrepreneur Taofick Okoya in his Lagos workshop, where he makes dolls dressed in local attire. Photographs: Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters
Entrepreneur Taofick Okoya in his Lagos workshop, where he makes dolls dressed in local attire. Photographs: Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters

The 43-year-old spotted a gap in the market and, with little competition from foreign firms such as Mattel Inc, the maker of Barbie, he set up his own business. He outsourced manufacturing of doll parts to low-cost China, assembled them onshore and added a twist – traditional Nigerian costumes.

Seven years on, Okoya sells between 6,000 and 9,000 of his Queens of Africa and Naija Princesses a month, and reckons he has 10-15% of a small but fast-growing market.

“I like it,” says Ifunanya Odiah, five, struggling to contain her excitement as she inspects one of Okoya’s dolls in a Lagos shopping mall. “It’s black, like me.”

While multinational companies are flocking to African markets, Okoya’s experience suggests that, in some areas at least, there is still an opportunity for domestic businesses to establish themselves by using local knowledge to tap a growing, diverse and increasingly sophisticated middle class.

There’s no doubt about Nigeria’s economic potential. Economist Jim O’Neill has this year popularised it as one of the Mint countries – alongside Mexico, Indonesia and Turkey – that he sees as successors to the first wave of emerging markets he dubbed the Brics (Brazil, Russia and India and China).
MDG : Queens of Africa dolls The dolls represent Nigeria’s three largest ethnic groups – Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba
MDG : Queens of Africa dolls The dolls represent Nigeria’s three largest ethnic groups – Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba

With about 170 million people, Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country by far, and its economy is growing at about 7%, vying with South Africa as the continent’s largest.

Several multinational firms have been on the continent for years. Drinks group Diageo, for example, sells more Guinness in Nigeria than in the beer’s traditional home market of Ireland; South African grocer Shoprite has seven profitable stores in Nigeria and plans to roll out hundreds.

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