By Amadin Ogbewe

Have you heard of coffees grown at the foot of extinct volcanoes, which created the River Niger? Have you heard of or had a taste of the light roast coffee from ancient Kwararafa? If you haven’t, an opportunity awaits at the Jabi Lake Mall in Abuja as the Tigray Coffee Company has announced a month-long coffee pop-up.

A trip to the mall and the pop-up led to some enlightenment on the company’s mission to mainstream the consumption of Nigerian-made coffee across the nation, to upgrade the coffee supply chain and enable social development of host communities. Let’s take a look at my journey for the rich coffee.

Tigray Company started operations in November 2022. The Pop Up, which runs for the month of March, can be found right in front of the Shoprite store located at the bottom floor of the mall. You’ll be greeted by Alice, the jovial sales representative who makes the spot more attractive through a genial and happy demeanour. Tigray Company gets an A+ in customer service as Alice can be seen beckoning curious mall shoppers.

Alice gave me a rundown of what the company and the pop up have on offer. The Kwararafa Light Roast is the selling point – A rich coffee blend with earthy flowery flavour that slides down easily, leaving a rich experience on your taste buds. Many flock to the pop up to get a sample. For those interested in purchasing, it comes in 250g and 1kg packages, which go for ₦4,000 and ₦12,000, respectively. Also up for offer are three coffeemakers – the Moka Pot, the French Press and the Chemex, which go for ₦8,999, ₦7,999 and ₦13,999, respectively. There are combos, which include a machine and the coffee itself at aggregate prices.

Richard Ali, CEO, Tigray Company shared insights on the idea and the vision of the company. The company’s honcho, who is also a lawyer and writer, was rather articulate in what the organisation stands for; including making coffee accessible to all, which he achieves by ensuring low profit margins to enable affordability. “We do everything to keep our cost as low as possible. Where we can remove the middleman, we remove the middleman. We emphasise things like our pop up, partnership with bookstores and businesses and selling directly off our website.”

He also spoke on the unique flavour of the Kwararafa, which he attributes to the thousands of years of geological activity that led to formation of the natural elevations and hills.

“In Nigeria, we don’t grow enough coffee to export but we grow enough to satisfy the local need. We source our coffee from Gembu Mabilla Plateau in Taraba State. It’s this blessing of history, this long ago volcanic eruptions that have created the soil profile that makes this sort of coffee quite good.”

Ali’s ideas and methods are quite interesting, including the deal with farmers in Taraba who grow the coffee rather than owning the company as well as running the farms. Of the many arrangements and plans, a noteworthy one is the organisation’s plans for social development of the coffee value chain ecosystem.

“We’re not just interested in people growing coffee and buying it. Those communities in Taraba and Plateau that grow the coffee, what is the state of them?  What can we do for them? Tigray Coffee Company’s belief is that education is the way forward. So, we intend to work with the local government schools in these places to see how we can upgrade their libraries and incentivise the teachers through training. We want to be the first Nigerian farm-to-cup operation in a way that has a social impact,” said Ali.

On the future of the company, Richard said that more negotiations and considerations will be made till a permanent site is established and customers are able to maintain relationships and patronage.

Tigray Company’s willingness to develop societally hints at the nature of the business…coffee with a soul.

Amadin Ogbewe is a writer and journalist based in Abuja. 

Meiza Nigeria