Ayomide Logo will be the first to tell you she never saw herself as a business person. She used to say it confidently, almost as a disclaimer, whenever the topic came up. “I cannot do business”. Full stop.
Then came Otasansan Chili Oil, and everything she thought she knew about herself changed.
The idea did not arrive with a business plan or a market research report. It arrived the way the best ideas often do, quietly, through observation. Ayomide kept noticing a recurring complaint online. Nigerians living away from home, whether in other parts of the country or abroad, talking about how much they missed the flavours they grew up with. The heat. The depth. The specific kind of bold, spiced taste that only comes from a cuisine that has been perfecting its relationship with pepper for generations. Post after post, the same longing.
Her brother was one of those people. He was vocal about it in the way only someone who truly loves food can be, and his frustration stuck with Ayomide. Someone needs to fix this, she kept thinking. What she did not immediately realise was that the ‘someone’ was going to be her.
After her NYSC in 2024, Ayomide found herself at that familiar crossroads that many young Nigerians know well. The post-service period, full of possibility and pressure in equal measure, where the question of what comes next feels both urgent and overwhelming. She had the idea. She had her brother’s motivation ringing in her ears. And somewhere in that space between uncertainty and conviction, she made a decision.
She just went for it.
Otasansan Chili Oil launched in 2025, rooted in the rich spice traditions of the Yoruba people of Southwest Nigeria. The name itself is a statement. Òtásánsán, pronounced ‘Oh-tah-SAN-san’, is a cherished Yoruba word meaning ‘Good Aroma’, and every bottle is built to live up to exactly that. It is a finishing condiment, the kind you reach for after the food is already cooked, to give it that final layer of heat, depth, and flavour that makes a simple meal taste like serious effort went into it. You drizzle it on rice, swallow, noodles, eggs, grilled meat, or fried plantain. You stir it into soup or use it as a dipping sauce. However you choose to use it, Otasansan does one thing consistently. It makes the food taste the way it is supposed to taste. Like home.
The recipe is not a trend or an experiment. It is culturally grounded and authentically Yoruba, carrying the kind of flavour depth that only comes from a food tradition that has been built and refined across generations. There is also a 50ml size designed specifically for travellers and people who frequent restaurants, because the craving for that familiar heat does not pause just because you are away from your kitchen.
The business is still young, not even a year old at the time of this feature. But in that short time Ayomide has already moved in ways that suggest she is building for the long term. Otasansan is registered with SMEDAN. She has had her first exhibition at the FCMB She Ventures event, a moment that opened her eyes to how far the brand could go. She has been invited to speak at an inclusion event for young women in business, a milestone that caught her off guard in the best possible way.
“That moment hit differently,” she says. “I felt seen. It reminded me that in everything we do, people are always watching, and that motivated me to do even more.”
She has also gone back to school, enrolling in an MBA programme in International Agribusiness and Food Chain Management, not because someone told her to, but because she identified a barrier, getting Otasansan into export markets, and decided the most effective thing she could do was equip herself with the knowledge to break it herself.
The journey has not been without its moments of stress. There was the time a customer in Abuja placed an order and the delivery driver ended up being disrespectful during the handover. Ayomide found herself fielding calls from both sides, trying to manage a situation that had nothing to do with the product but everything to do with the customer experience. It was stressful and frustrating. But it resolved. And the customer, to Ayomide’s genuine delight, has ordered again since then.
“That situation taught me a lot about managing logistics and people better,” she reflects.
It is the kind of lesson that only comes from actually running a business, from being in the middle of the mess and figuring it out in real time.
Through all of it, the biggest thing Otasansan has given Ayomide is not revenue or recognition. It is a completely new story about who she is.
“I have learned to never say never,” she says. “I genuinely used to tell people I cannot do business. But here I am building a brand, I learnt how to create a website for Otasansan, and went back to school for an MBA just to run it better. Otasansan changed the story I had about myself.”
Her advice to anyone starting out is practical and hard earned. Be consistent. Do not depend on one platform for your visibility. Show up across different spaces and keep going even when it feels like nothing is happening.
As for what is next, Ayomide’s vision is specific and unambiguous. In the next three to five years she wants Otasansan Chili Oil on shelves in African diaspora stores in the UK, Canada, and the United States. The demand is already there, she says, because the same people who were complaining online about missing home flavours are exactly who Otasansan was built for. A Chili Pepper Mix in an economy size is already in the works, making the product accessible to more households at a friendlier price point. And locally, the goal is to move from being an online-first brand to something you can walk into a store and pick up.
She will not stop, she says, until Otasansan shows up in homes and stores she did not put it in herself. Until people who do not know her name are reaching for her product because it is simply the best option on the shelf.
For someone who once said she could not do business, she sounds very much like someone who always could.
Shop Otasansan Chili Oil at bit.ly/Otasansanchilioil and follow the journey on Instagram @otasansanchilioil, TikTok @otasansachilioil, and Twitter @otasansanchili.