A fishbone is one of the most annoying things that can hook your throat while you're eating. It's annoying because once that thing hooks the middle of your throat, there's nothing you won't do to get it out — vomit, chew eba, or even drink a gallon of water. And even when it's gone, you still feel it in your throat.

That is exactly how the food delivery ecosystem operates in Nigeria, especially in the major cities. You do this, you are cooked. You do that, you are cooked. If you are not careful, you will trap yourself in a very difficult place where you will just give up on yourself entirely.

But let's get one thing straight before we go any further.

The food business in Nigeria is a very profitable business. No matter how anyone lies to you about it, it's food — no one lives without food. It's the nutrient that prevents you from dying. So if you are not profitable, it's because you haven't set up the right structure in terms of the kind of customers you acquire, the business model, the customer retention, and the operations. The money is there. The structure isn't.

Now let's break it down.

The Models

There are different types of food delivery models operating in Nigeria today.

The Aggregator Model — a marketplace model where the platform connects customers to multiple independent restaurants and coordinates delivery. The platform does not cook. It typically focuses on discovery, ordering, payments, customer support, and dispatch.

The Dark Kitchen / Cloud Kitchen Model — an operator-owned model where one company runs one or more kitchen brands under the same operational umbrella and also controls fulfillment. Menus, food prep standards, inventory, staffing, and delivery processes are managed centrally.

The Restaurant Model — a single-restaurant operation that focuses on cooking and brand experience, then partners with third-party delivery/logistics or an ordering platform to reach customers, because running an in-house delivery fleet is costly and operationally heavy.

Different models. Different structures. But they all share the same set of challenges. And the biggest one might surprise you.

Challenge 1: Customer Acquisition Done Wrong

All of these models share one common challenge — customer acquisition. Which is ironic, because it's food. You should be able to sell it. People eat every single day.

But here's where the fishbone hooks the throat again.

They all resort to one thing: giveaways, discounts, and freebies. On the surface, it doesn't sound bad. It seems like the smartest thing to do — our Silicon Valley brothers have been preaching this model for years. Subsidise the customer, capture market share, worry about profit later.

But in Africa, when it comes to the food industry, actual food buyers — the people who are your real customers — care more about three things: the quality of the food, the delivery time, and getting their order right. More than anything else. If you want to dominate the market, you have to pick one of these three and own it completely.

Instead, what happens? After some time, these customers get used to the discounts. And when your price starts to increase — because obviously you are running at a loss from all the heavy freebies — they start to complain. Because you have created entitled customers instead of satisfied and loyal customers.

Fishbone. It has hooked your throat again.

Now you start to wonder — why are they complaining? Are we not supposed to make money? Understandable. But you have forgotten that it was you who used discounts to lure them in, and now you can't keep up. You are complaining. They are complaining. Nobody is winning.

Challenge 2: Branding That Repels Instead of Attracts

The second challenge these businesses share is branding. They struggle with it badly.

Imagine you're selling food — something deeply personal, something that people connect with emotionally — and rather than focus on the food and the people you are serving, you are designing poorly done creatives that look like the designer hasn't eaten for days or doesn't even want to be there.

Their designs end up pleasing the design community rather than acquiring actual customers. The creative wins applause in design circles but does nothing on the platforms where customers actually buy. Nobody sees that flyer and thinks, "I need to order from this place right now." They scroll past it the same way they scroll past everything else.

Food is visual. Food is emotional. If your branding doesn't make someone hungry or curious within three seconds, you've already lost them.

Challenge 3: Identity Crisis

The third challenge is that most of these businesses don't understand their own business model.

Some don't know if they are a food delivery service or a delivery company. Some don't know if they are a dark kitchen or a cloud kitchen or a mama put restaurant. Some are out here trying to be a super app before they've figured out how to deliver jollof rice in under 45 minutes.

They struggle with positioning the same way you struggle to get the fishbone out of your throat. Pulling in every direction, trying everything, committing to nothing.

When you don't know what you are, your customer definitely won't know either. And a confused customer doesn't buy — they leave.

Challenge 4: Infrastructure and Operational Chaos

Now this one is painful.

How do you want to achieve 30-minute delivery time with bad roads, traffic, and fraudulent delivery riders? How do you curb wastage when you can't predict your customer acquisition numbers or even know what your customers like to order?

And here's the part that gets me — they haven't even dominated the market in one city, but you see them jumping up and down to go and set up in another city. Knowing fully well the challenges of logistics and delivery that plague the country. They haven't figured out Lagos but they want to "expand to Abuja." Expand to where? With what systems?

Operational discipline is non-existent. No SOPs. No structure. No consistency. Just vibes and venture capital prayers.

Challenge 5: Bad Hiring Practices

Imagine hiring people who haven't sold food or even know how the food business works, and you expect them to generate revenue.

Or better still — hiring executive chefs when you should be using Olopo. The cooks in Lagos Island and the local food markets who understand consistent taste and have been doing it for years. They know how to make the same pot of stew taste the same way every single time. They've been perfecting that for decades.

But instead, these companies hire people with fancy titles and no understanding of the actual market they're serving. The result is menus that don't resonate, food that doesn't taste like what people want, and a complete disconnect between the kitchen and the customer.

Challenge 6: Food Quality — The Silent Business Killer

The last one. And this should scare you.

Some of these businesses serve food that would give you food poisoning. Or better still, make you genuinely sick. The quality assurance department is non-existent in many of these companies. All because Nigeria has weak consumer protection laws.

Imagine using your own money to buy sickness. You order food because you're hungry, because you trust a brand, and what you get in return could put you in a hospital bed. That's not a business model — that's a liability waiting to explode.

And when it does explode — when someone gets seriously ill and it makes the news — the entire industry suffers. Trust erodes for everyone.

The Way Out: Practical Solutions

Now, none of this is written to bury the food delivery industry in Nigeria. The opposite, actually. This industry has created millionaires and billionaires. It is one of the most rewarding sectors you can invest in — if you do it right. The rewards are genuinely massive.

But you have to get the fishbone out of your throat first.

Fix your customer acquisition. Invest in proper systems — not the lazy type. The type where when a customer sees your messaging, they know that intention was put into telling them to come and buy the food. Stop relying on excessive giveaways as your primary strategy. The competition in the market is not as stiff as most people assume. The current delivery companies can't actually serve the whole of Lagos, not to talk of the whole of Nigeria. The digital economy operates differently — there are customers for everyone, especially in this present generation. Find them properly instead of bribing them temporarily.

Fix your branding. Get rid of the horrendous-looking creatives. Train your designers, or better still, give them perks — like food to eat — so they can fully concentrate on communicating your vision properly. Your brand is the first thing people judge. If it looks careless, they'll assume your food is careless too.

Pick a lane. Ask yourself the honest question of what you actually want to be. Pick a business model and stick to it. Have a focus type and dominate that space unapologetically before trying to expand. The companies that win in this market are not the ones trying to do everything — they're the ones doing one thing so well that the market can't ignore them.

Build operational discipline. Stop trying to be everything for everybody. Pick a niche and master it. Put structure in your operations — make SOPs and follow them religiously. Design operational systems, recipes, and methods. Invest in quality assurance. Hire people with taste and experience. If your operations can't run without you in the room, you don't have a business — you have a job.

Get the food right. This should be obvious, but apparently it isn't. The food has to be good. Consistently good. Safe. Properly stored, properly prepared, properly delivered. No shortcuts. Your customers are trusting you with their health. Treat that trust like the asset it is.

Final Word

The food delivery ecosystem in Nigeria is not for the faint-hearted. It is full of fishbones — challenges that hook your throat at every turn and make you want to give up.

But the opportunity is enormous. Nigeria has over 200 million people, and the majority of them eat at least twice a day. The market is there. The demand is there. The money is there.

What's missing is structure, discipline, honesty, and the willingness to do the hard work instead of chasing shortcuts.

If you're thinking of venturing into this space, know the risks. But also know the rewards. This industry has produced some of the wealthiest business owners on the continent. It can do the same for you — if you're willing to build it right.

Get the fishbone out of your throat, and eat properly.