WhatsApp has launched a three-week campaign, tagged “Power Your Hustle with WhatsApp Business”, to celebrate Nigerian small business owners and highlight how they use the platform to grow their businesses.
The campaign features three small businesses in Lagos, Ibadan and Abuja, showcasing the entrepreneurs behind the businesses, their experiences and how the WhatsApp Business application helps them connect with customers and drive sales.
The businesses featured are Edibles by Lera Ipapanu in Lagos, FHR Spices in Ibadan, Oyo State, and Twinny’s Kitchen in Abuja.
Edibles by Lera Ipapanu, founded by Mosumola Oladoye, is a snack brand focused on local snacks, with modern packaging and delivery services.
Oladoye said WhatsApp Business had become the digital storefront of her business, particularly through the catalogue feature, which allows customers to browse products, view prices and check available sizes.
FHR Spices, founded by Aminat Akinyemi, is a natural food seasoning brand in Ibadan that produces seasonings from selected herbs and spices without artificial additives or preservatives.
Akinyemi said WhatsApp Business had become an important tool for building customer relationships and driving sales.
She said the recently introduced Meta Business Agent also helped the business respond to customers while she was engaged in production.
Twinny’s Kitchen, founded by Augustina Onoriode, is a food processing company based in Abuja that produces and packages African food products for customers in Nigeria and the diaspora.
Onoriode said WhatsApp Business had helped her convert customer conversations into lasting relationships and had become a major driver of the company’s growth.
She said the Lists feature enabled her to organise customers into categories such as new orders, follow-ups, pending orders and waybill.
The three business owners also use the recently announced Meta Business Agent, an AI-powered assistant integrated into the WhatsApp Business application.
According to WhatsApp, the tool can respond to customer enquiries, recommend products and assist with sales when business owners are unavailable to respond to messages.
Oluwasola Obagbemi, Head of Communications, Sub-Saharan Africa, Meta, said the platform had become an important part of how businesses operate in Nigeria.
“WhatsApp continues to be an important part of how business gets done in Nigeria, and we’re seeing business owners use it for far more than just messaging,” she said.
Obagbemi said the entrepreneurs featured in the campaign were using the platform to reach new customers, respond to enquiries and make sales.
She added that the Meta Business Agent was providing business owners with AI support in their daily operations.
The campaign will feature documentary-style “day in the life” videos showing the experiences of the three entrepreneurs.
The videos will be shared on the Meta Africa Facebook page and WhatsApp for Business social media channels.
WhatsApp said a virtual masterclass would also be organised for small business owners across Nigeria, with practical guidance on using WhatsApp Business tools, including Meta Business Agent and ads that click to WhatsApp.
