The Chowdeck Playbook: Profitable Food Delivery in Lagos

Food delivery in Nigeria has broken bigger companies. Bolt Food exited Nigeria in 2023 and Jumia stopped delivering food in seven countries, Semafor reports. Chowdeck, founded in October 2021 by Femi Aluko, Olumide Ojo and Lanre Yusuf, has been profitable since before its $9 million Series A in 2025, according to TechCrunch. It operates in 11 cities across Nigeria and Ghana with more than 20,000 riders.

Move 1: Make riders want to work for you

In 2023, Chowdeck riders told Rest of World they had left Bolt Food and Glovo for better pay, food allowances and Sunday bonuses. Today the company runs accident insurance for over 20,000 riders and incentive programmes such as Rider Games in Ghana, WeeTracker reports. Reliable riders mean reliable delivery times, which is the product.

Move 2: Build the map yourself

Lagos traffic and addresses break standard tools. Chowdeck built its own geotagging to match orders to the nearest rider and predict how many riders each area needs, Rest of World reports, and its own more precise map on OpenStreetMap, Aluko told Semafor. Short-distance orders made up 86% of operations in 2023.

Move 3: Win the chains, keep the street food

Chowdeck started with street food vendors selling local dishes, which are harder to deliver well. It then signed an exclusive deal to deliver Chicken Republic orders in Lagos and Ibadan. Its daily deliveries doubled to 40,000 in the three months after its seed round, Semafor reports, and deals with big chains are part of the reason.

Move 4: Only grow where it pays

"It takes three to four months for us to become profitable in a new city," Aluko told Semafor in 2024. When Chowdeck entered Ghana in May 2025, it was handling 1,000 daily orders within three months without paid advertising, according to TechCrunch.

Move 5: Everyone delivers

Every Chowdeck staff member has a rider profile. New joiners complete 30 deliveries during onboarding and staff have quarterly delivery targets. "Delivery is not someone else's job at Chowdeck, it is core to what we do," Aluko told WeeTracker. Many rider app features came from those runs.