Babi Subair is a finance professional and social entrepreneur with over 20 years’ experience in financial services. She began her career at Schroders Salomon Smith Barney in London before joining Citibank Nigeria, where she developed significant experience in finance, treasury and risk management.

She holds an MBA from Cranfield School of Management and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Durham University, both in the UK. Subair leads a not-for-profit initiative connecting women-owned start-ups and early-stage businesses to affordable markets, financing, professional networks and training. In this interview, she speaks on championing organic produce and her forthcoming two-day small and medium scale bazaar at Federal Palace Resort.

What inspired the TKD Farms Farmer’s Market, and what gap did you identify?

I founded TKD Farms was in 2016 to grow organic produce and sell directly to customers who cared about where their food came from. As other small businesses began selling alongside us, I saw a much bigger opportunity. These businesses had good products, but they needed affordable and consistent access to paying customers. Talented women with incredible products, but no clear path to market or the business know-how to scale. We bridge that gap; turning passion into profit and empowering the women to build sustainable livelihoods. That was how TKD Farmers Market developed. Today, TKD Farms supplies fresh produce to businesses and individuals, whilst TKD Farmers Market operates weekly markets across Ikoyi, Lekki Elegushi and Apapa. We have supported more than 300 businesses, most of them women-owned and our vendors have generated more than N800 million in aggregated sales through the market.

How does the affordable stall model translate into measurable economic empowerment?

Affordability is central to the model. We have made deliberate choices including using a flexible location model to keep market access within reach of smaller businesses. We begin with market access. We give women-owned businesses an affordable place to meet customers and make sales. Business growth and economic participation are the outcomes of that access. For us, empowerment happens when a business can reach customers, make sales and become stronger. That is what TKD exists to make possible. The empowerment comes through commerce: access to customers, sales and stronger businesses. Existing platforms either charge prohibitive stall fees or fail to provide the community and collaboration infrastructure that early-stage businesses need to survive. The market operates as a not-for-profit initiative, keeping stall fees affordable so women can test and grow their businesses without shouldering crippling overheads. The market was designed not as a transactional space but as an ecosystem with rotating layouts to prevent monopolisation of customer flow, deliberate vendor placement for safety, and structured onboarding for newcomers. Evidence of growth is structural rather than purely quantitative:

Vendor retention and scale: The market has grown from its founding in 2016 to a pool of over 300 vendors, with an average of 30 vendors rotating each week. This rotation model ensures fair exposure no single vendor monopolises prime positioning. Cross-vendor collaboration generating revenue: Vendors share resources, ingredients, and ideas. One documented example: skin & hair care brand collaborated with a dried-fruits brand to develop a range of infused body oils, creating a new best-selling product for the brand. Digital extension of sales: we are currently working on developing a virtual version of our farmers market so that vendors can continue to sell throughout the week.

Your November 28–29 event at Federal Palace Resort is an important opportunity to showcase the market. What is the vision for this edition?

The SME Bazaar is our end of year event where we bring all members of our community together in one space. It is a vibrant two-day shopping and lifestyle experience that showcases our most exciting small businesses, artisans, food producers, fashion and beauty brands, wellness products, gardeners, and handmade goods all in one curated marketplace. It’s for people who want to Buy Local and Be Unique. They can find authentic Nigerian products, meaningful gifts, quality local brands and they get to meet the entrepreneurs behind them and support local enterprise directly.

For vendors, the SME Bazaar offers more than a stall if provides an opportunity to showcase products, build brand visibility, meet new customers, test the market and connect with a community of like-minded entrepreneurs. The SME Bazaar is not only a shopping experience it is also a learning and empowerment platform. We run business growth workshops concurrently, and these workshops are free and are open to everyone – customers, vendors and anyone thinking about starting a business. Our workshops provide practical tools to entrepreneurs to begin or grow their businesses to the next level. No lectures honest conversations from professionals and peer entrepreneurs.

This year holding the SME Bazaar at the Federal Palace Resort is truly special for us because it places small indigenous brands in a prestigious, high-visibility location, giving our vendors access to an even more diverse audience, while offering customers a premium, convenient and memorable shopping experience. Our partnership with Federal Palace Resort turns the SME Bazaar into more than a market it becomes a premium celebration of Nigerian enterprise.

Beyond providing a selling space, what practical support does TKD Farms offer to help women build sustainable, scalable businesses?

We provide three layers of support beyond the stall: market access, business growth support, community support and opportunity connection. Market access: TKD gives vendors an affordable, curated platform to reach customers directly. Through our weekly farmer’s market and special events such as the Gardening Fair and SME Bazaar, vendors can display and sell products, build brand awareness, receive immediate customer feedback and generate sales without the high cost of traditional retail space.

Business growth support: Through our quarterly Business Growth Workshops, we support our vendors to strengthen the foundations of their businesses. This includes practical sessions on finance, branding, technology, sustainability, and operational efficiency. It offers them tools and guidance to help them become more structured, visible and ready for growth.

Community and opportunity connection: At TKD we connect our vendors to a wider ecosystem of customers, fellow entrepreneurs, partners, sponsors and potential financiers. This network creates opportunities for collaborations, mentorship, corporate partnerships, financing conversations and access to new markets (local and international) helping vendors to move from survival to scale. In short, at TKD we support our vendors to sell, learn and connect creating a pathway from market access to sustainable business growth.

How do you ensure the quality and credibility of products sold at the market, particularly when consumers may find it difficult to verify claims about organic production and sustainability?

There are no formal certification standards for “organic” in Nigeria, however, we work very closely with the Association of Organic Agriculture Practitioners of Nigeria (NOAN) formerly the Nigeran Organic Agriculture Network. It is the national umbrella body for organic agriculture stakeholders, working to promote credible organic production, standards, certification and consumer trust in Nigeria. Its work is particularly important because “organic” claims can otherwise be difficult for consumers to verify. NOAN helps distinguish genuine organic products from businesses making unsupported marketing claims. NOAN’s main quality assurance mechanism is its Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) a locally based, group-oriented certification model designed for smallholder farmers and the local domestic market. NOAN is helping make “organic” in Nigeria more than a label; it is building a standards-based, verifiable system that gives farmers credibility and gives consumers greater confidence in organic claims.

⁠How can conscious consumerism become a realistic choice for ordinary Nigerians facing rising living costs, rather than a lifestyle accessible mainly to higher-income consumers?

Conscious consumerism becomes realistic for ordinary Nigerians when it is framed as smart, affordable choices within a household budget, not as buying premium “ethical” products. With food inflation still around 19.6 percent year-on-year in September 2026, the priority must be practical value, not guilt or luxury. So conscious consumerism is accessible when it is local, seasonal, and direct. By cutting out the excessive middlemen network, consumers will be able to purchase at competitive prices on fresh produce while the farmers retain more value to themselves. Buying local to support farmers, artisans and small businesses. Individual purchasing power is limited when incomes are squeezed, so conscious consumerism should be collective i.e. community bulk purchases to reduce costs. We have to support local value chains, reduce waste and post-harvest losses.

TKD Farms is able to offer competitive prices on its fresh produce by cutting out middlemen. TKD Farmer’s Market’s emphasis on locally farmed, locally sourced, locally produced, and hand-made goods means shorter supply chains and lower transport costs. As a community we also do bulk purchases e.g. all the vendors who need ginger as a raw material come together to buy ginger in bulk. Additionally, the market experience itself family-friendly, community-oriented, with activities for children adds value that competes with conventional retail on experience, not just price.

What role can women-led agribusinesses play in strengthening Nigeria’s food systems, creating jobs and reducing dependence on imported products?

Women are central to the agricultural sector. They make up roughly between 60-80 percent of Nigeria’s agricultural labour force, and represent about 40 percent of food retailers, so they contribute across the full value chain. Despite this central role, women face limited access to agricultural credit, land, technology, storage and profitable markets. Women receive less than 10 percent of available agricultural credit and control only about 14 percent of registered land, which constrains their ability to scale. As you can see, if almost 80 percent of the agricultural labour force is unable to scale, this is no longer a gender-equity issue but a food security and economic growth concern.

Women-led agribusinesses can significantly strengthen Nigeria’s food systems if able to improve production, processing, distribution, nutrition and market access. As I said earlier, TKD Farmer’s Market’s entire model is built on the premise that all products are locally farmed, sourced, produced, and hand-made. This helps tackle food security and food quality by creating a direct marketplace where local farmers and food producers can sell fresher, traceable food to consumers while earning more predictable income. It shortens the distance between farm and table and makes local, healthier food more visible and accessible.

Running a not-for-profit initiative while keeping it operationally sustainable can be challenging. What are the biggest challenges you face in maintaining affordable access for vendors, attracting customers and sustaining the market’s social impact?

Balancing a strong social mission and affordability with practical realities of rising operational costs: Keeping stall fees low for women entrepreneurs while covering venue, logistics, and coordination costs is an inherent tension in the not-for-profit model. Our recent strategic collaborations with Ikoyi-Obalende LCDA and Apapa Local Government help to solve the central sustainability challenge of how to keep market access affordable while covering the real costs of running a safe, credible and well-regulated market. These collaborations shift us from operating as a standalone market initiative to functioning as a recognised community development platform. They will help with reducing operating risks, improve access to affordable venues, strengthen vendor confidence, and make it easier to attract sponsors, grants and institutional partners.

Can you share a specific story of a woman whose participation in the market has significantly changed her business or livelihood?

One of our success stories is a brand called Infused Organics. She joined the platform about 6 years ago as a start-up and by giving her business consistent, affordable access to a quality customer base, stronger brand visibility and a supportive marketplace environment in which to test, refine and scale her products, she has grown from a business doing barely N5,000 every week, to a business doing multiple of millions weekly, and she achieved this growth organically without any external or third-party funding. TKD Farmer’s Market has supported Infused Organics to move from simply selling products to building a recognisable, customer-connected brand – proving the market access, visibility, feedback and community needed to grow and scale sustainably.

What is your long-term vision for TKD Farms Farmer’s Market, and what structural changes would you like to see in Nigeria’s support for women-owned businesses?
To evolve from a successful weekly market into a sustainable farm-to-table market ecosystem becoming Nigeria’s leading community-driven marketplace and enterprise-support platform for women-owned start-up and early-stage businesses, which strengthen food security and improve access to quality local food. TKD should be known not only as a place to shop, but as a platform where local businesses can access customers consistently, build credible brands, learn practical business skills, access finance and business support, connect with partners, institutions and new markets (local and international), grow from informal start-ups into structured, sustainable enterprises. To achieve this, we need to scale by replicating the model to more locations across Lagos through Local Government Agencies and private-venue partnerships. In addition, to go live with our digital marketplace and vendor directory for pre-orders, delivery and off-market sales.