Food Insecurity Meets Tech in Nigeria

Over 700 million people a year face food insecurity - simply not having enough food on a day to day basis. Luther Lawoyin and his co-founders of Price Pally are using technology to change that dynamic in Nigeria. Listen to how he and his team are funneling their passion to help others into an innovative business that has serious potential for impact and revenue.

Find out more about Price Pally at https://pricepally.com

Contact Luther at luther@pricepally.com

Imperfect Show Notes

While these notes are not perfect (computer transcription is still a work in progress), they give you the gist of the conversation. Enjoy!

My conversation with Luther Lawoyin:

Morgan Bailey 0:02

Hello, and welcome to the profit meets impact podcast where we explore the intersection of doing well and doing good in the world. I'm your host, Morgan Bailey, and I'm excited to bring you the wisdom of entrepreneurs and thought leaders, they're using business to create sustainable and meaningful change across the globe. I'm really excited to be here with Luther Lau again, he is the founder of price pally. He is a serial social entrepreneur, and he studied around the world, including places like MIT, he is a fellow at Alibaba and the Westerwelle Foundation, and he is tackling one of the largest global social challenges, which is food insecurity, through the innovative use of technology and combining resources. So Luther, it's a real pleasure to have you on St. emolga. Um, I'm really honored to be here.

So, you know, you know, for full disclosure, Luthor and I, we've worked a little bit together through the the Miller Center for Social entrepreneurship. So it's a it's a real pleasure to be chatting with him. And Luther, I'm curious, you know, tell me a little bit about your journey to becoming a serial social entrepreneur and West Africa and Nigeria in particular.

Luther Lawoyin 1:15

Yeah. So that would take me back to my mom, um, I grew up, you know, my mom was a businesswoman itself, she had this catering business on the side. So I was, I was, you know, a full staff, basically. So after school, I'm always helping out with one thing or the other. And, you know, that went on for years I studied, you know, I could, I could run a business without at the time. So, you know, I think that gave me the foundation for entrepreneurship. And I really enjoyed it. I like the fact that we produce something,

get back profit from it. And, you know, she used to reward me to, like, give me cakes, and all that. So what's, are they really

good learning process for me at a very young age. So, right out of right out after school,

it was just something I wanted to do by myself, like, just create a business. And from there to, I mean, from then on, I just was from one startup to another. Still, I mean, see what I'm doing today. So funny enough, I tell people, I've never had the opportunity to get a full job, you know, or work as an employee some way. I've always had, you know, business to do to manage myself and all that. And it's been, I mean, I, I really enjoy it. Yeah, well, well, I can, I can tell. And,

Morgan Bailey 2:42

you know, I'm curious, you know, what, I could talk to me about what it's like to be an entrepreneur in Nigeria and specific.

Luther Lawoyin 2:50

Yeah, so, you know, Nigeria is a very peculiar country. And the fact that

Nigeria itself will make an intrapreneur. Like, there are many entrepreneurs in Nigeria that just became intrapreneurs. Because this, this situation forced them to, because, you know, Android is actually a very blessed country, with a lot of resources, human resources, and all of that, but there's this missing piece, which is, which is leadership. So you know, when that is missing a lot of things that go wrong. So you see a lot of young people who have, you know, gone to school, got their, you know, university degrees and all that, but don't get a job, don't don't like, exactly know what I mean, don't have an opportunity to get the job or whatever, so many of them do, end up turning to how to be intrapreneurs just get something done by themselves and all that so well. In my case, it wasn't exactly that. But ninja is so full of many problems, like, it's smart to be an entrepreneur, because there's so many problems for you to solve that, although it's hard to solve it in the case of Nigeria, because many things are out of place. But it's, I think the problems present an opportunity, like a serious wealth of opportunities. And today, I would actually, if I could speak myself in five, I will actually be running five impacts driven, you know, businesses that will make a lot of change, but you know, I could only do one. So, you know, while you know, the problems are there, and it's and it's it's not good, but it's also presents us the opportunity. So Nigeria is a very, very, you know, massive country when it comes to resources when it comes natural or human resources. And it's, I mean, it forces you This is the the the environment forces you to think on your feet, basically. So well, that's what that's how far I can, you know, describe the country so not to go into the very political things that get me upset. So

Morgan Bailey 4:57

yeah, understandable. Yeah. I feel like it is Yeah, and I think this is true for a lot of parts of Africa, there's a lot of resources, there's a lot of talent. There are a lot of people. And there are a lot of unmet needs, which is just, it's it's kind of ripe for entrepreneurs and I, and I'm from my time in Africa, I've seen this a lot hits, you know, I mean, either just people from selling something on the street to creating businesses, almost everyone kind of needs to be an entrepreneur, you know, and a lot of ways just to get by there. And, you know, I think it's, it's useful to know, I mean, what Nigeria is it's the most populous nation in Africa. Is that correct?

Luther Lawoyin 5:38

Yeah. As populous black nation at you.

Morgan Bailey 5:42

Wow. And so and, you know, loggos is how large

Luther Lawoyin 5:47

it's not too large. It's probably the size of New York and a house or something. But, yeah, a lot of Asian wise population is about 20 million people on this small piece of land.

Morgan Bailey 5:57

So it's crazy. So that's amazing. So you have you have a lot of need a lot of resources, high population density. Yeah, it seems it's just seems like a really great place for social entrepreneurship. And so yeah, you specifically you targeted food insecurity for for price pally, which you're working with right now? How did you come across that?

Luther Lawoyin 6:21

Well, so it's a story. I mean, it's a story that includes my wife, and, you know, I got married in 2018. And she would like to always take data on everything that we do expenses, where we go, stuff like that. So like three months into that, she showed me that data, and we were spending a lot on food. And we still, like eat a lot. Like, I'm a very skinny guy, I, I don't eat that much. So it was really confusing to me, like, Okay. You know, I've never, you know, been in that position before, because, you know, now I'm starting a family, I know, these things matter. So I had, we had to look for a way around it. And the, you know, the option we had was to buy in bulk, and save money, but was just two of us. So we bought him buying bulk, but we have to like, share with other people. So by the time we did that, and so that we can make some savings, we decided, Okay, why not put a technology layer to this so that more people can take advantage of this. And the good thing about the model is, the more people you have, the more demand and the more you can lower prices. So that was basically the story that started it. But many things came up in between, like, right after I saw the expenses, like, you know, started doing some research and found out that okay, this is actually a well documented problem, especially in developing countries. So it was optimized to see how terrible the situation was like, I don't go to bed hungry, but significant people, number of people go to bed hungry, in this same city where I'm at. So, I mean, he was he that this has to be fixed, or there's no future for us. So it dawned on me that he was probably going to be my life's mission to get this done, because it's actually a very hot, very hot space to, to, to walk on. But we're making some progress. So it's, it wasn't it was something I discovered just by virtue data, but it became a lot more imprinted in my heart so that we had to do this because of the fact I mean, it's all around us. Like, there's no future. If you can't get food, right, then what can we get? Right? So yeah, that's what brought it up.

Morgan Bailey 8:49

Yeah, I mean, what it means to coordinate obviously, eating, it's something that you have to do every day. And you know, and a lot of parts of the world is taken for granted. And I'm curious for those of our listeners who may not understand what it's like to be purchasing food in Nigeria, and what that experience is, like, you know, many of us we have the option to go to a massive grocery store and that's with with anything from around the world. What's that? Like for the average Nigerian?

Luther Lawoyin 9:19

Okay, so I was that, that by my experience in the US, when I was in Boston, I you know, I was talking to a couple of students and were like, I was telling them about this solution. And they were like, okay, they couldn't get the idea that would be that expensive actually explain myself in the nitty gritty and they get army they brought up situation where they said, restaurants in the US, many parts of the US, they can sell, I mean, they can't give out the food that is excess, that they have to point it without, like, throw it away. Because there could be legal actions or not. And that just got me going crazy. Like Geez, you guys know what you're doing. All around, we can do that tons of food that you know, but you know, distribution dough in Nigeria is that? Yeah, so the food system actually works, what is so inefficient, so inefficient that the farmer is producing it, most of the time produces that minimum profit to them, or sometimes losses to them. And the end The end user, I mean, the consumer actually to get the food at a very expensive, you know, price. And number one problem is that the income, you know, ratio of Nigeria, I mean, income to food ratio of Nigerians is really, really high. And she has spent close to 60% of your monthly income on food. So when a typical family buys food for the month, they are left with 40%, to spend on all the important things which includes education, energy, a lot of things. So it's bless you see how big that problem is, it's not every other thing you're doing Nigeria is, is competing with food, the price of food, you're either going to eat or, you know, take the other option. So it's so food is actually available, it's not like, you can go to the store their stores, in Lagos, their restaurants and all that you can go to, but it's expensive, like, it's the upper middle class to the rich people that can actually afford those things to a large extent. And the, you know, the lower class and, you know, the people at the bottom of the pyramid, have options of you know, small mom and pop stores around them at literally two units. And even at those little units, they bid the most brands, because it's more expensive binary retail to complete it that way, buying those small quantities is more expensive for them than, you know, than the people who actually have money who are able to buy bulk food items store or go to the, you know, restaurants and all that. So it's a very complex problem. I it's, it's, it's really complex that number one, even right from the farmer, there's so many, so many things that happen that makes food expensive at the end, because number one is problem of waste, that the problem of energy that was not able to solve till now, farmers can preserve their food. So once it's once it's obvious that they can't get it to the market in good times. They make losses. The the middlemen who take them from taken from these farmers have, you know, they put on so much pricing and all that because they also have their challenges the transport challenge the roads is bad. They also I mean, every I think at the end of the day, all our shortcomings are the country falls, I mean, showed up in that ecosystem in that food system. And that's what everybody's suffering for. So

Morgan Bailey 12:50

it's a pretty big challenge to try to tackle what it sounds like.

Luther Lawoyin 12:53

Yeah, it's it's really big. It's not, I wouldn't, I wouldn't keep myself is the hardest thing I've had to do. But it's solvable. It's really solvable.

Morgan Bailey 13:04

So let's talk about that. let you know. So you created price pally, and that was last year. That is correct. It's 20 2019. Talk to me. So you know, how does price pally? address this challenge?

Luther Lawoyin 13:18

Yeah, so price Valley basically connects the farmer to the end user directly without the middleman. Without the with without extra payments and all that that involves in that supply chain. So what we are trying to do is plug in for any any food system we are trying to improve, we plug into where the inefficiencies are. And basically, the inefficiencies is between, you know, these processes that value chain. So what we have is a platform where people can buy food in bulk, or they can split the book like they can come together and buy. So we call it a digital food cooperative. So it's easier when four people come together to buy a bag of rice, and they split it at the cost of you know, the bulk price, or the cost from the farmer or the wholesaler, it saves them quite a significant amount of money compared to buying that retail, even up to 30%. And it could be even much more. So what we're trying to do is to make sure that we are able to aggregate demand to a large extent. So the allocated demand we have enables us to get pricing lower, and the low it is for everybody, the more people can buy, the more we can keep, you know, getting those things done and it just wouldn't stop there. We are looking at contracting farmers to farm directly for people at the cooperative. So the farmer makes, you know, good return on their investment. And the end user as well is able to buy food that you know reasonable prices and we tend to do this You know, across cities in Africa where this problem prevails. So in rural Africa, most of the time, food is not exactly a problem. It's not, because they found that they get access to that food directly and all that, but the city is where a lot of the economic activity is going on food, because food gets expensive by the date by, you know, I, yeah, by the minute if I can say that, because you, you'd be amazed at how fast prices have changed even in this in Nigeria as I speak. But you know, that's what it is. So that's what we're trying to do. And technology enables us to do that technology enables us to let people come together, it enables us to aggregate that demand and enables us help them form those cooperatives. So that that's what we're trying to do. So it

Morgan Bailey 15:48

sounds like you're kind of tackling this issue, I'm just I'm just imagining now, like the, you know, somebody living in Nigeria, they don't necessarily have the, the money to buy food in bulk at a lower price. Right, they come together with several people. And, and they're able to lower the cost. Meanwhile, you're dealing with all of the transportation, you're also contracting with the farmers. Yeah. And I imagine that there's benefits with contracting the farmers because, I mean, the living wage for farmers, and you know, the logistics and what they have to deal with. And oftentimes, you know, farmers are some of the less educated people within, you know, within society. And so being able to help support them in a way I imagine is also an added benefit. So it kind of sounds like you're definitely dealing on the farmer side deal and transportation. And you're dealing on the consumer side, that's, yeah, that's an impressive feat. You're working on there.

Luther Lawoyin 16:46

Yeah. But we do leverage on collaboration. So for the logistics of moving those things from, you know, getting to the end user, or even bringing the fun products to us, we outsource them to trusted partners. So So again, every day, what we see ourselves building is the alternative, efficiently food system. So it's not an easy thing to build. But model, we are working with enablers understand the best way to go around it before, you know, scaling it off. So that that's that that's the way I put it.

Morgan Bailey 17:24

So I mean, given everything that's happening now, I mean, are you seeing competitors coming into your market? What is this? What is the landscape like of building a business? And in your your ecosystem?

Luther Lawoyin 17:37

Yes. So it's, Nigeria is really about what is competitive. So there are a lot of people, you know, trying to get on this, like we are been since we started, we've seen a lot of pockets of, you know, individuals trying to do it online, I mean, on social media, and all of that. So Nigeria is full of entrepreneurs, like I said, so I wouldn't be surprised if I tomorrow, I wake up and see this same exact model, or, you know, same software, whatever builds and somebody else is doing it. But that's not much of a problem. Because we have a bigger problem. In fact, we need more people in this space to fix this thing. So yeah, so that's all I said, But definitely, competition is always that, like, I expect them to to be to come up a lot more. We've just had to Yeah. So by next day, I'm sure a lot more, a lot more of them will come up. I just hope they don't use the awning or anything silly, but I do expect that they will. And I think I personally welcome them.

Morgan Bailey 18:44

Well, I appreciate your perspective on that. Because I mean, it shows your commitment to the fact that you know, this, this isn't just money to be earned, it's a challenge to be to be solved. And that's going to take it's going to take lots of people. Now, I'm curious, because, you know, the, you know, building a business, I you know, I'm curious, how does it look different in Africa than it might say, in the United States? You know, because I know, x access to capital and things like that. tapped into something there. So tell me about that.

Luther Lawoyin 19:19

It's a lot different. So I do have friends in the US building stuff, you know, you know, for the fact I'll give you an example. So we wanted to register a US company price value as a US company. And it took probably like two days or something I just went on strike put in the details and they go back to me like it's registered and all that. registering a company alone like countries. I mean, it's a headache. Like it takes months, sometimes your papers gets lost. I'm not trying to like direct my country, but that's what is happening right now. And I just hope something happens and we get better leadership or, you know, things really, really change. So business is hot here in this part of the world, you the fact that we are solving a very critical problem doesn't even give us a tax holiday break or any incentive on the government government, one attack, so it's more like, I'm expecting them to come up with more taxes for as soon as they see that we're growing ob, we have a you know, we raise capital or something, everybody's trying to patch on you, even though you're trying to solve a big problem. So on, I'll put it this way, Ninja is the biggest problem of intrapreneurs. In Nigeria, there are all sorts of issues around the fact that, you know, you know, if I if I want to move a trailer load of rice from the north to Lagos to be able to get it at a cheaper price with people, it is not possible because the roads are not good. So the transport that gonna charge me extra for the bad roads, you know, by now I expect us to have a draw rate and I mean, Railway, that's for food. I mean, that's, that would enable things. So it's a, it's a, it's a, I've not to put it, it's a it's we are miles apart, like we are ages apart when it comes to doing business easily. It's a lot harder here compared I mean, apart from the fact that even hard to raise capital, every entrepreneur that don't anything in my in my generation now has had to have capital sent in from either the US or some other, you know, investors outside outside of Nigeria. So you know, that tells you a lot, access to capital, which is really, really important. I can get to the bank and get a loan. That's how bad it is like, I can't get a loan for anything, even if I'm ready. What do I know that? Nope, there's nothing like that for me. But there's that for the big, you know, all companies and those, you know, people really exploiting the country. But for the entrepreneur, it's really, really hard, really, really hard. So anytime I see any Nigerian or even African entrepreneur doing anything noteworthy, I really, you know, doff my hat to them, because I know what it takes. It's hard. That's just the truth. It's really, really hard.

Morgan Bailey 22:14

Now, I mean, yeah, it's, it's, I mean, it sounds like a really dynamic, challenging situation with with a lot of cards stacked against you. And yet, you're, you're still forging ahead. So you must see some hope. You

Luther Lawoyin 22:29

definitely like, if the West it is, if it's not done now. Same thing is I mean, it's because nothing has been done, since that's why we are here. So if nothing is done right now, the next 10 years will still say the same things. But you know, it's always there's this, there's this good wheel of good fortune, that helps. I have no evidence to pull it. But when you put in some action, the results come. So one side, I mean, from this time we started November 2019, we started, you know, impacting a lot of families returning passing law people, we were up to about 5000 users. So that tells me Yeah, this is possible, this is going to grow like I'm, I'm looking forward to the day, we have a million users buying on price Valley. And you know, at that threshold, a lot of things must have changed. And it's possible 5000 to a million today seems far, but it's very possible. So it's just a glimmer of hope that wakes you up every morning. And almost the fact that you don't have a choice, like that's the way I said, I don't have a choice, like, what would I do my life and also this, so it's Hello, I don't know what else to put in. It's just, it's the force inside me saying you have to do this. So and I have to do it. So and not just me a couple. I mean, my co founders have the same resolute, you know, vision and enough point number of intrapreneurs. I knew myself in Nigeria, you know, I solving different problems. And, you know, they are keen to solve it. So if this older generation didn't do anything, we'll drop this. And we'll see how it goes. as well.

Morgan Bailey 24:09

I mean, I really appreciate your passion. And I think a lot of social entrepreneurs and activist and people out there who really do believe that there's a better way to do things, let me share that. It's it's what keeps us going in the darkest of nights. You know, at the same time, challenging situations, but you know, when you look at Nigeria, you look at the population. And it's not a it's not a poor country, there may be extreme income inequality, very extreme income inequality. But there, there's a lot of potential there. So, you know, if, you know, as you're, as you're going out, and you're talking to investors, you know, how are you framing? How are you framing and positioning your business to really show the potential that the region has?

Luther Lawoyin 24:57

Yeah. So I mean, most of our The most, you know, obvious point is technology. So, you know, mobile phones, I've changed a lot of things, and they've changed the landscape, the story, people are well, more connected now. And we, I think we have the fastest internet penetration as it is, today the world. So that is gonna mean next 10 years, you know, no matter what happens, no matter how bad the government remains, technology has shifted a lot of things, I mean, would have shifted a lot of things I can ask him to go to this point. So another thing we need to observe is that, you know, nations across the world, I mean, developed nations, like the US and all that they've almost reached a bench, I mean, that, that roof, if I can say, for development, I know that, you know, they're still strides in technology and all that, but the rich, they're a very output is now a point where, you know, I can come to us now and start a business like price Valley, probably wouldn't fly as much. But in Nigeria, once price Valley clicks, to get to that, you know, to that point where it takes off, it's it's endless, like, it's a developing country. So, you know, things that things are moving fast, things are changing really fast, it's not like, we still have a long way to go. So that's a long way to go. It's, it's a valley of opportunities, because you don't know what I mean, what could happen, it's, uh, I mean, I do not express it, it's just, it's just humongous. And it's not just Nigeria, you have the west of Africa, South Africa, you have the east of Africa, they're all, you know, almost, you know, just full of opportunities like that, like I was saying, in the beginning, there's so many problems that one, if you can tackle them and solve them, you almost don't have the ceiling, like, you don't, in your lifetime, you never see that ceiling. But you know, in the US now that I know where else to put it, this, this development has gone so. So, you know, fast and far that you almost have a like a, like a crescendo, like you've reached the position. By now, in Africa, it's not even started yet, you get like, and the future is just is really, really bright when it comes to possibilities, because we've not started development at all, and technology is gonna help us to, you know, leapfrog, you know, the the years it took us to get to where they are today, Africa has the opportunity to get to those places much faster, much smarter. Because this technology, I believe, before us now there's more resources when it comes to how we can build our we can, you know, leverage data, it's just, it's just massive. I don't know else to express it. So yeah, this is where opportunity is actually it's hard, but this is where your continent is.

Morgan Bailey 27:59

Absolutely. And I think that, you know, anyone who kind of knows the how the telecommunications explosion and Africa and how quickly that happened, and how quickly it turned. I mean, I mean, people people thought it was, you know, this is not a safe market to be in. But those who did invest, particularly Nigeria, I mean, it turned into almost overnight to multi billion dollar industry, and that in turn several people into the richest people in Africa.

Luther Lawoyin 28:25

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the same thing around every other thing they're looking at.

Morgan Bailey 28:32

Absolutely. So I mean, it sounds like that. So I mean, what do you think, you know, as you look forward with your business, what do you think are going to be the drivers that are going to help social entrepreneurs tackle these sorts of challenges?

Luther Lawoyin 28:48

First is technology. Second is data. Because we saw resources are limited, right? But so yeah, you any social entrepreneur has to make the smartest choices. If you are going to, for instance, if price is going to move to another country to solve the same problem, another city, I need to see the data, I need to see that. I mean, because I don't have much resources, I need to make the best decision to migrate to this city or go to city or go to city B, I need to make a very, very smart decision and not wasted resources, because the resources are limited. So every, you know, social entrepreneur in Africa faces that problem, limited resources. So it's, it's very, very important to to make the smartest choices, and the best possible resource for you to do that is data. So technology and data will be my answer.

Morgan Bailey 29:46

Yeah, I think that yeah, I think it's and I think that the ability for technology to scale and to reach a wide audience, you know, through some my experience in work in Africa, you know, people who had very little resources We're very far off the beaten path had a cell phone, which in essence gave them access to the rest of the world. So if you can develop technology and resource that can help address a need through technology, through a phone, your ability to permeate very deep, you know, within a community is pretty effective. Much more so where in the past you would need individual you would need salespeople you would exactly it would take an entire workforce to do something that now can be done by simply use technology.

Luther Lawoyin 30:34

Exactly. So you know, it's still see pumps that limited resources, technology enables you to do a lot more than we would have without technology in Africa today, we'll probably be back in the Stone Age. But technology has changed a lot of things, internet and mobile penetration has changed a lot of things. And it's still changing a lot of things that we still love things. So it's it's a really bright future when it comes to that. Yeah, I

Morgan Bailey 30:59

can imagine. So Rick, I'm you you have other founders. So it's yourself? And is it three other individuals?

Luther Lawoyin 31:07

Yes. Three other individuals, Muslim who's my wife? She, she works on our data, she keeps the data up to date. We have Deepak who is Indian. He's our CTO, then we have July, who is a operations officer. So for us.

Morgan Bailey 31:24

Okay. And so I'm curious, because, you know, how is it you have two female entrepreneurs and two male entrepreneurs? Is it common for to have a lot of female entrepreneurs in Africa?

Luther Lawoyin 31:39

No, so that was quite intentional. For us to have a female, I mean, females on board.

Usually, they are more, you know, you know, probably like 80% of X percent of founders are male when it comes to to that in Nigeria. And I wouldn't want to, you know, say this is the reason because there are probably a lot of reasons, but I do appreciate the female perspective. We intentionally did that to bring balance to the team. And because they know more about the space now we, you know, they're more intuitive when it comes to food. You know, I don't know why, but they give more coming. When we have a meeting, they come up with more with better suggestions than the two I mean, two of us do. So it was intentional for us to have, you know, the females on board. And it was intentional for us to be a balanced team. So, but generally not women don't. In this part of the world, not many women found this, but things are gradually changing, I must say. But still if out, you know, still so far. I mean, just too far behind.

Morgan Bailey 32:50

Yeah, yeah, I can imagine that that might be the case. And I think it's pretty amazing that you do have that a diverse team. And I think it does set I said it sets a strong precedence for what's possible. And also, I mean, I think the diversity, diversity on many levels, I think is so critical in achieving business success, because we really do need those multiple perspectives. Yeah. And now I think, particularly in changing dynamic markets, we have to we have to pull in as much diversity as possible, because that's going to help us really address those complex challenges.

Luther Lawoyin 33:24

Yeah, definitely.

Morgan Bailey 33:27

So when you look forward, what's you know, what's inspiring you right now?

Luther Lawoyin 33:33

Oh, well,

the alternative food system that's smart, like, I can't wait to have a situation where the where food come in, where food is as abundant as it is in the US like this, Nigeria, because if we solve that problem around food, there's a lot of empowerment that will go on there a lot of people that walk every day, just to eat that day. It's a very, very hard thing to think about, right? In this generation, like in this 2020 you have people who live or everyday like they do all this work and all that, which is hard to discern, expend a lot of energy, just to earn to feed that day. I mean, it's crazy, like, I wake up in the morning, and all my action tried to get is to get money to eat that day, and repeat that same thing the next day. I mean, is it belittles the I mean, makes me think I've not been in a shoe but I can place myself in that shoe. And I see that, you know, that's not life at all. Like that's, that's not meant for human beings. So if it comes to a situation where that is not the case where people if people know that food is not a problem, and they can, you know, expand their mind to do to deal with other things that they are actually created to do. That will give me joy. Like, that will be my that's the vision. That's what pushes me, I mean, we need that situation where food is not a problem, food shouldn't be a problem. We have land, which is not whizzing by it just is just really crazy. You know, there's no reason why we should be a problem in any country. But the biggest one of the biggest problems in Africa is just I don't know. So what is fast means that change? I said, it's very, very possible. Very, very possible. So. And I know, it might take time, but I don't think is as long as it will take as long as my natural senses tell me it will. But I want it to be as soon as possible. But in that visual of people not going on we or walking day to day to eat is just, I mean, was that is solved. I'm good to go. Good, fun dive back in my life. I mean, it's just crazy. And we are, you know, trying to but we are not there yet. But I know for sure. It's take time, but we will get there.

Morgan Bailey 36:06

Well, it's clear that you have a strong desire, and I hear the passion, your voice and and I appreciate it, because I think it is it will change live and it is changing lives. And I think that's that's an amazing thing that you're doing there. The last question I had, as we as we start to wrap up is, for those other social entrepreneurs out there, if you were to offer, you know, one piece of advice, based on your experience, what would that be?

Luther Lawoyin 36:34

Oh, man, I think, you know, it's kind of just kind of, like, cliche, but don't give up like, it's, it's, I mean, it gives more meaning to life gets more meaningful, as you make that impact. You know, as it's beyond the money beyond every other thing, that impact, don't, don't give up on that impact. That's all I can say. Because it's, it's really, really hard, I can say that, for sure. It's really hard, there are alternatives to these things that you know, especially entrepreneur can change their models today, life is good for them as an individual. But if you think about, you know, everyone else, or you're even yourself, because you are very much connected to everyone else, if we think of it that way. And, you know, that will help you not give up, that's just that's just my, my advice would be don't give up no matter how no matter where you find the strength where you find the, you know, energy to keep going. Keep at it, because what you're doing is, has a lot of impacts, and you are connected in that impact. So it comes back to you, no matter what it comes back to you. And the more the more we have those kind of energy coming back and you know, around the know that the more these problems are going to be solved. So my my tip would be Don't give up, no matter what, just don't give up is hard. But don't give up.

Morgan Bailey 38:05

I appreciate that. And yeah, for, for me personally, that rings true. And I'm sure for a lot of listeners as well. Because it is that impact that drives us and I think it's really good advice to keep that in mind. Because it's amid the challenges. It's easy to lose sight of that. Luthor if people want to find out more about price palay you know, or you How can they find out?

Luther Lawoyin 38:30

I'm fresh money.com My email is Luca price valley.com. And, yeah, I work best my email. So you thought price by legal comes pretty much fine.

Morgan Bailey 38:43

Fantastic. Luther, I'm really excited to see where price probably goes and to see it expand, you know, potentially across the continent of Africa, which would be amazing. Who knows, maybe we'll find your foothold in the US with this business or another one who knows. But I want thank you for your time today and for your passion and your mission. It's really been a pleasure talking to you.

Luther Lawoyin 39:04

It's great being hit. So thanks for the opportunity.

Morgan Bailey 39:09

Thanks for listening to another episode of the profit meets impact podcasts. If you enjoy this experience. Please subscribe wherever you find your podcast and leave a positive review. You can also find out more about the podcast at WWW dot profit meats impact.com

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