Diaspora Star | Omowumi Monehin : The Lawyer-Turned-Baker Introducing Agege Bread to Qatar

When Omowumi Monehi moved to Qatar in 2015, she didn’t imagine she’d become a culinary pioneer. Trained as a lawyer, Wumi like many Nigerian women in the diaspora paused her career to prioritize family and relocation logistics. But less than a decade later, she is one of the most successful Nigerian entrepreneurs in Qatar, known for something uniquely Nigerian: Agege bread.

Through grit, timing, and bold thinking, Wumi Monehin transformed a kitchen experiment into a multimillion-dollar food empire, introducing Nigerians’ favorite soft, stretchy bread to a Middle Eastern market that never knew it needed it.

Before she was a baker, Wumi was a practicing lawyer in Nigeria. But the realities of relocation meant starting from scratch in Doha. Her legal qualifications didn’t translate easily into the Gulf job market, and she was now a stay-at-home mom navigating a new culture.

Everything changed during the 2017 Gulf blockade. Supermarket shelves emptied overnight. Bread an everyday staple was suddenly scarce. Wumi noticed her son developing health issues tied to store-bought loaves filled with chemicals and preservatives. She took matters into her own hands and began baking at home, learning via YouTube.

Her Agege bread quickly caught on. What started as food for her children soon became a business, fueled by word of mouth from Nigerians in Qatar and beyond.

Today, Wumi’s Bakery and Bistro is stocked in over 400 locations across Qatar, including major supermarkets and Woqod, the country’s national petrol station chain. Her brand offers a wide range of products, from baked goods to full Nigerian meals and even Filipino cuisine under different sub-brands.

Her flagship Agege bread remains the heart of it all. Branded with Nigerian names like “Aba Bread,” Wumi cleverly uses her packaging and product naming to spark curiosity about Nigeria’s cities and culture. Less than 10% of her customer base is Nigerian. Yet, Qataris and other expats are hooked on the softness and authenticity of her loaves.

Starting with just her oven and passion, Wumi worked up to 18 hours a day, often delivering bread herself. It wasn’t glamorous. It was grueling. But with her husband Akin’s support and business acumen (he’s a transformation consultant formerly with Shell), she turned a solo hustle into a scalable enterprise with structured operations and multiple revenue streams.

She has since raised over $2 million in funding and developed a business model built for scale without compromising quality.

Qatar is not the easiest place to be a Black African woman in business. Wumi faced racism, gender bias, and skepticism. “There were no female allies. Being dark-skinned and Nigerian came with a struggle,” she says. Yet, she let her work speak for itself.

She didn’t beg for shelf space she waited for buyers to chase her. She built a brand that created pull, not push. That strategy not only protected her value but also demonstrated her products’ market power.

Wumi is now a role model for Nigerian women abroad who are sitting on untapped talents. Her advice?

“Solve real problems. Know your numbers. Perfect your craft. People will pay for excellence.”

She turned a crisis into capital, used local challenges as a springboard, and refused to shrink her ambition. Her story proves that a professional background even in law can serve as a foundation for building something entirely new and impa

Wumi isn’t just selling bread she’s selling identity. Each pack of Agege bread on a Qatari shelf carries the story of Nigeria’s food heritage and a woman who dared to rewrite her path.

For the Nigerian diaspora, Wumi Monehin is not just a baker. She is a builder of culture, of business, and of transnational bridges.