After completing her studies, Tejiri Oghene Ceijiri was at a crossroads. After graduating with a degree in Mechatronics from the University of Bolton, it was difficult to find a job.
However, having already fallen in love with the city, Tejiri had no plans to leave the country any time soon and had to make a living given the difficult job market situation.
“It takes time to understand everything.” She told the MEN“Most of the jobs I applied for required experience here in the UK, and I don’t have that.
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“I have experience from Nigeria, but most people don’t accept that. It was difficult to go even a month without work. I managed to get interviews and I was nervous, but there were always one or two things that disqualified me, like my visa status. But now this was my home.”
Tejiri saw a gap in the market and decided to open a local store to serve her community. She is one of those new age shoppers who enjoys visiting a store selling African goods that has the ambience of a modern supermarket chain.
After six months of hard work, Afro Fusion Mart is now open on Blackburn Road. The store also offers home delivery nationwide for orders over £100.
But that’s just the beginning. She dreams of growing to the point where she’ll one day have a sprawling, all-encompassing entity that does everything for everyone.
““My mother is a fashion designer, like my grandmother, and she sells fabrics,” she said.
“They always sent me out to get supplies for them and open the store. So I grew up with the store. I want to one day have a store big enough to store their clothes, where people can come in, get their hair done and buy some groceries. That’s my big dream. That was one of my motivations for opening this store.”
Following the store’s opening on July 28, Tejiri celebrated the occasion on social media, tweeting about the event on X (formerly known as Twitter).
The post, which has now gone viral with over 4,200 retweets, reads: “I can’t believe I opened an African grocery store in Bolton last week. It all started like a dream and here we are. Afro Fusion Mart sells African groceries, spices, fresh produce and more. We deliver anywhere in the UK. Free delivery on orders over £100.”
Speaking to MEN about the viral tweet and the response to the new store, she said: “I really didn’t expect this. I was just using Instagram and TikTok to promote the store and then I decided to post something on Twitter and then it went through the roof.
“The opening day was great. It was great to see the support of the community, especially the African community. I think they have been waiting for this for a long time.”
Afro Fusion Mart is located at 132-134 Blackburn Road, Bolton BL1 8DW and is open Monday and Saturday from 8am-9pm and Sunday from 1pm-8pm.
