How This Ghanaian American Entrepreneur is Connecting Africans in the U.S. Through Food

Originally from Kumasi, Ghana, Jamila Zomah moved to the United States in 2012. She was living in New Jersey, and would often commute with her family to get African food and groceries in the Bronx. “I went on maternity leave after I had my son,” she tells OkayAfrica. “I had a little too much time on my hands. I’d be at home, trying to order from African restaurants. You’d call them but none of them had a delivery service.”

It was worse than that. “You couldn’t even view their menu online,” she adds. “As Africans, food is really important to us. But the African food out there wasn’t accessible to me from inside [my apartment]. That’s really how African Dishout started, with me trying to fix a problem for myself. Now, I’m fixing a problem for thousands of Africans in the United States.”

Zomah says at the time, these restaurants weren’t paying attention to delivery because the owners weren’t tech-savvy. “They’re run by our regular mums and dads. They’re not great with the internet or with their devices. We had to gradually guide them through the process.”

When African Dishout started, it only had one restaurant in its offering. “It was the last thing on the owner’s mind,” as Zomah says. “But she said, ‘If you can bring me $1000 in revenue from delivery in a month, then count me in.’ By the end of the month, she’d made $3000 through delivery. She was blown away.”

Now, African dishout has over 200 restaurants representing a range of African countries — Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Liberia — and has done over 150,000 deliveries in and out of New York and the Bronx. “We also recently launched in Massachusetts and some parts of Boston. There’s a lot of potential. We’re excited,” she says.

Zomah talks to OkayAfrica more about how African Dishout has grown into what it is today.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

OkayAfrica: Did you have any prior experience or skills in food and logistics that you transferred to African Dishout?

Jamila Zomah: My experience was in relationship banking. I’ve managed different clients and businesses over the years. Customer service has always been my thing, so transferring that – customer experience and relationship management – into African Dishout came easy to me.

I think one thing that differentiates us from competitors is how we’re able to nurture and build trust within our community. When African Dishout started with the first 30 restaurants, I personally onboarded them. Building trust was really important. You have to connect with them on a unique level. When you do that, they not only trust you but become your raving fans, all of which has contributed to, not only the success of the business, but to building consistency with our customers, and a sense of connection.

A part of building consistency was establishing our drivers’ network and keeping to speedy delivery. When we started six years ago, we hired and paid drivers by the hour. Whether there was a delivery or not, they were always on ground, always available for our customers. Then, the average delivery time was an hour. Now, it’s 21 minutes within a six-mile radius.

Jamila Zomah founded African Dishout to connect Africans in the U.S. through food.Photo Courtesy of Jamila Zomah.

What’s been the biggest barrier so far, both for African Dishout and for the small business restaurants you’re in partnership with?

At the time, my biggest barrier was proving that the problem exists and showing people that I had a solution. Now, it’s replicating this in other markets and cultures, and scaling quickly and impactfully. For our restaurants, the biggest barrier is being technologically adept. Thankfully, over the years, they’ve become more savvy. Now they hire cashiers and have printers and tablets where they receive orders. They’re quick learners. It’s 2024 and everyone’s using a phone now. In 2018 when African Dishout started, we had 40 percent of our orders coming through phone calls. Over the years we’ve been able to transition them to the app and the website. Today, almost 90 percent of our orders are through the app, both Android and iOS, where we’ve had over 15,000 downloads.

What would you say is the major difference between African Dishout and its competitors?

The major difference is that African food cannot be put in one category. You go on Uber Eats or DoorDash – where there wasn’t even an African category until recently – you’d find an African restaurant, but the menu would be poorly put together. You go on mainstream food apps and there’s an “African” category, but I may be Ghanaian, and never had Sierra Leoneon dishes. Or maybe I’m Nigerian and want to order from a Somali restaurant or get an Ethiopian dish. Africa is not merely a continent. It’s a complex web of so many different regions and cultures. Food is a big part of our lives. We want to give our users the experience of having a range of options. We want them to look at the variety that we offer, and feel seen and spoken to.

Jamila Zomah wants to give African Dishout users the “experience of having a range of options.”Photo Courtesy of Jamila Zomah.

Have you encountered unique challenges running a startup as an African Muslim woman in the U.S.?

Being Black and Muslim certainly has its challenges. It was especially challenging for me when I left my banking job to do this full-time. As a woman, wife, Muslim, mother, there’s a lot of gendered and cultural expectations. But that’s also a big part of why I do what I do, and keep moving forward. I have a six-year-old son and a seven-year-old daughter. I’m setting an example for her. When she’s older, I want her to look at me and think, ‘My mum did it all. So, I can do it all, too.’

What are African Dishout’s long-term goals for both business growth and societal impact?

We want to move into all the major cities that have densely populated Africans and immigrants. We want to take African food incredibly far and wide. A question I’m always asking myself and our team is, ‘How big can this get?’ The ultimate goal for African Dishout is to become the Amazon of every African household.

I want to see African Dishout become the number-one destination for all Africans in the U.S. To order food, groceries, and book catering services. To connect us beyond food. There’s money and international transfers. Maybe you have an aunt or grandmother back home whom you want to send some money to – that’s how big I’m thinking. What are all the various products and services I can have in one place for all African users? African Dishout wants to become the African ecosystem in the United States and bring our users the ultimate, wholesome experience that they deserve.