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'Things Work Here': Pan-African Fast-Food Chain Looks to Expand in Moscow

17:59, 30 June 2024

Moscow is a highly multicultural city where you can find food from almost every cuisine imaginable. African culinary traditions are becoming increasingly prominent in this cultural kaleidoscope, thanks to the efforts of entrepreneurs like Emeka Okpara from Nigeria.

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"The focus for us [...] is making food and making it fast, delicious, and healthy," Emeka Okpara, CEO of J-Express Pan-African Flavors, told Sputnik Africa, explaining his business vision.

"We just don't want to make African food something you eat once in a while. We want it to be something you see every day," he noted.

The Nigerian, who originally came to Russia to study, chose to start a business in the country because it has a "safe environment" and "a system that works," which for him are two "boxes" that "are ticked" that led him to invest. "Things work here," he said.

"I understood that most of the things I had seen in the media before I came here, most of them were false. And then one of the things I noticed about the Russian people is their openness to new dishes, new food, new cultures," the entrepreneur pointed out.

A J-Express Pan-African Flavors fast-food restaurant in Moscow, Russia

Emeka Okpara sees great potential in the development of relations between Africa and Russia and the prospect of a "very long-term relationship" between them.

"It's important that we even start introducing the food and the culture right now, because now is the time," he stressed.