Ice Cream Factory Asks: What Does It Take to Make World-Class Ice Cream in Nigeria?

In conversation with @the.foodjourneyco

Ice Cream Factory Asks: What Does It Take to Make World-Class Ice Cream in Nigeria?

When the founders of Ice Cream Factory first tasted Häagen-Daz’s ice cream at a shop in London’s Leicester Square, it was a revelation. At the time, they were living in the UK, searching for a path with more purpose than their corporate jobs. That simple scoop of ice cream was a benchmark of excellence, and it sparked a deeper question: could they create a product of that same world-class quality back home in Nigeria?

Their answer was audacious. They decided there would be no Ice Cream Factory unless it was built on a truly Nigerian foundation, using Nigerian fresh milk. This non-negotiable choice was more than a business plan; it was a commitment to nurturing Nigeria's entire dairy ecosystem.

Nigeria's dairy industry is famously under-resourced. In Nigeria, milk is consumed mostly in powdered form, usually imported as local production simply can’t keep up. The main reason is simple: most indigenous breeds are hardy, but inefficient milk producers by global standards and attempts to crossbreed them with higher-yielding European or Asian cows often buckle under the cost of veterinary care and the fragility of these new breeds in local conditions. The lack of cold chain infrastructure, makes sourcing and transporting fresh milk a near-impossible mission; a 12-hour journey might drag on for days, and with every hour, the risk of spoilage grows. 

For the founders, however, these obstacles only strengthened their resolve. They remained deeply committed to building something truly local, and linked their success directly to harnessing Nigeria's potential.

The Power of Collaboration

So how do you build an ice cream business in a country where fresh milk is scarce and keeping it cold is an expensive gamble? For the founders of Ice Cream Factory, the answer was simple, you build by collaborating.

“It was very important to us that we were working with companies or businesses where we were then giving back to the Nigerian economy,” he explained. “Right from the start, it wasn’t about importing pre-mixed ice cream bases from Europe, or flying in powdered milk. It had to be in Nigeria”. That philosophy led them to partner with Integrated Dairies, the Plateau-based company behind Farm Fresh, who aggregated and pasteurised local milk. 

However, they quickly realized that this wasn’t enough. Integrated Dairies could deliver high-quality milk, but smaller farms across the country were struggling to meet the required specifications. Rather than bypassing them, Ice Cream Factory leaned in, working hand in hand with these producers to raise quality.

“What we’re trying to do is find how we can build these guys up so that they can meet the specifications” he explained. “Integrated Dairies is already properly set up, but these other cottage farms how do we work with them so that they up their game?”  To do this, every batch is tested, quality markers are reiterated, and farmers are trained to meet those requirements. Through this process, farmers gain the knowledge and systems needed to consistently produce milk that matches the company’s high-quality benchmarks.  By strengthening these smaller players, they aren’t just securing their own supply chain; they are helping build a new generation of quality dairy producers.

Keeping It Cool (Against All Odds)

This spirit of collaboration extended beyond sourcing. It informed how the Ice Cream Factory built its internal systems from the ground up. They learned that in Nigeria, success in dairy would hinge on the systems, and, the people behind it. “Without the people, if you can't get the people to do it consistently you're going to burn out” he said. “Our focus is the culture of excellence. It's what we're constantly trying to instill.”

Building a culture of excellence came with its challenges. Preserving fresh milk in an environment with limited cold chain infrastructure means “you need backups for your backups” just to ensure the chain isn’t broken. It also requires specialized technical expertise — something that is often hard to find.

In one case, a pasteurizing machine equipped with two independent cooling units ran at half capacity for years because one side simply wouldn’t function. Despite repeated visits from local technicians and even “big operators”, the issue remained unresolved. Eventually, a foreign engineer visiting Nigeria fixed the problem in minutes — by simply greasing a component.

These kinds of gaps make the commitment to authentically Nigerian ice cream far more demanding than it should be.

A New Vision for The Industry

What Ice Cream Factory’s journey makes strikingly clear is that building strong industries isn’t a solo pursuit. It is, at its core, a collective endeavor. Proof of what’s possible when different players in a value chain see themselves as interdependent and are invested in the success of the others.

“So, for us, I think the business itself is one side of it and there's the impact side of the business that we're very keen on. How do we make some sort of impact beyond just profit? And to do that people have to have a connection to the bigger picture of the business, so they're sold into it.”

Imagine what collaboration across Nigeria’s dairy ecosystem could look like: a future where processors train smallholder farms so their milk meets quality standards; dairy farmers organize into cooperatives to share cold storage and transport, reducing spoilage and costs; logistics companies specialize in insulated transport to keep milk fresh across long, bumpy journeys. Each link becomes more resilient because of its connection to the next.

The government, too, has a critical role here. Not just as regulators or occasional financiers, but as enablers of these networks: by offering grants or low-interest loans to modernize equipment, co-funding cold chain infrastructure that benefits entire regions, or creating policies that encourage local sourcing over imports. It means building roads and power systems that make it feasible to get fresh milk from farm to city and ensuring standards are enforced so trust can flourish between farmers, processors, and consumers.

The Ice Cream Factory’s story shows that impact should be the very foundation of business building.