Luji's Chocolate
Luji's Chocolate is a women-founded Nigerian chocolate brand that makes single-origin bars with West African ingredients, giving back a cocoa seedling to farmers for every bar sold.
The Story
The idea started with a stat. In 2019, Iyin Akinlabi-Oladimeji was living in Ghana when she learned that over 70% of the world's cocoa is grown in West Africa, yet less than 1% of chocolate is actually manufactured there. The raw beans get shipped to Europe and America, and all the value leaves the communities that grew them. She decided to build something different.
Luji's Chocolate launched in 2020 with a simple premise: make chocolate where the cocoa is grown. Starting in Ile Oluji, Nigeria, Iyin crafted the first bars using Nigerian cocoa and local ingredients like ginger and plantain. The signature Ginger Plantain Crunch bar became the breakout hit, and the brand expanded to include Spicy Suya Dark and a 70% Classic Dark, each flavor rooted in West African taste traditions rather than European ones.
The business found its audience through a Kickstarter campaign in 2022 that hit its funding goal in under six hours, then reached a national audience through NPR's How I Built This. By early 2026, Luji's had become the first single-origin Nigerian chocolate brand in U.S. retail, with more than 40,000 cocoa seedlings donated to farmers through its 1 Bar = 1 Seedling program. The brand now sells through its own Shopify store and is expanding into specialty retailers across the Northeast.
Key Facts & Metrics
Products
70% Classic Dark
A clean, elegant single-origin dark chocolate made with premium Nigerian cocoa and no fillers.
Ginger Plantain Crunch
The flagship bestseller. Bold dark chocolate with crispy plantain chips and warm ginger, inspired by West African flavors.
4-Bar Variety Pack
A curated sampler of all three signature bars plus a surprise flavor — the perfect introduction to Luji's.
Spicy Suya Dark
Dark chocolate infused with smoky, peppery suya spice — the iconic West African street food seasoning.
Company Timeline
2020 — Company founded
Iyin Akinlabi-Oladimeji founded Luji's Chocolate with a mission to make chocolate where cacao is grown and return value to West African farming communities.
2022 — Kickstarter launch
Luji's Chocolate launched its first Kickstarter campaign, hitting its funding goal in under six hours and validating demand for Nigerian-made chocolate in the U.S.
2024 — How I Built This feature
The brand appeared on NPR's How I Built This Advice Line, where founder Iyin Akinlabi-Oladimeji discussed pricing strategy and scaling the business with Jamie Siminoff and Guy Raz.
2026 — U.S. retail launch
Luji's Chocolate announced its U.S. retail debut, becoming the first single-origin Nigerian chocolate brand available in American stores and expanding distribution across the Northeast.
