Tepper School Grad Aims to Make West African Cuisine More Accessible

Person mixing ingredients in silver bowls on a preparation table filled with various foods and bottles containing different liquids. Person mixing ingredients in silver bowls on a preparation table filled with various foods and bottles containing different liquids.

Do you crave West African cuisine, but find it a bit of a mystery — or just don’t have time to devote to preparing it yourself?

Tepper School alumna Ozioma Aniagu (MBA 2024) is designing a consumer product that automates the cooking process of a widely consumed African staple, prevalent across many African countries.

This innovation is particularly crucial as it not only saves significant time and effort in food preparation but also aims to introduce and popularize this traditional cuisine on a global scale.

By enhancing accessibility and ease of preparation, the product seeks to bridge cultural gaps and bring a piece of African culinary heritage into homes worldwide.

A native of Nigeria with an early career as an intelligence analyst, Aniagu traveled first to Montreal to complete her first master’s degree in software engineering before obtaining her Tepper MBA.

Her Tepper capstone project in technical product management helped her define her goal to make African cuisine as easy to enjoy as the ubiquitous dishes of European, Asian or Latin American cultures.

Targeted support from the Accelerate Leadership Center at the Tepper School helped her develop her leadership skills too.

She is currently in the patent process, with an anticipated product launch in 2025.

An assortment of bowls filled with food.