Lagos · Nigeria
Café Neo
Café Neo roasts in Lagos, Lagos State.
Since 2012 · Ngozi Dozie, Chijioke Dozie
Overview
Café Neo was founded in 2012 by Nigerian brothers Ngozi and Chijioke Dozie, who first invested in a distressed Rwandan coffee roastery through their $8M private fund and then realised Lagos itself had nowhere to sell to. The brand opened in a hidden mall second-floor space on Victoria Island getting roughly 10 customers a day, took a risk on a prime standalone location in 2014, and grew into Nigeria's first coffee-shop chain — peaking around 14 Lagos stores plus office locations.
Known for
- Lagos's first home-grown specialty coffee chain
- Founders Ngozi (CEO) and Chijioke Dozie — also founders of microlender Carbon
- Rwandan-roasted Arabica as the original house bean
- Designed as an entrepreneur-friendly workspace with reliable wifi and power, hackathons, and competitions
- Name 'Neo' means 'gift' in Tswana and 'new' in Latin
Why it matters
Café Neo created the playbook for African coffee-chain entrepreneurship outside Anglophone East Africa — a Nigerian-owned brand serving Nigerian-roasted Arabica in a country that grows coffee but barely drinks it.
Production
- roastery location
- Roasting partnership with the founders' Rwandan operation
Café
Victoria Island flagship, Lagos