Oja is a food delivery service founded by Miriam Jimoh, which seeks to make ethnic foods readily available by connecting local multi-cultural stores. Well, according to the brand. Oja, if you didn’t know, is the Yoruba word for ‘market’ and in the wake of Oja being among the three recipients of a free cash injection prize of £10,000, a women-empowerment initiative by young British fashion designer Conna Walker, a plagiarism controversy has sprung up.

We are so honoured to have won first place prize of £10,000 from @Conna_Walker’s #CBWOMEN4WOMEN fund! We love Conna’s support for female founders ?

Thank you so much for the opportunity – please sign up to the mailing list https://t.co/oS1wyGTtPD to keep updated on our launch! pic.twitter.com/PEe1dgeMsw

— Ọja (@OjaHQ) April 8, 2019

It appears that there’s another Oja delivery service, this one with Express incorporated in the brand name. Founded by Boyede Sobitan and Fola Dada, Oja Express does the exact same thing as Jimoh’s Oja, in the context of being a one-stop store for accessing African and Caribbean foods and groceries from ethnic and multi-cultural retailers.

On Twitter, Jimoh has been called out for blatantly plagiarising another business, copying everything right down to details like brand color and logo. Nigerian author and digital strategist Luvvie Ajayi pointed this out succinctly.

People can be so dishonest. And don’t tell me Google is busy. When you’re starting a business, Google FIRST to ensure you will not call your business name the SAME thing as another business already in the same industry and field.

— Awesomely Luvvie (@Luvvie) April 8, 2019

Mariam, abeg. Don’t give me this rubbish. So you’re telling me you never Googled to see that there was ANOTHER company, called OJA that was doing mobile deliveries of African and Caribbean food. And then you just happened to use the same orange they use? Madame. Wow.

— Awesomely Luvvie (@Luvvie) April 8, 2019

@Luvvie @Conna_Walker @TheArtofMariam @rianalynn @Dupe_Fiasco Thank you for exposing her. Just last month she was being dragged on twitter about saying this about single women & refused to apologise. So undeserving of that money, because not only is she unoriginal, she is nasty. pic.twitter.com/6VtPbksf96

— ✝ (@__JesusSavess) April 9, 2019

Please do the honorable thing and disqualify your plagiarized company from receiving this award. You know very well that you took this logo, branding, and verbiage from @OjaExpress

— Sharon1088 (@Sharon10881) April 8, 2019

I see you blocked me via OjaHQ for exposing the fact that your company is a fraud! Did you think you could fool people by copying @OjaExpress ? And then pitch your idea to @Conna_Walker ? I hope you have not cashed your 10,000 pounds because you will need to return it back. pic.twitter.com/xS0sF69BTu

— Sharon1088 (@Sharon10881) April 8, 2019

Here’s Jimoh trying to [coughs] defend her plagiarism:

Hi Luvvie, although the concepts seem similar they are different and it’s something I’ve been working on for over a year with a team of really cool black women. I’ve shared exactly how I came up with the name & concept with my team on my Instagram: https://t.co/A4BofzH9KY (1/2)

— Mariam Isha (@TheArtofMariam) April 8, 2019

 

Here’s a reaction from Oja Express, in the wake of the controversy:

Quick update! pic.twitter.com/OYGh3YsNKj

— OjaExpress (@OjaExpress) April 10, 2019

Conna Walker, who is the founder of House of CB, an ultra-feminine brand that has been patronized by Beyonce, Jennifer Lopez and Bella Hadid is yet to make a comment regarding the controversy. It’s worth mentioning that 4,000 female-owned start-ups went in for the prize, and Jimoh’s Oja fraudulently benefiting from the initiative isn’t a good look for its credibility.

 

Editor’s Note: A previously published headline stated Mariam Jimoh’s delivery service as Oja Express instead of Oja. Furthermore, the views presented in this post are solely of the writer and doesn’t reflect the position of YNaija.