From showcasing entrepreneurs to helping people register their businesses or apply for funding and grants, Black Business Edmonton teaches entrepreneurs how to show up confidently in spaces where they’ve historically been excluded.
People sometimes refer to the pandemic period as a time when new ideas were born. This is what happened to Ibukun Orefuja when he realized there was an absence of a cohesive Black business community in Alberta and decided to do something about it. When Orefuja created Black Business Edmonton (BBE) in January 2023, he wasn’t planning to start a movement; he simply wanted to bring Black-owned businesses together. Yet for Orefuja, this work has always been personal. He tells a story of his childhood in Nigeria, riding in the car with his father. Whenever they came across potholes, his dad would pull over, hand him and his siblings shovels, and make them fill the potholes themselves. “My dad didn’t call it philanthropy,” he says, adding that they served because it was the right thing to do.