It started with a simple idea in 2010, late one night in Lagos.
Debby Lawson, a fresh graduate with a degree in electronics and computer engineering, was waiting — like so many young Nigerians — for the big job offer that would change everything.
She dreamed of landing a role in the banking or oil sectors. While she waited, she took a job at a bakery, thinking it was just a way to pass time.
Instead, she found herself falling in love with the hum of ovens, the thrill of selling a product people loved, and the idea of building something from scratch.
And one night, as she stayed late to finish a large cookie order, another dream took root – “What if I made my own cookies and sold them?“
Debby’s sister was already selling snacks at her office and offered to help. Encouraged, Debby Lawson scraped together 1,000 naira — about 62 US cents today — and headed to the market for ingredients. She returned with just 40 naira left. “I always say Fastizers started with 960 naira,” she says.
A humble start
Her first batch, baked in the bakery’s ovens after hours and packed in plain paper, went with her sister to the office. Twenty packs — gone by noon. The next day, thirty packs — sold out again.
Seeing the spark, Debby gave her cookies a name — Fun Cookies. A brand was born, even if it was still being mixed, rolled, and packed in the tight kitchen of a three-room apartment.
“Sometimes I’d be in the kitchen at 2am baking cookies,” she remembers. “But when you’re doing something you love, it really doesn’t feel like stress.”
Love, hustle, and Lagos streets
In Nigeria, most shopping happens not in fancy stores, but in the buzzing chaos of roadside stalls and bus terminals. Debby’s then-fiancé, Gbola Lawson, had a big idea to take Fun Cookies straight to the streets.
One Saturday, he carried a few packs to a busy Lagos bus terminal and offered them to a vendor — free, with a promise to buy back anything that didn’t sell. By Monday, when Debby checked in, the vendors weren’t asking for refunds, they were asking for more.
“I was excited; I was jumping,” she says, the memory still fresh.
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Orders grew, and Debby baked faster. Soon they were delivering three dozen packs per vendor, every single day.
But growth brought new problems. Chasing down payments at night, carrying cash through crowded streets, trying to find vendors who had shifted locations, it became a risky, draining cycle.
Debby pivoted. Instead of selling to vendors one by one, she partnered with existing distributors, men and women who already had networks deep into the informal market. Through them, Fun Cookies traveled across Lagos, and soon, far beyond.
A dream that caught fire
The brand’s first big break outside Lagos came when a distributor from Nigeria’s commercial hub, Aba, Abia State, discovered Fun Cookies during a trip to Lagos. The distributor started placing bulk orders and was distributing the product to other eastern cities like Calabar, Enugu, and Owerri.
Today, Fastizers operates in over two dozen states across Nigeria. In bigger regions, it works with multiple distributors, each supported by a dedicated sales manager.
By 2013, just three years after Debby’s first late-night baking session, Fastizers hit 200 million naira (about $125,000 today) in annual turnover.
They bought land, secured financing from Nigeria’s Bank of Industry, and built their own factory.
Growing and adapting
Over the years, Debby expanded the Fastizers product line, introducing Nibit, a bite-sized cookie snack; Sweet Stix, a chin-chin product; and more recently, Rave, a biscuit snack.
On how they launch new products: “We promote new products with live dancers, music, and free samples in market areas,” Debby explains. “[It’s] cost effective and it really works for us.”
In 2023, Fastizers secured a $2 million investment from Aruwa Capital Management, a moment that allowed the company to complete its second, fully-automated factory, bringing even more dreams to life.
Today, Fastizers employs over 200 people. And Fun Cookies, the little snack that started it all, remains its proud flagship.
Surviving hard times
But even the sweetest stories have challenges.
Nigeria’s economy has been punishing lately. Inflation hit 24.23% as of April 2025, and the naira tumbled. Operating costs soared.
“It’s a really tough terrain now. It’s very, very tough,” Debby says.
Fastizers had to get creative. Raising prices wasn’t an option for customers already struggling to make ends meet. So they shrank pack sizes. A product that once weighed 50 grams now weighs 15 grams. “But it gets to a limit where you cannot shrink anymore,” she adds.
They also leaned into affordable products. Recently, Fastizers entered the bread market with Fun Bread, a smart move in a time when filling, low-cost foods matter more than ever.
“Bread is very filling,” Debby says simply.
Her mindset today is one of flexibility, not rigidity. “Things are changing each day. So your five-year plan — by the time you get there, everything has changed,” she says. “The economy is very volatile now.”
Still rising
Through it all, the spirit that fueled a young woman with 960 naira and a dream remains unchanged and unbroken in the face of challenges.
