Copywriter

Company Description

Copywriter Manager — African Food Network

Abuja, Nigeria (Hybrid)  |  Full-Time  |  Starting Salary: N120,000 / month

About Us

African Food Network (AFN) is Africa's leading food media, events, and ecosystem platform, dedicated to documenting, promoting, and globalising African food culture. Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Abuja, Nigeria, AFN operates across content and media, physical events, cultural documentation, and long-term institutional infrastructure for the African food ecosystem.

We hold two consecutive World Culinary Awards as Africa's Best Culinary Festival (2024 and 2025), a community of over 100,000 email subscribers, and a growing archive of documented African dishes spanning all 54 countries on the continent. Our flagship programmes include the African Food and Drinks Festival, the African Food Summit and Expo, and the African Food Influencers Awards. We are the only pan-African organisation operating simultaneously across food documentation, media, events, awards, and policy.

Joining AFN means joining a mission-driven organisation at the intersection of culture, commerce, and continent-wide ambition — at a stage where your contribution shapes the institution.

Role Summary

The Content Manager owns AFN's most enduring asset: our food heritage documentation platform. You are responsible for growing and maintaining the recipe archive, managing the Africooks contributor system, running the AFN website content calendar, and producing editorial content that reflects the quality and ambition of our brand.

This is not a social media role. It is a content architecture and heritage documentation role that demands strong research skills, disciplined writing, SEO proficiency, and a genuine passion for African food culture. The person who does this job well will grow into a senior content leadership role as AFN scales.

Core ResponsibilitiesHeritage Documentation and Recipe Archive

• Research, write, and publish original recipe content covering the full breadth of African cuisine across multiple countries and regions.
• Maintain and grow the AFN recipe archive, ensuring every entry meets a consistent standard for accuracy, cultural authenticity, completeness, and readability.
• Build and maintain the chef directory and restaurant directory on the AFN platform.
• Use research tools, AI writing assistants, and editorial judgement in combination — generating content at scale while verifying accuracy and cultural integrity before publication.

Africooks Contributor System

• Recruit, onboard, and manage recipe contributors — chefs, home cooks, food writers, and cultural knowledge holders — across Nigeria and the continent.
• Maintain the quality control and approval workflow for all public recipe submissions to ensure every published entry meets AFN's editorial standard.
• Build and nurture the contributor community, working to grow an active network of verified contributors over time.

Website Content and SEO

• Manage the AFN website content calendar — plan, write, and publish content consistently and on schedule.
• Write and optimise all site content for search — meta titles, descriptions, headers, internal linking, and keyword targeting — with the goal of ranking for African food discovery queries globally.
• Maintain the WordPress CMS to a clean publishing standard: correct formatting, image optimisation, metadata, and category architecture.
• Monitor content performance using analytics and SEO tools, and use data to inform and improve content strategy on an ongoing basis.

Editorial and Institutional Content

• Produce long-form articles, food culture features, and editorial content that positions AFN as an authoritative voice on African food.
• Support the production of institutional content including programme descriptions, partner materials, and event content where needed.
• Ensure every word published under the AFN name meets the organisation's quality and brand standards — accuracy, tone, and cultural sensitivity are non-negotiable.

Key Skills and RequirementsMandatory

• Deep, genuine knowledge of African food culture across multiple countries and regions — not only Nigeria.
• Strong research skills: able to find, verify, and synthesise information from multiple sources accurately and efficiently.
• Excellent writing ability in English — clear, structured, culturally grounded, and publishable without heavy editing.
• Recipe writing experience — you know how to write a complete, accurate recipe that someone can follow.
• SEO proficiency: keyword research, on-page optimisation, meta writing, and content structuring for search. Demonstrated, not theoretical.
• WordPress proficiency: comfortable managing a content-heavy website, not just writing posts within one.
• Food blogging experience: you understand what makes food content perform and you have produced it yourself.
• Systematic and disciplined: able to manage content production at volume without sacrificing quality or consistency.

Preferred

• Experience using AI writing tools for content generation at scale, combined with strong editorial judgement to verify, edit, and refine the output.
• Familiarity with content management and database platforms beyond WordPress.
• Basic photography or food styling knowledge — able to brief a photographer or produce simple in-house content imagery.
• Experience with SEO analytics tools such as Google Search Console, Ahrefs, Ubersuggest, or similar.
• Experience producing content about African food for an international or diaspora audience.

Experience Required

• Minimum two years of content writing, editorial, or food media experience — with a portfolio you can show.
• Demonstrated experience writing recipes and food content for a Nigerian or African audience.
• At least one example of SEO-optimised content that has ranked and driven organic traffic.
• Experience managing a WordPress site in a professional or semi-professional context.

Personal Traits — Non-Negotiable

• You take ownership. If something is in your lane, it gets done to standard without being chased.
• You are genuinely passionate about African food culture. The documentation mission matters to you, not just the job.
• You are detail-oriented enough to catch errors and fast enough to maintain volume.
• You are honest about what you do not know and proactive about filling the gap.
• You treat quality as a baseline, not an achievement.

Performance Expectations

• Consistent, measurable growth of the recipe archive, with all entries meeting AFN's published quality standard.
• Active and growing Africooks contributor network with verified, attributed content flowing in regularly.
• Measurable improvement in AFN website organic search traffic within the first 90 days of content strategy implementation.
• Content calendar maintained with zero missed publication deadlines in the first 90 days.
• Chef and restaurant directory growing steadily with accurate, well-structured listings.
• All published content is accurate, culturally verified, and brand-consistent before going live.

Compensation Structure

• Starting salary: N120,000 per month.
• Salary review after six months based on performance against agreed objectives.
• Growth path to a senior content leadership role is tied directly to the platform's growth and the quality of your contribution.

Who This Role Is NOT For

• Anyone who thinks African food means Nigerian food and nothing else.
• Anyone who has never written a recipe from scratch and cannot demonstrate it.
• Anyone who treats AI-generated content as a finished product without verification, editing, and cultural accuracy review.
• Anyone looking for a social media role — social media is not part of this remit.
• Anyone who cannot show a portfolio of published food content.
• Anyone who needs to be managed closely to meet deadlines.
• Anyone who has not used WordPress as a content management tool professionally.
• Anyone who cannot explain what on-page SEO means and apply it in practice.

Final Note

At African Food Network, content is not support material — it is the product. African food culture is one of the most underdocumented in the world, and every recipe, article, and profile we publish is part of closing that gap permanently. If you are a serious writer, a systematic builder, and someone who is genuinely proud of African food culture, we want to hear from you.

To apply, send your CV, a portfolio of at least three published food content pieces (including at least one recipe you wrote and one SEO-focused article), and your answers to the screening questions below to hello@afrifoodnetwork.com with the subject line: Content Manager Application — [Your Name].

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