Nigerian restaurant Chuku’s receives £8,000 donation from Beyoncé

Pop-singer Beyoncé has chosen the North London Nigerian tapas restaurant to be one of the recipients of a $1 million giveaway to small businesses.

Beyoncé’s BeyGOOD Foundation invited black business owners to apply for grants with Chuku’s being one of the businesses awarded the money at an event at the Four Season hotel in London earlier this week.

Ifeyinwa Frederick, co-owner of Chuku’s, told The Times: “I can only describe it as being a massive cheerleading session. Everyone was just so happy to see the respective businesses being awarded. I was applauding, cheering and whooping.”

Frederick owns the business with her brother Emeka who said the money would secure the business and help to fix some water damage after one of the flats overhead became flooded.

At the end of last year the siblings took to social media to say the business was “at risk of closure" and that they had been struggling to keep the doors open "despite our excellent press and rave reviews".