Leadership (Abuja)
1 January 2009
Following the economic hardship and lack of jobs, youths in the FCT have ventured into fish farming to make ends meet.
In an interview with LEADERSHIP, Kingsley Ogbaji, a native of Benue State, in New Karu, Nasarawa State, said he became a fish farmer about three years ago. The business, he disclosed, is doing so well that he has employed about 20 workers.
According to him, his customers include some of the big hotels in Abuja city.
"We started about three years ago, " he said, "the business is doing very fine, and is growing very fast. We have over 15 workers at this Karu branch alone. We have other branches in places like Nyanya-Gwandara, Karu site. We do not sell to individuals .Most of our customers are from the big hotels in Abuja like Sheraton, Nicon, Rockview, etc.
When asked how he transacts with the clients, he said: "Every six months, the fish are grown big enough to be sold and we supply them to these hotels and collect our money at the moment of supply. We supply them fish and chicken from time to time".
He added: "During this period of the year and new year, we have sold fish and chicken to individual because we have more than enough customers who came from different places to buy (chickens and fish) from us. We sell at a very low price; if the market people are selling one chicken N1,300 and N1,500, we sell our own at he rate of N1000 each".
He told LEADERSHIP that several other youths were involved in the trade, and that he hoped to expand his trade and take in more workers in 2009.
One new fish farmer is George Abang of Nyanya in Abuja. According to him, he had been a welder at Kugbo spare parts market, but when things became tough for him, his friend introduced him to fish farming.
"Actually, it started when I saw an advert about training people interested in fish business and I attended the interview at Mararaba."
According to Mr. Abang, he borrowed money from a micro finance bank to float a pond in Kugbo, and after his first harvest, he has been able to repay the loan and have enough to stock the pond again.
"It's good business and there's market for it in Abuja. Many of these big hotels readily buy the fish from us and we can restock."
He assured that he would continue in the trade and introduce other friends of his who are unemployed.
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