By Francis Sadhere
“I never knew that I could make so much money from fish farming business until a non-governmental agency called Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND), came and taught us how we can be self-millionaire through fish farming.”
That was the opinion of Deaconess Sam Okoshime, a fish farmer and a member of the United Ufuoma Fish Farmers Association located in Ekpan, Uvwie Local Government Area of Delta State.
To Mrs. Okoshime and other fish farmers, aquaculture was just something they delved into because they wanted to make ends meet. They never looked at it from the business angle. All they were interested in was to make little money from it to take care of their family.
According to Deaconess Okoshime, she had been in the fish farm business for the past 14 years scrapping to make little money just to take care of her family. She had never had the experience to improve on the business. Like others in the aquaculture business in Delta State, she invested so much money into the business without any results. It came to a point that she was already giving up because she had lost so much money. She said to herself that she could not continue in the business where she was making losses every day because her fishes were dying.
Deaconess Okoshime had no access to any micro credit loans. Even the ones that were made available by the Delta State Government through the Commissioner for Poverty Alleviation, Dr. (Mrs.) Anthonia Asheidu could not get to her. No bank wants to loan her money because she could not provide any collateral. She could not bring herself to go to any bank to access any loan to improve her business because of the high interest rates the banks demand. All the money she sank into the business were money she personally got from other means.
Speaking to our reporter who was on a visit to the United Ufuoma Fish Farms, Deaconess Okoshime said; “Before you go into any business, you have to prepare for it personally. I personally raised the money to start the business. I am not getting help from anybody even up till now. Some years back the government said they were going to provide some loans for us but up till this moment nobody could access those loans. Initially we were interested in the loan they said they were going to give us but when we heard the amount we were going to pay as interest, we were discouraged and we forgot about taking any loans. As for me I am not aware of any loans being giving to us by the state government. If the state government had been assisting us with loans we would have gone far in the business and we would have improved more than this.”
She said that the government had not been doing much to help them because ever since the state government came out with the micro credit scheme, they have not been benefiting from it. She appealed to the state government to come to their aid because she believed they could do better with a little funding. She said she knew that fish farming in Delta State could take a lot of people out of the streets if they were giving the appropriate funding and encouragement.
Her success story in the aquaculture industry could not be complete if not for the timely intervention of PIND.
Beaming with smile, she narrated how PIND came to their aid and encouraged them through capacity building training.
She said PIND taught them how to maximize profits through simple mechanism like book keeping, accurate feeding, how to treat the water so that the fish would not die and so many other things.
With this training Deaconess Okoshime and many of her colleagues were able to manage their fish farms very well and they were able to make a lot of money from the business. Most of them owned up to 52 farms and they are still counting. More farmers have now joined the business and many of them are now self-employed and are no longer roaming the streets looking for white collar jobs that are not even there. The aquaculture industry can generate a lot of employment opportunities in the Niger Delta Area more than the oil industry. What people need is just a little encouragement and the rest will be history.
Narrating her joy over her success story so far, she had this to say; “PIND has encouraged us a lot through their capacity building training which they gave to us free of charge. They have made us understand what it takes to be in the business. Even though we are the fish farmers, they gave us enlightenment on how we can manage our fish farms and maximize profits. Before PIND came to our aid, we were just doing the work anyhow without really knowing what we were doing. They made us understand that fish farming is not just a job you do anyhow, but a business that can generate profit for you.”
“Though I was a very patient person, if not for PIND I think by now I would have been frustrated out of the business. Right now I am operating 15 fish ponds and if not for PIND I would have gone back to operating only one pond by now. But with the help of PIND, the knowledge they have given to us through series of training they gave to us we are able to sustain our farm till this very minute. They have been of tremendous help to us and because of them we are still in business and we can sustain our families. So I will say a big thank you to PIND for what they have done in our lives,” she concluded.
Another fish farmer and member of the UUFFA who spoke to our reporter at their fish farm, Mrs. Josephine Eloho-Okwenye told our reporter that she smiles to the bank everyday because of the intervention of PIND. She said ever since PIND came to their aid they have been having it smoothly.
After narrating how she lost over 2million naira to the business, Mrs. Eloho-Okwenye said that now she can boast of 52 ponds owned by her. She said she is training her children on aquaculture because she has discovered that in the next five years aquaculture was going to make a lot of people millionaires. She noted that the business was there for everybody to go into no matter your status in life. More women and youths are now joining the business because they have discovered that they can make a lot of money from it.
She said; “For me I have 52 and I rented out some while I farm in some. Some people do not have farms but they rented about 12 or 15 farms. As it is now I have started training my children on aquaculture because I believe in production and this is the production area that I have identified and I want my children to hold on to it. The capacity building that I have gotten from PIND I will pass it out to my generation and to as many as cared to listen.”
