How to get the best out of fish farming – Nzelu
By PETER ANOSIKE
Thursday, March 15, 2007

Fish farming is a lucrative business. It is a business that can transform one from grass to grace and from nobody to somebody.

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Kingdom Aquarium and Fisheries Limited, Mr Chinedu Nzelu, said the only thing that can hinder fish farmers from competing financially with the managing directors of mega companies is the lack of requisite knowledge that is needed for bountiful fish harvest.

He said that most of the food supplement that fish needs for healthy growth as well as the anti-biotics against fish mortality are not known by many Nigerian fish farmers.

However, he said that once they are being used, one begins to get the best out of fish farming business.
In this interview, he spoke about the challenges of fish farming and how government can salvage the situation. Excerpts:

Background
I studied here in Nigeria and later went to China and South Korea to improve my knowledge on the discipline because they have better technology than we have in the area. We are into fish farming, importation and selling of fish farming equipment and construction of ponds. We also sell fish food as well as install fountains on people’s homes and business premises.

Before I went into fish farming, I was a plumber and was very good at it. In the beginning, it was not my intention to go into fish farming.
When I was building my house, I just constructed a small pond where I would be growing fish for the family. But from there, I developed interest in the business. It later turned into a successful commercial venture as a result of demand.

Inspiration to go into fish farming
Well, what really inspired me into fish farming is the love I have for fish as a table food. I prefer eating fish to meat and on health grounds, it is obvious that while meat kills you softly, fish heals you. So, it is these factors that inspired me to go into fish farming.

One important point that is worthy of note is that I did not go into it for commercial purposes. I just built a pond where my family would be harvesting fish for food but when people outside discovered that I have such a thing in my compound, they began to come to buy to a point that my family could not even see fish again to use for food.

The matter became more complex when fish sellers and owners of restaurants got wind of the pond. When the demand became so much, I was forced to turn it into commercial venture by building bigger ponds and aquarium.
With the expansion, I still discovered that I was not meeting the demand, I decided to go into the importation and sale of fish farming equipment as well as building ponds for people who may want to start their own fish farming.

Now I sell fish farming equipment, like Japanese mats, brush, ceramic ring, activated carbon, oxone generator and oxone processor for those who use flow through system. We sell equipment that generate oxygen in the water like air blowers, air pumps as well as different kinds of erectors depending on what the customer wants. We also sell aquarium boxes and aquarium fishes. We are into everything that concern fisheries, cat fish farming and ornamental aquarium fish. We deal in fish feeds as well as water fountain.
We are a one-shop fish farming outfit. Apart from building a pond for you, we sell all the needed equipment for operation. We also sell the fingerling and the juveniles to you and supply you with their feeds.

How lucrative?
Fish farming is a lucrative business if properly managed, most especially with the latest equipment. The system that is commonly used in Nigeria is called flow through but the truth is that this system is now outdated as it is no longer effective. The one that brings better result is called reculatory system. This is a system whereby the water goes out of the pond through a filteration set up where the water would be filtered and it would return to the pond pure and fresh. What makes the system wonderful is that apart from saving water, a lot of oxygen is generated in the process as the water moves round but the other system which is called flow through is oxygen zero. The water does not contain much oxygen and that makes the fish in the pond not to grow well.

Challenges of fish farming
The biggest challenge facing fish farmers in the country is financial constraints. The business is dynamic and if you don’t keep pace with the trends, you lose out. Most of the equipment needed in the business is imported and they are expensive. This is affecting our productivity in the business. The other problem is energy. You cannot do fish farming without power supply. I know that some people may be wondering what electricity has to do with fish farming, but the truth is that we in the business know that we need power supply even more than the welder.

Government assistance
We are in dire need of government assistance. We have read in the newspapers that government has given out N50 billion as loan to farmers, but we have not seen this in reality. I am a member of the Fish Farmers Association of Nigeria. None of our members has benefitted from the loan. I have made several efforts towards that but to no avail.

If the loan is in existence, I feel that it is only for the privileged few. I am, therefore, using this opportunity to tell the government that the people who really need the loans are not getting it. As I said before, I am a member of the Fish Farmers Association of Nigeria and none of us has got the loan. Government should try to do something about it. If a loan is mapped out for the farmers, they should ensure that it would not be diverted and used for a different purpose.

Running my outfit
Though I am the managing director and chief executive officer of my company, I am a team player. I am conscious of the fact that no man is an island entirely on its own. I have 10 personnel working for me and we run the company like one family. I welcome ideas from any member of my staff. I am also humble enough to take criticism or correction from any of them. Education which was defined by one scholar as a continuous discovery of our ignorance is life. As long as we are alive, we will continue to learn. Whoever refuses to learn or to change for whatever reason is dead. So, I run a very open administration. My workers have access to me. They are free to ask any question and all of us are conscious of one thing. The success of the company is also our own success.

Our customers
Our customers include the market women, owners of restaurants and hotels. That is for the fish. People who have ponds come to buy feed and fish farming equipment from us. Those who want to go into fish farming also come to us and we will go and build ponds for them.

Vision
I have a big vision, which, by the grace of God, will materialise soon. We are sure that by June 2007 we would have gone to the next level. We have bought an acre at Kuje near Abuja where we will showcase the latest equipment as regards to fish farming. We also want to go into snails and grass cutter farming. In the area of fountain making, we have the latest fountain equipment in the world. Some of the fountains in our catalogue have not been seen anywhere in the country but if anybody wants them, we can call our agents abroad to bring them down. As I said earlier, we also install these fountains if our customer wants.

Advice to the unemployed
The advice that I have for those who are walking the streets looking for white collar jobs is to embrace fish farming.

Fish farming is a lucrative business and you can start it with as little as N30,000. However, I want to be quick to add that it is not a job for lazy people. For you to excel in the business, you need to be hands on. You have to be hard working. Once you can do that, the sky is your limit because it is a business that you have ready market. A market that you will find difficult to satisfy.

This is because whatever you harvest, there are people falling head over heels to purchase it. I am talking from experience. I had a vocation before I went into the business of fish farming but for now, I have rested it till God knows when because, as I said earlier, it is lucrative but time-consuming. So, I am calling on everybody to come on board the voyage of fish farming and let’s sail together.