About
Francess Onyinye Enyi is a graduate of Geography from Ibrahim Badamosi Babagida University, Minna. She keyed into the State Government’s Youth Agricultural and Entrepreneurs Programme (YAGEP) in 2015 after fruitless search for white collar job and ever since she has remained committed to her vision of having one of the largest poultry farms in Delta state. She hails from Aniocha South Local Government Area. The distinctive quality Francess exhibits is her commitment and passion for her enterprise which is evident in her level of progress. She is a proof that one does not need to study Agriculture to succeed as a farmer.
Her Story
The business success story of Francess is motivating and an encouragement to young farmers, especially to young graduates who did not study Agriculture. Of course, Francess proved them wrong. She chose to be trained in poultry farming which is her passion. According to her, “I have passion for poultry, but I did not know how to go about it till I came into this programme. In the course of the training, I relocated from Sapele to Asaba because I preferred to establish in Asaba.”
This enterprising young lady was indeed grateful to the State Government for the job creation initiative especially for her starter pack. In her words, “After the training which lasted for three months, I was given a starter pack with the following components- poultry pen at Aboh-Ogwashi YAGEP Farm Cluster with water facility, 200 broilers, 400 point of lay birds, 150 bags of feeds, medication, a monthly stipend of #10,000 for 3 months and other items. With these starter stock, I began my poultry business. For these, I remain grateful to Delta State Government”.
Francess has made remarkable progress as a young poultry entrepreneur who is resolute and committed to what she was trained to do in spite of challenges facing poultry farmers. In less than 2 years in the poultry business, Francess has grown her business beyond what she had as starter stock. Impressively, she seems to know her onions as far as poultry farming is concerned. “I have done over 10 broiler cycles with 750 broilers last Christmas season. I have also done 3 cycles of layers. I currently have 200 broilers, 600 layers, 200 poulets, 50 noilers (a special breed of layer and broiler), 10 turkey and a minimum of 12 crates of eggs daily from my layers,” she recounted. As a visionary entrepreneur, Francess is planning ahead towards expanding her poultry in a permanent site. She has this to say, “Last year, I invested #1m into my poultry, bought 750 broilers for the Christmas season. After sales, I realized #2.3m as profit. From the proceeds, I bought a piece of land measuring 100ft by 100ft. I hope to expand to my permanent site.”
Though it sounds so interesting, yet it might not be as easy as that! She has challenges. One then wonders what could be the secret of her success. She exudes great confidence in the business unlike some of her counterparts. Her poultry, pen and the surroundings were clean and well swept. This perhaps could be the reason for the very low mortality in her poultry. To clear all doubts, she seems to have answers to all the questions. To her, “Commitment is key. On daily basis I study my birds, their droppings and whatever unusual changes I discover I handle immediately. Basically, I plough back my profit. By ploughing back my profit, I have been able to grow my business.”
Talking about “her ups and downs”, she said one of the challenges she had at a time was water supply when the sumo for the water borehole packed up till she installed a new one for the cluster. The major challenge affecting the cluster is attack and theft of birds by Fulani hoodlums. She appealed to the State Government to come to their aid, decrying that the ugly trend is inhibiting her drive to invest in the business.
On her plans for expansion, she hoped to continue to recycle her funds and looks forward to securing a loan through the government to ease her plans for expansion and owning 10,000 birds in the future and to become one of the biggest poultry farmers in the state. “In the next two years, I wish to become one of the biggest up-coming poultry farmers in Delta State,” she stated.
Francess has one employee.