Category: Small Business and Entreprenuership

Nigeria is edging closer to growing more bell apples that can mature in three years. Agro entrepreneurs will make more money from it.This is news to entrepreneurs who avoided bell apples, also known as syzygium samarangense, because it takes more than a decade to bear fruit. DANIEL ESSIET reports.

pples business, though profitable, has been dominated for long by imports and the focus is on a few easy-to-grow varieties with long shelf-lives.

Internationally, there is a flurry of expansion in apple orchards. Various apples are grown across farms. Many of the flourishing small farms have capitalised on market niches, which feature fresh and specialty products. Agro entrepreneurs are growing apples because of increased use in the food industry. But they avoided growing bell apples, which produce fruits that are bell-shaped.

Though high in demand globally, as the fruit’s flowers can treat fever and halt diarrhea, producers shunned it because it takes more than a decade to bear fruit.  That is too discouraging for those considering quick returns on investment.

But there is good news.  Chief Executive, Apple Wealth Ventures, Gbenga Akinyemi, has found a new variety which matures after three years and produces more fruits with impressive results.

His passion for growing bell apples started after he discovered the fruit planted around where he lived is a money spinner.

“I started with a tree in my family house at Okota in Lagos. My aunt, now based in the United Kingdom (UK), planted it. From that singular tree, I began to sell the fruits and make cool cash,’’ he said.

He said the new variety, compared to the imported apple, has many attributes, including being attractive, nutritious, and medicinal. The apple could be processed for its juice, turned to jam, marmalade and other processed variants, aside consumption as fresh fruit.

According to him, raising bell apple seedling can bring one a good fortune within a few months. Starting bell apples seedling farming, he said, requires as little as N20, 000. Of this amount, N10,000 will go for seeds. At N100 per seed, one can plant 100. The balance goes for construction of container and other miscellaneous expenses. He urged new entrants to start with 100 seeds to maximise profit. One does not really have any other expenses until the bell apple seeds grow to seedling level, and ready for sales, he said

He offers training for new entrants and links them with where to get good bell apple seeds. According to him, bell apples grow in any soil, except sandy soil. Hence, the plant will do well in one’s backyard. Though the tree grows in virtually every part of the country, it is more prevalent in the South, especially the Southsouth states – Delta, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Cross River, Balyesa and Edo.

During planting, the seeds are pressed into the soil so that they are barely covered because bell apple seeds require light to germinate. Space the seeds one inch apart. The farmers need to keep the soil moist until the seeds germinate.

This may take as long as three weeks.The major cost of running the bell apple seedling business is purchasing the seeds and containers, among other things, such as watering can. Bell apple seedlings are ready for sale after 10 weeks of planting and can be sold for N750 per seedling.

According to him, one can make 650 per cent profit from investment in the business. The more bell apple seeds one plants, the more money one can make within 10 weeks. Each tree produces over 1,000 fruits per harvest and there is a minimum of two yearly.

Akinyemi said there is a need for millions of the seedlings in the country.

He noted that seedling growing is best  around the beginning of the year. There are high demands for them by big agricultural firms and fruit producing farms.

“I must say that the market is just growing in the country, while demand for it is so high. This gives better opportunities to anyone who ventures into it, “ Akinyemi said.

A woman, Mrs Onyinye Anujulu, who owns a food processing firm which started from the kitchen has grown it into a large business. DANIEL ESSIET reports.

As Nigerians’appetite for healthy things grows, young entrepreneurs are taking advantage of this to produce foods that are not only low in fat but also those which are fortified with good ingredients.

It was against this background that the Chief  Executive, Flinks Food and Beverages, Mrs Onyinye Anujulu, launched natural food and drink products.

She said: ‘’In Flinks we produce natural health and food drinks, such as kunu, ginger drink, soya-pap,gingered-pap,  blended with other nutritional contents in powdered form.

“In Flinks, we produce natural products as a good balance of convenient and freshness – no additives, only the real thing.”

Flinks Food and Beverages, is a subsidiary of Favourlink Oil and Gas Limited.

Based in Lagos, Flinks is an organic food firm, which started with a love of natural food and drink and wanting to know as much about it as possible.

She started from her home with  N50,000.  Her story is an example of how having educational qualifications is not a necessity for becoming a successful businessperson. She said: “It came through inspiration, though it has been a journey from taking an idea, conceptualising it into a value proposition, and then testing it until it has become the business it has become.”

Initially, not knowing anything about the food and drink industry, she got in touch with her trade association and experts in the food industry.  She knows all about image. To compete in an overloaded market, she is making efforts to get her products to the right places.

Daily, there is a challenge for Mrs Anujulu, as she has something new to learn or think about. Luckily, she has a supportive family and friends who could see the potential in the business. She is determined to keep a balance of faith, family and business.

She said just as the odds for starting a small business are many, the rewards are also long in coming. What is more, starting one’s company through hard work.

Her advice to new entrepreneurs is that ideas alone don’t matter but execution is the problem.

In  20 years, she sees her business becoming a conglomerate with an international brand. She said: “ I intend to run a non-governmental organisation (NGO) where I will be travelling round the country, educating, empowering and incubating young women and budding entrepreneurs and fulfilling divine purpose of God for me.”

Hope rises for snail farmers as an Ogun State entrepreneur, Prince Wole Adeyanju, launches an initiative to reduce the long maturity period of the organism. This, he says, will encourage more Nigerians to farm snails for export. DANIEL ESSIET reports.

Snail, a herbivourous animal, is rich in protein. As a result, it forms a good part of meals of most Nigerians,  especially middle and high income earners. But it is expensive

This is linked to the long maturity of the animal. It takes an average of two years for a snail to mature. Consequently, most farmers are uninterested in its farming, as they see the business as low yielding.

But the Chief Executive Officer, (CEO), Wolegate Global Resources Limited (WGRL), Prince Adewole Adeyanju, explained that snail breeding  can, indeed, be lucrative.

He agreed that local snails take an average of three years to harvest. This is because they lay eggs between nine months and two years.

But, following the discovery by Adeyanju, things might just begin to change.

Through his firm, Wolegate Global Services, a new improved snail species will now be bred in the country. The species, known as the helix aspersa  snail, can mature in less than one year.

Already, Wolegate has signed an agreement with Touchstone Snails in Cyprus to breed this species locally.  Touchs tone Snails is among the biggest breeders of snails globally, with millions of snails being fed on greenery, seeds and meal in vast greenhouses yearly.

This initiative was fuelled by the need to spur the growth process of snails and reduce the cost, even as its demand keeps increasing. For now, meeting the demand  has become a huge challenge in the industry.

At Adeyanju’s farm, which sits on a 118-acre parcel in Idomogun, Ilashe, Idiroko in Ogun State, a snail matures in nine months.

This is why Adeyanju has been inspired to train more Nigerians to raise snail  for local consumption and/or for export.

With Helix Aspersa snail, Adeyanju said the Federal Government stands the chance of making millions in foreign exchange if it explores the opportunity in massive snail farming and exporting.

He said through his partnership with the Cyprus firm,  a new technique with which Nigerians can rear and earn huge profit in a nine-month growth circle against the usual three years of harvesting, using a special species of snail, Helix Aspersa Muller, and a more creative farming method – Curtain Method – has been developed.

With its introduction into Nigeria, Adeyanju said his organisation is set to revolutionise snail breeding, make it a sustainable agro allied business for export and a job creation mechanism.

According to him, his company is ready to train breeders on how best to rear the species of snails for greater yields and how to sell their products easily for profit.

He said the company would buy the Helix Aspersa Muller Snails reared and produced by farmers/investors using the Touchstone’s technique at a very competitive price and will like to share this knowledge and experience with all Nigerians.

Adeyanju is one of a few Nigerians who have turned to snail growing as a fast way to make money even during economic slowdown.

While others struggle to find a path out of the crisis, snail farming has not only survived the recession, but also continues to grow.

He has exported  snails and snail products from Nigeria to Cyprus and helped train snail farmers, helping them to sell their products. With his success, more and more people have become aware that snail breeding is an excellent avenue for considerable profit. Its boom has also been fuelled by a growing  pharmaceutical, beauty, and food-related uses of snail products.

He said Touchstone has hands-on-experience through its efforts, as well as academic expertise, for the breeding of top-quality snails over 15 years. It provides integrated services for entrepreneurs who wish to invest in snail farming.

The start-up costs of a small high-profit professional commercial snail farm, according to him, runs to about 50,000 Euro.  First return on the investment, he explained, is two years after starting with the first breeding stock.

With a start-up of 50,000 euros, he said, one could make about 2.5 million euro within two years.

According to him, there is an export market for would-be investors.

For him, the largest consumer markets are in Europe. The profit margin on snail farming is high, he said, if the right farming techniques are applied and investment is low.

Snails should be exported live, with a shelf life ranging from two to six months.

Touchstone will be involved in the purchase of the yearly production, sale and export of the snails.

Adeyanju is partnering with banks to help Nigerians who want to raise capital to start the business.