“My name is Diyen Friday, an Aquaculture Service Provider (ASP) trained by PIND. As an ASP, I carry on trainings on best practices on fish farming, starting from pond preparation to harvest stage and inclusive the NAEC (Nigeria Agricultural Enterprise Curriculum) training that talks about the business side. I train farmers in all of this’’.
“My name is Diyen Friday, an Aquaculture Service Provider (ASP) trained by PIND. As an ASP, I carry on trainings on best practices on fish farming, starting from pond preparation to harvest stage and inclusive the NAEC (Nigeria Agricultural Enterprise Curriculum) training that talks about the business side. I train farmers in all of this’’.This is how Friday describes himself with pride, especially when he knew nothing about being an ASP until he encountered PIND in 2012.
‘’When PIND came here, I think in 2012 if I am not mistaken, we were called to Warri and we stayed there for about two weeks. We underwent a training at PIND’s office in Egbokodo. From there, the journey started’’ Friday narrates.
Though he was trained, Friday did not have enough leverage to start something with the skills. He needed market access and linkage – which he found in fish feed companies looking for new marketing outlet for their products
‘’Many times, PIND will organize workshops and these fish feed companies will come. From there, we knew ourselves and started relating. That is where the relationship started from. The relationship is that, they will give feed to us, we demonstrate and they give us about 50% of whatever we do’’ he explains.
And his career started from the first demo that was sponsored by a feed company.
‘’We started our first demo with Vital Feed company somewhere around that CAMP 74fish farm cluster. From there, my co-farmers were now seeking my advice because of the techniques and some other things we put in place that was not normal with what we were practicing before. I now became a kind of assistant to my farmers. I discovered that when I bring a solution to a problem, somebody will start paying me N2, 000, N3, 000. That was how I discovered I can make money from it, even through many other workshops’’.
But an idea is only the start of a business. Moving the idea to reality required some working capital – which Friday did not have.
‘’In 2016, we were called by PIND with other aquaculture service providers in the region and told that there is a N1 million grant that we can win to scale up the demo project to more farmers! This grant helped me a lot! I was able to get all the necessary materials I needed. Things like the pumping machine, the pH meter, the sucking and discharging hose and other things like that. The grant assisted me to boost my capital’’ Friday recalls with joy
Armed with his skills from the trainings, his relationship with fish companies and working capital from the grant, Friday was now ready to take his new found business to scale.
‘’Then I started organizing people for NAEC training as another package inside the farming training that enhances one’s business. It talks about how to manage your resources, how you plan, do daily recording and all that. That one added to my customers’’.
As his business of being an aquaculture service provider soared, so did his fortunes and that of his family.
‘’From this work, I have properties, train my children, pay school fees, feed extended family people. It has been wonderful!’’.
