I own a fish farm and belong to Alero Fish Farmers Cooperative Union, a fishing cluster in Egboko Itsekiri, Warri South LGA, Delta State. PIND’s aquaculture service providers usually come around to train us on best management practices. Also, if we have any issues with our fish farm, we would reach out to them, and they would come to check on our progress. We are well-trained in this business. We also received training from USAID, which PIND also facilitated. There, I learned how to process fish and degut and skewer the fish for drying. I have also stepped down this training to other farmers within my cluster. They come to my farm, and they help in processing the fish. In 2020/21, PIND also introduced us to Sterling Bank and selected some of us to receive loans. I was one of the loan beneficiaries and refunded it within one year. I was on my farm one day and received a call from PIND.
They told me they wanted to give me another benefit in commemoration of International Women’s Day: a biodigester and a smoking kiln. They brought the equipment to my farm and oversaw the entire installation. I no longer use drums for smoking fish. One of the issues I had with using the drum and firewood grill was the smoke. As the oil from the fish drops into the fire, the flames will go up, so I always had to stay close to monitor the grill. The smoke from the fire also harmed my eyes, and I often had to step away from the grill to catch my breath. The smoking kiln has a regulator.

I can conveniently adjust the heat. I can also dry more fish at once with the kiln than with the drum. I could not dry more than 20 kilograms of fish with the drum, but I could dry as much as 100 kilograms in the kiln. There’s enough space for the fish, and I do not have to wait for one batch to dry before I start a fresh set. I no longer have to reject some processing jobs because of a lack of space. The kiln also has a door that I can shut to lock in the heat. Once the door is closed, I focus on the regulator. If it is too high, I adjust it. It is not like an open fire; you can leave it unattended. I handle all my business – farming, selling, and processing – on my farm. I even expanded by adding a provision store. Customers can buy drinks from the store and relax while they wait for their fish. PIND has really helped me. I appreciate them.
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As the founder of the Girls to Women Research and Development Centre, I have benefited from PIND’s capacity-building interventions targeted at civil society organizations in the Niger Delta. I participated in several PIND training, first as a beneficiary and later as a consultant on gender issues. PIND helps strengthen CSOs and improves their capacity and visibility to attract funding. With the support and mentoring I received from PIND, my organization could access grants from the government, the private sector, donors, and partners. PIND was helpful in terms of funding and providing capacity enhancement at various levels.

The training also helped me navigate my current role as the Gender Advisor to the Ondo State government. I can implement my activities because I have clear-cut ideas, skills, capacity, etc., to do my work well. PIND has been part of my success story, getting me to where I am now. All the skills I have learned have made it easy for me to work well within the government. I advise anyone looking to work within government first to garner CSO experience and knowledge of the development sector and programming
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We appreciate (PIND’s) participation and contribution to the success of the 31st edition of the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence (DAME), Africa’s longest running and most consistent award scheme for media professionals. It is on record that this edition marks the first me that DAME has expanded its frontiers to cover Niger-Delta Development Reporting, and this was made possible by its graceful partnership with the PIND. This marriage has proven strategic for a number of reasons, but notably because it gives traction to DAME’s sustained graduation from traditional journalism to development-oriented journalism (on one hand), while it goes a mile to prove PIND’s intentionality and commitment to the growth of solution journalism in Nigeria.