Use prevailing situation to maximise opportunities, stakeholders task Bwari fish farmers

Stakeholders, including the Bank of Agriculture (BOA), have called on allottees of the Bwari Fish Estate, in Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), to make use of the opportunities in the area to improve their businesses.

The stakeholders spoke at a forum organised by Glovic Resources Limited to sensitise the farmers on how to grow their businesses and tap the potentials in the fish farming sub-sector of the agriculture sector of the economy.

Managing Director, BOA, Alwan Hassan, represented by the Garki branch manager, Gbenle Omotayo, said the bank was willing to assist the farmers with loans at very low interest rates, adding that the business is lucrative, especially with the preference of consumers for fish, as a source of protein.

In his remarks, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Glovic Resources Limited, who is also the facility manager of the Fish Estate, Kodilichukwu Okelekwe, said the Bwari Fish Estate is one of the biggest fish farm estates in Abuja and its environs, and charged the allottees to move in and develop their plots immediately, so that they can harness the business potentials in the area.

Okelekwe said:  “this place was commissioned in 2012 and since then, it has remained dormant. Our company was brought here to revive the fish estate and make it play the roles that it was commissioned for, which are: food security, employment opportunities and to generate revenue for the Federal Capital Territory administration.

“We invited people from BOA and SMEDAN. The idea is to tell people the facilities available. Part of what we want to do is not just to manage the facility but to help them create what I call route to market—access to market, off takers, and also help them source for cheap fund to expand their businesses.”

Okelekwe added that “what it means is that by the time all the allottees come in, build and start producing fish here, we will have about 90 fish farmers. And each of these fish farmers has three big pounds. There is also processing facility here either for drying or what have you. So, imagine when each of them is producing at installed capacity.

“So, we cannot only feed Abuja and the surrounding states, we can also export. Imagine the job opportunities! Imagine the volume of money that can be made. That is why I say this place has a lot of potentials, if properly harnessed,” he said.