Post by Ismail AbdulAzeez on Feb 26, 2011 11:34:07 GMT 1
Planning for retirement and making post-retirement investment decisions continues to be a major problem confronting both workers and retirees in the country, experts say.
According to them, the failure of many workers to cultivate the saving culture by setting aside some percentage of their income while in service is one of the reasons why many people go bankrupt after leaving work and receiving their retirement benefits.
They advise that apart from investing in stocks and properties among others, a retiring worker should be able to discover a business he has potential in and develop such skills by attending training schemes and workshops, so that after retirement, he will not have much difficulty in setting up such a business.
A Lagos-based civil servant, Mr. Joseph Nwachukwu, says that his ambition to go into snail farming in Nigeria after retirement encouraged him to enrol for a training in snail farming .
He explains that investing in snail farming is one of the less cumbersome ways for a retiree to invest his money without fear of losing anything.
He adds that managing a snail farm, unlike other forms of business, requires very little time, space and energy. A space of about a large-sized room can serve, say experts.
He notes that with snail farming in Nigeria, a retiree who is able to manage a snail farm very well can, in the long run, be an employer of labour.
Nwachukwu says that with the increasing demand for snails, both in the local and international markets, retirees can take up snail farming to increase their income level rather sitting idle at home.
He explains, “The two challenges confronting most civil servants are savings and investment. Most workers are so engrossed in their jobs that they tend to forget that while working they have to either save some of their earnings or invest in businesses of their choice. And that is why when their retirement age approaches, you see them trying to juggle up the data in their file. ”
The Lagos State Chairman of the Agricultural and Allied Workers Union of Nigeria, Mr. Obafemi Oyenubi, also sees investing in snail farming as an ideal business for a retiree.
He adds that unlike other animals that require much attention, snails can be left unattended to for days without anything happening to them.
Nwachukwu says that any worker who intends go into snail farming after retirement must first, undergo training in the business for a few months.
However, Oyenubi says that beginners in snail farming should be careful with the kind of species they stock their farm with, advising that parents’ snails should be bought from farmers rather than picking them up from the wild.
This, he explains, is vital because despite the fact that snails are hermaphrodites, they still seek to mate and cross-fertilise with species of their kind. He encourages beginners to go for the African giant snail species.
According to him, the pen method of snail rearing, which is an enclosure system, should be embraced by beginners as it creates a natural breeding environment. But he notes the problem of space confronting Nigerians daily as a major challenge of the enclosure system.
Experts say snails lay their eggs between 10 and 30 days after mating when provided with the required food, which are mostly juicy leaves, constant water, a favourable weather condition of an average of 25 to 30 degrees centigrade and a humidity of 80 per cent. They add that the number of eggs that a snail lays depends on the species, saying that it takes about 11 days for a snail’s egg to be hatched.
“All species of snails get matured for harvesting by the seventh month and are actually ready for consumption or marketing,” Nwachukwu notes.
He adds that about N300, 000 would be enough to set up a profitable snail farm.
On the marketing of the product, he says that the African giant snail is always in high demand in Europe, because what they have there is the helix specie.
This helix specie is, however, eight times smaller than the African giant snail.
The African giant has the highest level of meat protein without fats and cholesterol, it is being recommended for medication.
But Oyenubi says the development of urban centres and the inability of people to seek to learn modern ways of cultivating snails are the greatest challenges confronting the business.
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