Post by Ismail AbdulAzeez on Jul 9, 2012 20:39:21 GMT 1
A trained accountant, Ismail Abdulazeez, MD/CEO of Thy Snail and Grasscutter Farms belongs to the class of Nigerians living out their entrepreneurial dreams. After several years running after white collar jobs, Abdulazeez retraced his steps to pursue his passion in farming. Today, almost from a hopeless situation, he has turned from an employee to an employer, playing big in the snail and grasscutter farming business.
Born about 38 years ago, Ismail Abdulazeez’s major dream, was to become a successful chartered accountant and perhaps, work in banks or some of the big organisations. Though he didn’t come from a well to do family, he pursued his ambition with uncommon vigour. However, as he trudged on in life, Abdulazeez’s perception, changed. His pursuit of accounting profession was no longer solely to become a chartered accountant working in banks or big corporations, but to use the knowledge as a means to an end.
As a child, he had passion for agriculture, having been involved in subsistence farming with his parents. He was said to have developed so much interest in farming that he had vowed that no matter how much academic certifi cate he obtains, he would still be a big farmer. “When we were still young, I do subsistence farming, planting maize and some other things just to sustain the family and since then, I used to tell myself that I will do my own farming the way the Oyinbo (Europeans) do their own farming,” he recounts in an encounter with Business Courage.
To some extent, Abdulazeez now seem to be living his dream as he is fully into agriculture, after a brief spell in the corporate world.
A trained accountant, Abdulazeez started his working career as an accounts clerk with Micom Cables and Wires Ltd in 1997. After the completion of his ATS 1 and 2 exams, he moved on to join Dohagro Allied Ltd, a rice and sugar distributing company, as an accounts offi cer, where he worked for just six months. Thereafter, he joined Wale Adeleke & Co (Chartered Accountants), an auditing fi rm, as an audit trainee between 1998 and 1999 but the urge to be his own boss made him to resign his appointment.
After leaving Wale Adeleke &Co, Abdulazeez, along with his wife decided to run a Nursery and Primary School from a rented apartment. After some time, he decided to further his education and left his wife to run the school. However, few months after the school started, the landlord gave the school a quit notice. “We had to leave the place when the owner said he wanted to make use of the place. We left almost in tears. We had to call parents that we could no longer continue with the management of the school,” he said. That abruptly ended his dream of being an entrepreneur.
Somehow, Abdulazeez found his way back into the labour market as he later joined Samcas Oil Mill, a palm kernel oil manufacturing fi rm in 2000. But six months after, he was again out of Samcas, and again, back to the school project he was forced to abandon. This time, however, it was in his own house at Ewupe Ijaniye Village, Sango Otta, Ogun State.
Incidentally, it was at that point that the journey into his dream job of being a big time farmer started to materialise. “Being a new site, we started seeing snails here and there, and I started picking them. So, I decided to check the articles on snail farming I have been keeping and in one of the articles, I came across the name of one man called Mr. Bright. I traced him and attended some of his seminars. After the trainings, I did my own research and started my own farms. As God would have it, everything started fl ourishing.”
For him, market for his snails was never a problem as there were ready-made markets with “Many people coming to me to buy snails.” However, an awry experience he had with a customer who deposited some money for the snails but couldn’t get his order on the appointed date spurred him into thinking about how to enlarge the business. “The experience I had when I had just started made me to have a rethink. Then, we didn’t have enough space, but somebody deposited some money for me to supply some snails but somehow, I was unable to meet the demand. When the man came, he started shouting at me, making a lot of noise and threatening me. That experience put more pressure on us to do everything that needed to be done in order to make sure that we are able to meet up with supply,” he said.
Abdulazeez said that snails are not something you have to beg people to buy, stressing that, once you have it, you just have to have rest of mind. “When someone comes and he doesn’t buy maybe as a result of price, but be rest assured that somebody else would still come to buy,” he noted. Besides, he says that the demand for snail is usually higher than the supply thus making the market potential of snail inexhaustible locally and internationally.
According to him, snail farming has been adjudged to be one of the most lucrative farming venture presently with far less capital investment and bountiful returns. It has lower risk compared to other livestock farming, while virtually every part of snail is of vital use in food, pharmaceutical, manufacturing and fi shing industries, noting that snail is an export commodity, which has value next to gold in overseas countries
While snail farming requires small capital he says the running cost is very low. With a start-up capital of N100,000, Abdulazeez believes one can generate as much as N1 million in just one year. “You can conveniently earn income a thousand fold higher than your present earning. You can keep your present job and do this on part time since it doesn’t require much time. This is a real export market that earns foreign revenue without you running from pillar to post. This is not fi ction but factual. No stress, no time consuming, no odour, no noise and no irritation,” he said.
With as little as N50, 000, he says one can go into snail business but noted that it requires training. The need for training, he said, stems from the fact that, though there are snails around available to be picked, they (the snails) have species. “Many people see snails here and there. Some people take it as meat. But quite a number don’t know how to go about rearing them. This is made worse because snails, which belong to the family of animal called Mollusca, is a hermaphrodite. It has both the female and male sexual organs; so one cannot really distinguish between the male and female specie of it,” he explained.
In Nigeria, he said, there are about 17 species, but only three of them are very profi table for business and they are Ashatina Mulica, Ashatina Ashatina and Ashatina Maginata.
To the Thy Snail farm boss, many of those into snail farming business are mostly unwilling to let others know about the farming methodology. He regretted that the techniques are often shrouded in secrecy but noted that, snail farming is as easy as ABC. The only thing the snails may constantly demand for is attention and care. “They hardly fall sick. You don’t have to buy their food and you may not have to spend much to create an abode for them. The beauty of it all is that, the snails reproduce rapidly. They are capable of producing hundreds of eggs, which hatch into snails. It is now possible to produce one million snails worth more than N5 million twice a year. This, he said are made possible because of the availability of very highly prolifi c Achatina Achatina species of snails, which lay 200-400 in one batch 2-3 times a year.” Having conquered the snail business as it were, Abudlazeez had also plunged into grasscutters raring business. Like he did when he started the snail business, Abdulazeez said he went as far as Ghana, Republic of Benin and Ivory Coast to see how they set up standard grasscutters farms.
Grasscutters (a rodent family), like many rodent species, he noted, have been and continued to be a delicacy in a number of countries, in Latin America, Africa and Asia where markets exist for a wide variety of rodent species and grasscutters are often preferred over other sources of meat. The vast majority of these animals are still gathered from the wild and several species have been hunted so extensively that they are now extinct. And this, he said, offers small-scale farmers, investors, businessmen and all those with wealth-mind set, an economic incentive for raising grasscutters in captivity.
According to him, the business of grasscutter farming is very lucrative as well. This is because, while they can easily be reared at home, they command a very good selling price as a family that is made up of fi ve grasscutters is sold for N30,000 or more. “A serious and dedicated farmer can have close to 200 families at a time” he said. While they are herbivorous animals, as they feed mostly on grass, he noted that grasscutters are polygamous in nature, hence it makes it easy to colony raise them in captivity and in large numbers.
Today, apart from the grasscutters farm he has at his residence, there are other farms he owns at Ikorodu, Abeokuta, Lagos, and some other places.
Not contented with his snails and grasscutter farming business, Abdulazeez has also established a consulting fi rm called, Thy Consulting, which he said was his contribution towards impacting positively on the society. As at today, he claims to have trained more than 2,000 people across Nigeria.
With N25,000 per person, Abdulazeez trains more and more people on a weekly basis at his farm as he has written a manual titled “The Beauty Of Snail Farming”, and also produced a VCD on Practical Commercial Snail Breeding, to enable them know all the techniques and secrets of commercial snail farming.
To him, “Only very few Nigerians for now have penetrated the lucrative market and reaping big profi t without stress. Presently, aside Thy Snail & Grasscutter Farms for rearing snails and grasscutters, he also has in his kitty, The Thy Agro Allied Enterprises for beekeeping and honey business. He also has The Thy Global Investment Ltd for export snail and commodities from Nigeria.
Though he won’t readily admit, the business he started with less than N10,000 has now put hm in the league of millionaires.
Source: nationalmirroronline.net/business-courage/44672.html
Learn more about snail farming in Nigeria @ THE THY SNAIL & GRASSCUTTER FARMS snailriches2.tripod.com
Born about 38 years ago, Ismail Abdulazeez’s major dream, was to become a successful chartered accountant and perhaps, work in banks or some of the big organisations. Though he didn’t come from a well to do family, he pursued his ambition with uncommon vigour. However, as he trudged on in life, Abdulazeez’s perception, changed. His pursuit of accounting profession was no longer solely to become a chartered accountant working in banks or big corporations, but to use the knowledge as a means to an end.
As a child, he had passion for agriculture, having been involved in subsistence farming with his parents. He was said to have developed so much interest in farming that he had vowed that no matter how much academic certifi cate he obtains, he would still be a big farmer. “When we were still young, I do subsistence farming, planting maize and some other things just to sustain the family and since then, I used to tell myself that I will do my own farming the way the Oyinbo (Europeans) do their own farming,” he recounts in an encounter with Business Courage.
To some extent, Abdulazeez now seem to be living his dream as he is fully into agriculture, after a brief spell in the corporate world.
A trained accountant, Abdulazeez started his working career as an accounts clerk with Micom Cables and Wires Ltd in 1997. After the completion of his ATS 1 and 2 exams, he moved on to join Dohagro Allied Ltd, a rice and sugar distributing company, as an accounts offi cer, where he worked for just six months. Thereafter, he joined Wale Adeleke & Co (Chartered Accountants), an auditing fi rm, as an audit trainee between 1998 and 1999 but the urge to be his own boss made him to resign his appointment.
After leaving Wale Adeleke &Co, Abdulazeez, along with his wife decided to run a Nursery and Primary School from a rented apartment. After some time, he decided to further his education and left his wife to run the school. However, few months after the school started, the landlord gave the school a quit notice. “We had to leave the place when the owner said he wanted to make use of the place. We left almost in tears. We had to call parents that we could no longer continue with the management of the school,” he said. That abruptly ended his dream of being an entrepreneur.
Somehow, Abdulazeez found his way back into the labour market as he later joined Samcas Oil Mill, a palm kernel oil manufacturing fi rm in 2000. But six months after, he was again out of Samcas, and again, back to the school project he was forced to abandon. This time, however, it was in his own house at Ewupe Ijaniye Village, Sango Otta, Ogun State.
Incidentally, it was at that point that the journey into his dream job of being a big time farmer started to materialise. “Being a new site, we started seeing snails here and there, and I started picking them. So, I decided to check the articles on snail farming I have been keeping and in one of the articles, I came across the name of one man called Mr. Bright. I traced him and attended some of his seminars. After the trainings, I did my own research and started my own farms. As God would have it, everything started fl ourishing.”
For him, market for his snails was never a problem as there were ready-made markets with “Many people coming to me to buy snails.” However, an awry experience he had with a customer who deposited some money for the snails but couldn’t get his order on the appointed date spurred him into thinking about how to enlarge the business. “The experience I had when I had just started made me to have a rethink. Then, we didn’t have enough space, but somebody deposited some money for me to supply some snails but somehow, I was unable to meet the demand. When the man came, he started shouting at me, making a lot of noise and threatening me. That experience put more pressure on us to do everything that needed to be done in order to make sure that we are able to meet up with supply,” he said.
Abdulazeez said that snails are not something you have to beg people to buy, stressing that, once you have it, you just have to have rest of mind. “When someone comes and he doesn’t buy maybe as a result of price, but be rest assured that somebody else would still come to buy,” he noted. Besides, he says that the demand for snail is usually higher than the supply thus making the market potential of snail inexhaustible locally and internationally.
According to him, snail farming has been adjudged to be one of the most lucrative farming venture presently with far less capital investment and bountiful returns. It has lower risk compared to other livestock farming, while virtually every part of snail is of vital use in food, pharmaceutical, manufacturing and fi shing industries, noting that snail is an export commodity, which has value next to gold in overseas countries
While snail farming requires small capital he says the running cost is very low. With a start-up capital of N100,000, Abdulazeez believes one can generate as much as N1 million in just one year. “You can conveniently earn income a thousand fold higher than your present earning. You can keep your present job and do this on part time since it doesn’t require much time. This is a real export market that earns foreign revenue without you running from pillar to post. This is not fi ction but factual. No stress, no time consuming, no odour, no noise and no irritation,” he said.
With as little as N50, 000, he says one can go into snail business but noted that it requires training. The need for training, he said, stems from the fact that, though there are snails around available to be picked, they (the snails) have species. “Many people see snails here and there. Some people take it as meat. But quite a number don’t know how to go about rearing them. This is made worse because snails, which belong to the family of animal called Mollusca, is a hermaphrodite. It has both the female and male sexual organs; so one cannot really distinguish between the male and female specie of it,” he explained.
In Nigeria, he said, there are about 17 species, but only three of them are very profi table for business and they are Ashatina Mulica, Ashatina Ashatina and Ashatina Maginata.
To the Thy Snail farm boss, many of those into snail farming business are mostly unwilling to let others know about the farming methodology. He regretted that the techniques are often shrouded in secrecy but noted that, snail farming is as easy as ABC. The only thing the snails may constantly demand for is attention and care. “They hardly fall sick. You don’t have to buy their food and you may not have to spend much to create an abode for them. The beauty of it all is that, the snails reproduce rapidly. They are capable of producing hundreds of eggs, which hatch into snails. It is now possible to produce one million snails worth more than N5 million twice a year. This, he said are made possible because of the availability of very highly prolifi c Achatina Achatina species of snails, which lay 200-400 in one batch 2-3 times a year.” Having conquered the snail business as it were, Abudlazeez had also plunged into grasscutters raring business. Like he did when he started the snail business, Abdulazeez said he went as far as Ghana, Republic of Benin and Ivory Coast to see how they set up standard grasscutters farms.
Grasscutters (a rodent family), like many rodent species, he noted, have been and continued to be a delicacy in a number of countries, in Latin America, Africa and Asia where markets exist for a wide variety of rodent species and grasscutters are often preferred over other sources of meat. The vast majority of these animals are still gathered from the wild and several species have been hunted so extensively that they are now extinct. And this, he said, offers small-scale farmers, investors, businessmen and all those with wealth-mind set, an economic incentive for raising grasscutters in captivity.
According to him, the business of grasscutter farming is very lucrative as well. This is because, while they can easily be reared at home, they command a very good selling price as a family that is made up of fi ve grasscutters is sold for N30,000 or more. “A serious and dedicated farmer can have close to 200 families at a time” he said. While they are herbivorous animals, as they feed mostly on grass, he noted that grasscutters are polygamous in nature, hence it makes it easy to colony raise them in captivity and in large numbers.
Today, apart from the grasscutters farm he has at his residence, there are other farms he owns at Ikorodu, Abeokuta, Lagos, and some other places.
Not contented with his snails and grasscutter farming business, Abdulazeez has also established a consulting fi rm called, Thy Consulting, which he said was his contribution towards impacting positively on the society. As at today, he claims to have trained more than 2,000 people across Nigeria.
With N25,000 per person, Abdulazeez trains more and more people on a weekly basis at his farm as he has written a manual titled “The Beauty Of Snail Farming”, and also produced a VCD on Practical Commercial Snail Breeding, to enable them know all the techniques and secrets of commercial snail farming.
To him, “Only very few Nigerians for now have penetrated the lucrative market and reaping big profi t without stress. Presently, aside Thy Snail & Grasscutter Farms for rearing snails and grasscutters, he also has in his kitty, The Thy Agro Allied Enterprises for beekeeping and honey business. He also has The Thy Global Investment Ltd for export snail and commodities from Nigeria.
Though he won’t readily admit, the business he started with less than N10,000 has now put hm in the league of millionaires.
Source: nationalmirroronline.net/business-courage/44672.html
Learn more about snail farming in Nigeria @ THE THY SNAIL & GRASSCUTTER FARMS snailriches2.tripod.com