Fisheries will positively change the economic base of Anambra people - Iloghalu

Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Teemartins Group and Special Adviser to Governor Willie Obiano on Aquaculture, Mr Emeka Martins Iloghalu, has travelled across continents working with oil companies and suddenly he left his plum job and relocated to the village of Adazi-Nnukwu to start fish farming. Today he has re-written the history of fish farming in not only Anambra state but Nigeria and West Africa with WAAP. Our man, ODOGWU EMEKA ODOGWU had an encounter with him. Excerpts:
You in one of the top-most oil firms. Why did you resign this job to set up a fish farming business in Adazi-Nnukwu?
I ventured into Fisheries or Aquaculture in anticipation of leaving the job early. But the technologies and consulting that I got was not coordinated to give instant or immediate returns. It be¬came quite very interesting at some point and led me to even embark on self-funded research and experiments and I got impressive research results.
Consequently at some point, the enormous wealth potentials became glaring I saw that many practicing fish farmers and propagators do not even realize that they had been sitting on Gold and yet they are very comfortable at peasant and subsistence levels. And also noticing that no one has assumed the responsibilities of exposing and extending these potentials and opportunities to more people, I jumped at it.
Do you have any regrets regarding your decision to leave your job and become an entrepreneur?
Definitely no, rather every day I get more fulfillments when I see the way my involvement is resolving so many clogs and problems and challenges and also ushering new dimensions in the aquaculture/fisheries sector. Also, observing that where I am today is largely as a result of a certain attitude and sequential and objective decisions.
You have invested a lot of time and resources into your fisheries business. Has this yielded the intended results?
It’s a straight yes. It has yielded more than I could foresee at the onset. In fact, it has yielded more than the originally envisaged result in that it could have easily been a mere business, but it has become a conglomerating and enterprising organization in the aquaculture sector of agriculture. It is mak-ing acknowledged impact not only in Nigeria but also in West Africa.
Clearly it is no longer just farming of fish, we have now definitely delineated the processing sector that is translating to the downstream sector, while the fish farming (aquaculture) or whole fish production forms the upstream sector. I created this and I’m championing it.
What are the biggest obstacles you encountered in establishing your fish-farm business?
The main problem is the disjointed nature of the sector. Setting the fish production business in a growth trend became a very big challenge. There has been generally no structure for growth in the way people have been getting involved in fish farming or fisheries. There are no standards, no business plans and consequently no direction for project growth and development over periods of time. Our processed/smoked fish products demand grew to N2,700,000 per month in Port Harcourt alone.
These are some of the gaps and lapses that nobody was addressing nation-wide and I fully understand this as the key to industrializing the sector, so I took up the challenge as an entrepreneur to solve this and that is how I had to simulate and stimulate the value chain approach in fish production so as to be able to create something that can be like the oil & gas industry where I came from.
People produce fish without targeting the specific customer that will buy their fish. In effect, someone would produce say 1kg size of fish for a customer that prefers 2kg or 3kg of fish and when the customer prices lower than expected because he/she sees that the fish is lower than his/her expectation the seller gets offended instead of finding out the customer’s specifications or in the situation stepping up his own negotiation by acknowledging that it is the market place and not farming place.
You were recently appointed Special Adviser to the Governor on Aquaculture. How does it feel to be given such responsibility?
It is a great opportunity to help bring sanity and some order to the aquaculture sector to stimulate growth, more meaningful and greater participation. It affords me the opportunity to help Governor Willie Obiano to leave a legacy in the area of fisheries. I was sitting in my office at Adazi-Nnukwu going through the company books when my phone rang on a Saturday morning and it was the Governor of Anambra State, he had seen our web site and heard of our activities and wanted to verify and also explore the benefits of our capabilities to the state. In the course of the discus¬sion he remarked that he

 liked the way I was speaking and what I was saying and asked if I would take up ap¬pointment to be his Special Adviser on Fisheries, not expecting it.
I immediately saw how I could step it up and help bring sanity to the fisheries sector at the state level and do even more so I quickly agreed and said yes and that was it. I really feel highly honoured to be called up by the Governor and instantly appointed over the phone even without knowing me in person.
What changes have you effected since then in the aquatic-agricultural sector of Anambra State?
I have been able to setup a structure to drive the revo¬lution and development of fisheries in Anambra State positioned to serve the West Africa region accord¬ing to the Governor’s vision drawn from what I’ve been doing in the private sector. In effect, Anambra state has a functional Fisheries Stake¬holders’ Platform, such that has never been in any state in the country.
Under my watch, for the first time in this country, Anambra State has a Fish¬eries Policy and all com¬munities in Anambra State will be self-sufficient in fish production by end of this year. The oil and gas experi¬ence gave me the audacity to think big with fish and plan big from peasant and subsis-tence dispositions to much bigger, wider and grander views. If more people get in¬volved in our kind of busi¬ness, we would not be alone and we would have more op¬portunities to improve and grow rather than be hoping for monopoly and ending up being stagnant.
Considering the emphasis placed on agriculture, what is your office doing to ensure that the target of 51,000 met¬ric tonnes of fish products per annum is achieved?
Some months ago, we came back from Ilorin, Kwara state. We went for a 5-man Study Tour on Fish Feed Produc¬tion in Ilorin, attracted by the Office of the Special Assistant to the Governor on Fishery to the state and sponsored by the West Af¬rica Agriculture Produc¬tivity Programme (WAAP) in collaboration with the state.
What we are doing now will give impetus to in¬vestors to build their feed meals in the state; to pro¬duce and then export to other states and beyond the country. Our partner¬ship with WAAP is key as part of the objectives. The partnership has already started, before now; there was no sponsorship or sup¬port by WAAP; so we are expecting to see the people that are benefitting from this; already we have 20-30 fishery value chain enter¬prises benefitting from this.
How many individuals and fish farmers will benefit from the partnership with WAAP?
The partnership with WAAP is different from oth¬er forms of intervention by donor agencies. It is basically support; WAAP wants to fa¬cilitate increased productiv¬ity in agricultural products. Considering these factors, already about 30 persons are benefitting; down the line, there will be direct and in¬direct beneficiaries because we are building fishery in¬dustries in Anambra state.
With this partnership with WAAP, can you give an estimate of the tonnes of fish the state can produce?
Alright, on assumption of duties, my office worked out the volume of fish we need to produce to be self sufficient in Anambra state. Our strategy is to firstly feed ourselves, then do sur¬plus production for export to neighboring states and beyond Nigeria; we have an immediate target using the per capita consumption of Nigeria published by FAO, being 11kg we calculated it for the state and it comes up to 51,000 metric tonnes per annum. We want to achieve this in less than one year; and by the time we hit this, every local government as always said by Governor Willie Obiano will be self-sufficient in fish produc¬tion.