Don't sell your starter packs, Agboje advises job creation beneficiaries ~ Truth Reporters

By Gertrude Onyekachukwu-Uteh

AGBOJE, HELEN hails from Ika North East Local Government Area. She attended Delta State Polytechnic, Otefe-Oghara where she obtained an HND in Accounting.  She enrolled into the Delta State Government’s Youth Agricultural Entrepreneurs Programme (YAGEP) in the 2017/2018 Cycle and was trained in Fish Production.

Helen is the C.E.O of Cheku Fish Farm located in Asaba. She resigned from a white-collar job in Port Harcourt to be trained in entrepreneurship. Since establishment with starter pack at YAGEP Fish Farm Cluster at the Delta State Rural Development Agency (DARDA) in Ibusa, she singled herself out as a diligent and dedicated YAGEPreneur. Apart from diversifying into Poultry, Crop Production and Fish/Meat Processing, she is an employer, a trainer and a consultant to upcoming farmers.

She speaks on her success. “From three tarpaulin ponds and 2,000 juveniles as my start-up in DARDA, I have expanded to using 10 concrete ponds in a private location in Asaba. At a time, I had a stock of 11,000 fish. 

“At present, I have two full time staff. I have trained six persons, four in Fish Production and two in Poultry. Three of them have established their own farms. I have diversified into hatchery, fish/chicken processing, poultry and maize farming. I hatch fish and sell them as fingerlings and juveniles. The highest number I have ever hatched was 14,000. I never knew anything about Fish Production before YAGEP. All I know I learnt through job creation. 

“I have 450 birds in my Poultry. I also brood birds for other farmers till the fourth week of vaccine. I am currently brooding 400 birds for two farmers who are new in the Poultry business.”

She appealed to beneficiaries not to sell their starter packs but to put them into judicious use so as to become gainfully employed and to create jobs for other youths, thanking Governor Ifeanyi Okowa for the job creation initiative.”