With the high rate of unemployment in Nigeria, a lot of young people have delved into entrepreneurship to make daily living for themselves. One such profitable business is Catfish Farming.
Catfish Farming has some encouraging and discouraging features. Some of the encouraging features include:
1. It is not as stressful as other forms of fishing and livestock Farming. Frequent water change in concrete and tarpaulin ponds, sorting (occasions taking the big from the small) feeding and surveillance does not sap so much energy.
2. There is a low casualty and spread of disease when compared to poultry farming. Fish do not die as birds do, and even if they do, they will not die in large numbers if the disease is quickly tackled. Said disease is not common, especially if one has access to clean water.
3. Fingerlings ( the baby fish) are very cheap and affordable (below 50 naira) and are available in very large quantities so a farmer can decide to rare in thousands.
4. There is a readily available market for Catfish Farmers: restaurants, market traders, hotels, retailers and so on.
5. A farmer should make at least 40% of the money spent on feeding fish (worst-case scenario).
On the other hand, there are some discouraging features that have repelled individuals from delving into Catfish Farming. Some of those features include:
1. The business is capital-intensive. To run a Catfish farm is expensive due to the high cost of feed and the resources required: land, water, ponds, security, a farm hand and so on. Thus, a person has to be quite financially buoyant to venture into it.
2. Delay in return on investment. It takes about four to six months for catfish to mature for harvest. Therefore if a person is in need of a steady flow of income (weekly or monthly) Catfish Farming is not for you.
For more on ways to make money especially online in Nigeria, check here. You can also try these out in other parts of the world as long as you have a little capital or some skills. Do let us know in the comment section how it goes.
