 The name Africa, what comes into your mind? Well, I just see nothing but a beautiful continent full of opportunities that are not tapped. That's what I see when I see Africa everywhere I go. It's just opportunities and opportunities in various forms, various shapes, various canes that are waiting to be tapped. Do you think Africans can make it in Africa? Yes, of course we can. If we don't make it anywhere else, we can make it. This is our comfort zone. We have all the resources. I mentioned earlier on that up to 62% of formable in the world today is in Africa, both aqua and crops. So there's no better place to be right now than to be in Africa. This is my home grounds. And I know that when you play at home, you score more goals. I see you. Welcome, welcome to Flosa. You know, I want to tell you something. Thank you so much for being an African, not an African. Thank you. You're doing something that a lot of Africans think that it's impossible. You've done it. And on behalf of all Africans who want to tell you, are you cold? Yeah, yeah. That's what it is for me. How do you feel learning that you have the biggest tilapia farm in the entire Ghana? I mean, indigenous farm, right? Yes, yes, it's indigenous. Because they're some boys bigger than me, but they're not indigenous. Otherwise, we are the largest indigenous, everything goes from scratch. Global resources, local resources, cook in one bowl to give it tilapia. Whoa. I really want to know what makes your farm the biggest farm in Ghana? We are very humble to actually be occupying that position in the first place. But our principle is like producing a local solution, local for local people. And the best materials you can find around, we combine them, best materials in terms of fish feed, in terms of human resources. You can see here that we have very good brains and they are all local materials, none of expatriate and stuff. Though they are equally good, but we believe more in building the capacity of our people to not show those things. And we try to get the best experience people in the industry. We find one anywhere, we bring them here, we brought people from all kind of places, we have no idea, to come and interact with our team, to come and share knowledge, we've done classroom sessions and stuff, and do knowledge transfer so that we can enhance the capacity of our team so they can compete at any level. And then that gives us a lot of mileage in terms of output and achievement. I can't wait to show what you've done to the entire world, but I'm that guy who's on a journey to celebrate African excellence. And I'm here to celebrate you today. I just want you to tell me who you are, where it all started and tell me something about you. Alright, my name is Evans. Could you dance? My middle name is Celasi. The name Flossel, it's a coin name that we put together. My name is Celasi and my wife's name is Florence. So we decided to put the flow starting first. We actually delivered it and then the seller came in to our flow cell out of that. The whole thing was her idea, Florence's idea to start this aquaculture. I think she was the first person in the family to take a course in aquaculture. In her family? No, in my family to take a course in aquaculture at the Water Research Institute. I think by then I was in Switzerland, I was going to say, hey, I went to take a course in aquaculture. I saw it in the bibliographic and I think it's nice. Let's consider it. I said, okay, when I come back, we do it. So that's what her name was. So, you know what, behind every successful man, there is a woman, yeah? That story represents history. Not all women, sorry. But you know what, tell me something about yourself. Were you born and raised in here? Yes, sir. 100% homegrown solution. My dad is a nachim. My mom is an elven. I grew up in the coastal area at Taflalu. And so I've been seeing fish from the beginning of my life. Sometimes we followed our uncles to the beachside to drag nets. Is that from a rich background? No, not entirely. If I tell you how I went to university, you would not like. No, no, tell us something. How did you go to university? Was it a tough life? Yeah, it was really a tough life. My mom was my everything. My mom, sorry to say, my dad was never there. I come from one of such families where your dad is never there, you know. And I'm sure you find one everywhere. So my mom was everything. It got really challenging at the point. When I entered the year, I had to go and write to the script to say, I might not be able to finish the course. So I wanted to go and find some jobs to do. Maybe when I make money, I'll come back in the final year. And then my mom said, you know, we can... She put up her property to sell nobody was buying. So I remember she had to go through as one of my uncles somewhere and not in part of Togo, who lent her some money. And then I was already on the bus to Kumansah when she came to go and submit my letter that I would have to put my course on the road. And then she followed me all the way to Akra to change buses. I said, oh, that's my mom. What are you doing here? I left her at home. And then she gave me a hug and said, you're not going to do this. You're going to finish your school. And she handed me the envelope. So I had to go to the school to go and pay. And then later on came back to pack my stuff and continue my school. Because of this, I just want to say, if you're a mother watching this video, God bless you and be like his mother. Thank you. Thank you, sir. After school, did you ever leave your brother? Hey, after school, right after uni, I joined Nestle for my national service. And they say hard work pays. And I really, really attest to that. I'm a good example or testimony of that hard work pays phrase. When I was doing my service with Nestle, I was staying with one of my uncles in a shaman. And he's late now, but he's so rest in peace. There were some challenges at home. So I could not come back home in time to meet those challenges because I would not be able to sleep at night because of the challenges. So I will stay as long as possible at the workplace. And so I will close with the afternoon by 10, 11 p.m. And so I will stay when there are issues related to products, especially Nest Weekend, Nest Cafe, I will fix those things. And so apparently management was observing, was taking note of all those things. And I remember one time there was very heavy consumer complaints with one of our products that we produced only for the French market, Cameroon, Senegal and France, it's called Nest Weekend. And so when we mix the product, it will separate. So some parts of the product will be sweet, some parts will be bitter and so on. So I was looking for somebody to fix that. And so my boss recommended me that this guy can work on that. And I spent three days in the lab to work on that. That was around May 2000. And now April 2004. Yes, 2005 because I finished 2004. So April, I was on that project. And by the time I presented to management and they tested it, everything was okay. They asked me to go to the production line because the first was in the lab. So we did it on the production line. It did work. And then the following day they called me up and gave me an offer. So I never finished my national service. My national service was for only four months. And that's how you found yourself working for them. And how long did you work for them? Ten years. Ten years. 2004 to 2009. And after ten years, what happened? This has nothing to do with mixing Milo and mixing coffee together. So I remember when I told my boss that I wanted to quit. I didn't give my resignation letter to him. I gave it to the HR. So the HR informed him, hey, everyone is leaving. So he was at the head office. Everyone is, what am I hearing? I said, so what am I hearing? Everyone is telling me, what am I hearing? Can we talk about it when you come to the office? And you know why I was when he called? I was at my farm. When he called, that called him. What am I hearing? Is it true or not? Is it an Arab? Is it true or not that you have resigned? I said, sir, it is true. But I prefer to discuss it when you come. He got very angry. Then I knew that the man would go. I gave the moves. I had to leave the farm. And quickly left the farm. I got to the office before him. First thing as usual, he called me to his office. We have to talk. I said, yes, sir. Why are you leaving? How much is Coca-Cola paying you? How much is Georgini spending you? How much is Assasin? It's not about money. You should know about it now. I worked here for 10 years. And you know I'm not cash-driven. Yes, everybody likes money. But the question, you know it already. So yeah, so what am I hearing? I said, we're going to farm. Oh, fuck, fuck, fuck. From what? From the fish. No way! This is not what we prepared you for. This is not what we trained you for. We have a development plan. We have this, we have that. And you've gone through it here in the middle of it. Why do you want to quit now? Doesn't mean that when you were working for Nelson, you're still farming. Yeah, I had the fish farm. In where? At the way here. We started a farm for my house in Prampram. After Florence did the first training in Napa Cocha. We made two pounds in my house in Prampram. Oh, okay. And I remember we went to the ministry's hatchery in Ashaiman together about 600 fingernails. That was the first fingernails I ever bought in my life. When we put it in the pond. We didn't know how to handle nobody trainers. We took it to the house. By the time we got home, we had lost half. So we kept the rest in there. We kept the rest in the pond. Then let me know, yeah. You know, something must inspire. Apart from the fact that your wife learned aquaculture. Who really inspired you? What drive you to enter into aquaculture then? I mentioned earlier on that when the industry started, it was completely foreign operators dominated. So one time Florence and I drove all the way to I wouldn't mention the name of the farm. Don't worry. At Kusei to buy fish. To buy fish. And the gentleman would know. The guy would not sell fish to us. Those days it was very expensive. You have to get an appointment. You have to get a number. You need two weeks for that. And when you get the number, you can base on that number. This is fish. It's supposed to be. Fish in its appointment. We were not served. We were not served. You are nothing. You are from our boss. And when we drove back. This is the painful aspect. Driving back because I was so furious. My car broke down. The engine was off. This has to start something. So I told him the story. One day he came here to get fingernails. He came here. The man. That made you start. He didn't know he made me start. He didn't know. But I told him. I told him. The first day he was here to get fingernails. I told him. You remember this. You remember this. I said. No. This is what you do. And there's another interesting one. And then. When I was making the inquiries. Gathering my data on the feasibility to start the farming. I was with. Run and fish free. I went to their office. And they had the sales manager by them. Quite a Belgian guy. Technical guy. I went to his office. He said. I want to start fish farm. Nice. Not the first question he asked me. How much money do you have? I said. Okay. I was then an employee. Ten thousand cities. To me. Ten thousand cities was a lot of money. Six. Oh. Ten thousand cities. That's not enough money for fish. What are you talking about? I said. Yes. Then he removed his glasses like this. I tell you what to do with ten thousand. Okay. Do you know Afiania Junction? I said yes. Between Afiania Junction. And Transparency Junction. There's a big gutter there. We can use part of the money. And block this part of the gutter. And block that part of the gutter. And then put some fish in there. Then you can do something else to get in. That's why. It was very sarcastic actually. And each time I meet him. I refer him to that all the time. He comes here to convince us to buy his fish feed. And do this, why don't you do this, why don't you. And I keep referring him to that. You remember when he told me to go and block the gutter. And put fingerless in. Because I only had ten thousand to farm fish. That was the first advice I was given. And through this. You've been able to build. Yeah. One of the biggest in the entire country. I don't know if I should actually keep working with him. I don't know if I should actually do this. Is your farm bigger than his farm right now? Oh, in terms of capacity we are a lot bigger. A lot bigger. This is the success stories that I normally want to hear. So that this kind of stories will inspire you that you don't give up. I mean the person who told me that work hard. When I wanted to start a YouTube channel. The person who told me to work hard. I wanted to support from him. That no, I can't support you. Work hard, you'll get there. I can divide my subscribers into one million. You still have one. So I love your story. Where are we right now? So we are at the hatchery site. The site we saw before. The back of the ponds. Buried in the ground there. That's the, what we do, the breeding. That's the breeding station. In every of those ponds. We have about 250 females. And about 75 or 90 males. We pair them in a ratio of three is to one. So every male has three wives. Or three females if you want. Can we apply that to real life? It depends on your faith. Now it's good. I mean like what am I, you pair me with. Is it eight or seven? We can do seven actually. Ah, town born. Can't wait to be a fish someday. Can we pair him in one of our ponds? Can't wait to be a fish someday. It's also a lot of work. It's a lot of work for the poor fish. Because if you go high like that and you see the males. After you realize that they are in a lot of stress. So that's why you have to meet the fish now. It's a lot of work. It's not only for the farmers. I won't be stressed. Don't worry about me. Don't worry about me. Is this the main fish pond? These are holding areas for breeders. And that we use for breeding there. So in between the babies are still, to keep them away from each other. So we can condition them. Okay. What stage is this? Okay, so this is a fingerling stage. Okay. So the fingerling stage. Yeah, I've seen the fingerling stage. But it's a much more advanced form. Okay, so what you saw over there was a post-fried stage. Most of them were in the post-fried stage. So when they hit the post-fried stage, that is between 0.1 to 0.3 grams. They bring them here. Okay. And then we raise them to about 2 to 3 grams. Okay. So it's at that point that they are nearing the juvenile stage. Okay. Whoa. This is so impressive. You did all this by yourself? Yes, not only by myself. Thank you very much. There's a flow in the flow cell. The lady behind the whole fishing, the whole dream. And there's a good team behind as well. And a very good team of workers who support to make this project successful as it is today. I think it's because of you, your wife and the family. That's why Kwame Krumas said a black man is capable of managing his own affairs. I mean, things like this in Africa, when we see things like this, we don't attribute it to a black man. You've done it. And that's why I wish I can open my jacket. And I said that you are an African, not an African. Thank you. How many cages do you have in here? We have 38 cages in total. Each cage has a capacity to do 30 tons. 30 tons? Yes. So does it mean I want to know how many fishes are in there? Each cage has a production capacity of 120,000 where we pack operationally between 60 and 80,000 fish per cage. And how often do you harvest? Every week. Every week. We try to put fish on the table every week. And during harvesting, how many tons do you harvest in a week? In a week, 3 to 4 tons. 24 tons every week. And that's about 3,000 to 8,000 fish there every week. Sorry, we just had an accident. Sorry, but it's all right. See, I just want to know, with 3,000 tons, how much will you sell it? A ton goes for 15,000. You want to count our numbers? Yeah, it's okay. This guy is a billionaire. Yo, listen, agriculture is the future. I wanted to ask you this question, but I think the question has already been answered. I think the head of the African Development Bank made that statement very boldly that if you want to be a billionaire in the future, the sector to look at is agriculture. But this is the sector that so many youth of Africa don't want to involve themselves into. Yes, that used to be very, so much the case a couple of years ago, but I've seen in the more recent times some young men making moves such as this, because it's got to be based on your passion. And these days, there are appropriate technologies that you can introduce to your business. And the youth of today are more tech driven than so many years ago. So we have solutions where we can even have rooms in the water to check the fish, their weight, their feeding and everything. And this all attracts the youth. We can have the snooker diving stuff that will attract the youth. So it depends on how it's packaged and how it is structured. You can attract the youth. Most of them don't know. So it's a very good stuff you are doing by putting this story out there. Then they can see the possibility in it and then they can come back home for us to venture. My friend normally tells me that, you know what, we want lucrative business. Is this lucrative by the way? It is lucrative. Every business is as lucrative as you want it to be. After hearing you, because I'm a mathematician, yeah? So I just want to say that, would you say that fish farming is equal to gold mining? Probably even better. Oh my God, let's see. I'm starting fish farming tomorrow. Thank you. Fingerlings for you. Oh, thank you so much. But this comes to my next question. There are so many young Africans that want to invest in this. Would you say that it's more expensive, capital intensive when you are starting? Yes, it is. Two or three key pillars. The quality of the knowledge with which you go into it is very important. The technology you want to go with and then the workforce. So you need to have the right knowledge which includes knowing which species of fish to work with. One size doesn't fit anyone, everyone. So maybe tilapia is good for us because of the environment. But if someone's environment will require something like clarions or catfish or a dream, so you need to look at it properly before you tailor your solutions into it. So yes, one size doesn't fit all, but then you need the right knowledge, the right network, the right technology and then you are good to go. How much will you say it's okay to start up? I mean, you have done it, yeah? I mean, you started from your backyard. I mean, how much did you invest in it? Because right now it looks so big and people just feel like you just wake up and started something like this. No, no, no. How much money did you invest from day one? From day one, we started with about 15 or 16,000 CDs and then another 50,000 went in and today we talk about an investment close to 80 million going to see this in six years. This year, I really want to show my audience how to fish. I'm not saying that you just have to be a fish farmer or you need to start a catfish, but I want to go into details, yeah? How much do you have to invest and what do you think is the profit margin? Okay, so let's say we take a base of 1,000 fish. Okay. For you to be able to produce 1,000 pieces of fish at half a kilo each or even 300 grams the size of my palm. So this 1,000 fish will give you close to 300 kilos or 350 kilos like this. You will require close to 65% of your cost is going to go into the feeding. Wow. Close to 65% of your cost is going to go into the feeding and then the rest is going to be labor, infrastructure and operational expenses, the cost of the logistics and stuff. And then if you are able to do that and if you have good healthy fish from good source, you can be sure to make margins between 30% and 50% on your returns. Wow. If you follow the good practices, no shortcuts. Just like every business, no shortcuts. What type of, what method of fish farming are you using here? We combine quite many techniques. On this side, the grower side is completely cage culture system. On the hatchery and the nursery is spawn system. And who built this? All the cages were built by a fellow cell, built by a cell. And you are in Nestle for 10 years, man. Oh yes, yes. They don't teach you how to build cages, man. I didn't do fishing school. I didn't do fishing school at all. No, no, no. You just based on fashion. My first degree was in biochemistry. So I came on as a scientist and then later on, I did a second degree in project management and then another one in finance. So this was just based on what I love to do, what I want to do, what I want to spend my time playing and doing business at the same time, like combining hobby with business. So which means that you brought the locars together? Yes, yes, yes, yes. The unique thing here is how we are able to blend both the local solutions with the imported solutions, including knowledge, and we put all together to develop this business. And not to mention the support systems that we have. We work with two to three key main institutions in terms of knowledge transfer. We have the Wish, the American Suea Bean Association. They have one section called the World Initiative of Suea in Human Health. They have a group of consultants they bring to us from Auburn University, the people who have 30, 40 years experience in aquaculture. They are able to bring them here and they spend time with my staff and myself and training us. Sometimes they fly my team to the investing in Alabama and they go through intensive training. And then we also have the Dutch embassies. They have what we call the Poon, the senior aspect network, which I encourage every entrepreneur to tap into. It's free knowledge. They can resource your business with, for about a week, people who have 30, 40 years experience in business management advancing your expertise. And they can spend time to shape the mindset of your people and train them and stuff. This is for free. You don't pay anything. And so these are all solutions that I advise young entrepreneurs that if you venture into whatever kind of business they have big pool of consultants here. Just speak to them. They will ask which area your expertise you require is in and then they will give you the right person to help you. What are you doing to transfer the knowledge that you have right now to the youth of Africa who are looking forward to start Telapia Farben? We love to train a lot. We love to share our experience. A typical example is what we did in October. For the first time, we had participants from 11 countries here in our farm. We had them for two weeks. It was sponsored by the Soyabean Association and then we took them through intensive aquaculture, through the hatchery, through the nursery, through the cage and there was some classroom work and they all went back to their countries and we keep receiving good testimonies. Next week, there will be another delegation from Nigeria, about 12 of them are aquaculture operators. They will spend a week here with us trying to learn more about our technique. With the various universities as well because that's where the hub of breeding these young people is. We have an MOU with the University of Science and Technology and with the University of Cape Coast as well and we just are in discussion with LEGON for the same now. They keep sending their students to us for internships ranging from one month to three months. We even have people up to the PhD level for their practical work. It's our way of giving back to the community and encouraging young people to say, hey guys, there is something else we can do and through that we even picked some good ones that we have employed. We finally brought the fishes to the shores and I want to know why is it that you have to bring the fishes in here? People are going to buy them? Yes, they are not going to throw them into various sizes according to how big you are or the way and different sizes attract different prices. That's what's going to be done here. After seeing all this process I feel like you make half things look easier. It's making it possible this way. Oh, okay. Making it possible in your back. Keep calm and eat tilapia. Eat tilapia before I get out of here but I want to know what is the major challenge of having a tilapia farm? The major challenge that we face? Two main challenges. Financing the feeding is quite challenging or the conversion process, you know. And then also fish health. We've had major challenges of fish health in the past. The majority of that has been resolved now. The biggest challenge on the desk now is financing the conversion process, the feeding process. Do you think the system in Africa helps African entrepreneurs? It's very hard to have entrepreneurship success in Africa. You need balls. Systems don't work. Systems don't work. You see a lot of discrimination sometimes especially against immigrants. Support systems are very difficult. Sometimes you'd be surprised that there are solutions that are out there but having access to them is very difficult. It's not very easy. For example, I have colleagues who start a similar project in China and we have very smooth supports and we see their project miles ahead of you. And the difference is only in the support system. So sitting in Africa it's very difficult in terms of entrepreneurship. That's not to say it's not possible. It is very possible to do but you need balls. You need to have some bead of patience. If you had the chance to change something in Africa what would it be? Create more entrepreneurship in Africa. Create more young business people in Africa so that it can become prosperous and it's only prosperity that we can buy poverty out. Not excessive jobs. You are young. You've done it. So many young Africans watching us right now will be your final message to them. Hey guys, come home. Let's do this. Let's make it possible whatever area of that interest to you whether it's aquaculture, any other business if we push hard enough we can turn this around and make our continent a better place because it is possible and we can make it possible. I want to say thank you so much for talking to me. I really appreciate your time. Can we reach out to you? Yes. Our website is www.fluosofarms.com Our WhatsApp number is plus 233-24488-9584 and then you can reach us on Facebook as well. Just look for the web, Flossel and then you will find Flossel and you will find us and we look forward to hearing from you ask us about our fish ask us about our process ask us about how you can do it and we are willing to share experiences with you. I want to say thank you so much for watching and don't forget to subscribe and be part of the million family and I will see you all in the next one.