 Like any money-making venture, starting a poultry farming requires a well-detailed business plan, especially if it is a commercial one. Subsistent farmers running a small firm at home raising a few birds less than 20 may do so without giving much thought to things like economics of production, risk assessment, return on investment and profitability. However, if you are entering need to make money, you may want to stick around for this discussion. My guest, Nabil Yakubo, is a citizen veterinarian with a diverse background encompassing seven years of immersive experience in the livestock sector. His expertise arts a wealth of knowledge to Nigeria reflecting his extensive hands on involvement in various aspects of veterinary practice. Nabil's journey involves carefully managing complex clinical cases and offering crucial assistance to community animal health workers across the northeast region. His proficiency extends to both livestock and companion animals earning recognition for his dedicated provision of standardized health advisory services to a wide spectrum of clients. He joins me now as we look at the poultry business in Nigeria talking about profitability. Many thanks for joining me, Nabil. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Alright, Nabil. I'm just going to dive into the main question really, profitability, poultry farming. How profitable is poultry farming in Nigeria specifically as we speak knowing the issue of dollar, food costs and other economic factors that have been plagued in the country? Is it still profitable? Yes, definitely. Just as with any business, poultry production to be specific is still very profitable because the food still remains out of all animal protein and poultry products still happens to be the cheapest. Let me about the chicken and the eggs because every meal and every Nigerian wouldn't want to eat without having a poultry and animal protein in it. So looking at our increasing population aside by placing inside the side with the cheapest available animal protein we have in Nigeria is very profitable as I speak to you. Yes, so of course increasing in their increase is still what we are expecting and what we are experiencing as well as several other commodities in the country but that doesn't stop the profitability. Alright, fine. I really still need to know if it's really very profitable especially if one is doing it on a very large scale because I know some people just at the back of the house they just have like a small space or just an area in their house where they have some cages and they do like 20 to 50 but if you were doing on the large scale is it something that you would encourage people to do knowing the fact that over time people have complained about prices of millets and maize and the feeds that are generally used for poultry production. Very well. That's a nice question. And in fact the secret of poultry production is the scale of operation determines your profitability the higher the number you invest in in fact the sooner you bask into profitability so those who do the subsistence style of 20, 30, 50 would majorly do within selling to neighbors and lead to market profit but larger scale professionals who would want to invest in thousands and thousands of beds in fact those who have started it hardly leave so the experience of those who have left is just majorly as a result of the increased costs for example as of 2017 a bag of poultry feed was around 6000 to 5000 unfortunately at this moment as the last time I checked the current cost of that same feed after 5 to 6 years is a whopping 16,000 Naira so looking at a large scale farmer who had invested for example 5 million in 2017 if you would want to maintain that pedestal that quantity of beds you are keeping should be raising, should be having nothing less than 15 million so in fact that's just a major discouraging factor in the large scale ability but those who venture into it and have the capital to stay there are really, really making a huge profit to the experts because the market is there the population keeps increasing in fact the demand as even a warranted people from for example Kaduna getting to buy eggs from as far as Lagos even importation of these poultry products is still ongoing even outside the borders of the country so it's a very, very profitable venture especially in the last year Alright Nabil, interested right now in getting into poultry people talk about having multiple streams of income now but if I need to be directed or be guided so to speak, I'm sure other Nigerians are also interested in making more money for themselves what is that thing, what are the things I should the key things I should look at if I really want to start a poultry farm in the country right now in this economy Beautiful, yeah so poultry production is the first question you would ask yourself especially if you listen like a side puzzle is do you have the capital required to raise from start to finish the good thing about poultry production is the short lifespan in six weeks you've done what you invested but it's not a business you'll be hoping you say you will buy the better I hope in two weeks I will have an expected money to feed because best will understand that Alright, it's still business insight and plus TV Africa we're looking at poultry farming in the country poultry is actually very broad based I think we have Nabeu Bak Nabeu, can you hear me, I lost you at some point okay, sorry, sorry as I was saying it's very important you have the entire funds you'll be needing to raise from start to finish you don't expect money from somewhere else when you already started because best will understand that I will be pushing not feeding you for two days it will affect their progress secondly, there are current advancements in breeds of birds so breed selection is really important for example you might have different variants of hatcheries who sell birds that are cheaper or expensive what you should focus more on is what is the species of the breed of birds these hatcheries are selling third point is the management practice management practice is just the entirety of poultry production once one maintains hygiene litter management, quality feed quality water it's just the beginning of the progress another point that's important we mention also is knowledge because it's important before you venture into any field it's best you have for example you must have a veterinarian who at least have to come and inspect your facility if it is good enough for a certain amount of birds to be keeping you also need to have a bird who would advise you on the quality feed or quality birds you need to get and several other advices and also another important information you need to know while you've started these birds it's important you understand your marketing you'll solve your marketing even before you comment rearing these birds because marketability determines your profitability so it's important to reach out to quality premium markets who would command better prices than a middleman who would pack these birds and sell at losses for you so these are many more things you should understand before going into it I'm sure those are the basic there are even more things that one should consider but let's just move up quickly so we can actually just gather more momentum still talking about poultry you talked about getting knowledge you talked about adequate research and of course other aspect I mentioned but poultry in itself is broad some people would say they want to do just egg production some say they just want to sell broilers and they just want to do de-o-cheeks and why some just want to do some other aspect in the value chain but which of these values this aspect of poultry farming is the most profitable because I'm really interested in making so much money yes so so so as an experienced veterinarian he treats us depending on who seeks to get his advice if you're a big guy for example you if I would be a vet I would advise you to go into layer production layer production also is in two phases you could decide to do points of league that is raising from poulet to 16 weeks where you sell to farmers who want to just buy and start laying eggs in less than a month you could also then do from start to finish that raising at point at that sales of eggs the good thing about the the air production value chain nothing is wasted for example a bag of manure for a poultry for example those who raise in large scale bag of poultry manure that's it done is at 7000 naira currently the eggs is going to be sold currently commanding at 3200 naira per crit what we used to get at 7800 and 5-6 years ago even after the two years of production would be sold at old or spent layers at a very high rate the bags of feed the bags in which you get your feed from are still going to be resold to some people so the entire value chain in the egg industry is so marvelous the product itself I'm sure it's hard to hear any issue of blood anymore because the demand is so on the increase and it's very much profitable so another point is okay just quickly just wrap up your thoughts okay okay okay the broader production also is profitable because there are new interventions new innovations now where in just 5 weeks or 6 weeks people sell your beds at even 40% extra profit on your capital in less than 2 months that's very marvelous so the good thing about that is it shuts them but in a long time and increase sustain profit you should go into layers Nabil you are a professional in this aspect you're also involved in livestock but poetry is some other thing that you do I know you are very successful can you share your success story what you've done differently in poetry market because most people are always complaining about them feeds and everything how have you been able to stay afloat what are you doing differently and just what would you advise you did in costs and all of that just share with us okay thank you with regards cost reduction it's so unfortunate that feeds have gone this high so one of the best approach to pushing this effect is first things first I look for the best breed of beds that has very high feed conversion efficiency feed conversion efficiency here means with little amount of feed consumed it has a total or 70% conversion into meat so that means you have less feed to be fed and to get that same desired result secondly there are multivitamins or probiotics or a minor ICU give beds that also would also improve in that meat as the mobility or increase where it starts thirdly the very important phase in every cycle of bed is the first two weeks that's the brooding phase once you brood your beds well once you ensure the adequate temperature, the adequate feed the adequate treatment is given the entire journey of the bed will be very much easier so when you stick to these three approaches and some other module to time enjoy whatsoever cycle you have in your poultry production so it's highly profitable only if you have the knowledge only if you have the consultant who seeks to advise you on best new intending practices to increase profitability only if you have also any location where marketing one good point in it is your market inspires you to increase auto-consistent increased persistent demands from your clients it's quite more or less a motivation to be still in the business so as we wrap up now Nabil let's talk about I know you've talked about feeds the price of feed are there other peculiar challenges and what are also the opportunities in poultry production and if you were to analyze how would you say is the effect of production in agriculture generally in the country very quickly thank you the fact still remains the lifestyle production in general contributes to a large a huge percentage in the country's GDP taking off or neglecting the profits or the contribution of the poultry sector so Nigeria in general is doing a lot of harm the country globally we are craving for the issue of food security food security means having food available that quality may be available to everyone at every particular time as I expected addressing issue on poultry production is a huge result in accessing food in the country secondly the rural livestock owners use these they hardly have funds in the bank they hardly save in order for them to save in the form of livestock 60 to 70 percent of the rural livestock owner would have livestock in his backyard as a form of savings so the cry of vaccination the cry of disease surveillance disease management and the government being lenient in their policies understanding the faculty I am appreciative of the latest information released by the president on the governors being intentional about livestock and speaking of the profitability of the potential it has so if the government would understand that okay let's create these guys these entire farmers in support let's provide intervention they provide them with support let them show that there is a premium market demand for each of these products it needs to be long-winded alright Nabil I just want to still find out as I wrap up in the next one minute so if I were to invest I'm thinking from my Igbo mentality you know I'm a businessman I'm a person of battery doing the math and everything so if I were to invest in poetry but just how soon can I begin to see return on investment okay beautiful so as I mentioned earlier I'll be talking about the poetry broiler and layers don't forget there are still more to it but this is what is most commonly practice for broilers you have just six weeks to raise and get your profit for example you can invest a million there adequate management and after six weeks you get more than 1.4 million there with your good practices in layer production which I love more it's a more of a long term after you raise your best for just from days to go to to lay at four months you have two more years to consistently make money consistently on the daily basis you're making money from the eggs you're making money from the fizzes you're making money from the bag of feed and you could even develop into producing or rebranding your feed because 70% of the cost in every poetry production is on the feed so when you solve the dynamics of feed you are also you're breaking even so profitability is guaranteed for poetry for broilers are six weeks while for layers from four months of age to another two years thank you so much Nabil I now know that in about two months or so in less than six months I can really get some so much money out of poetry but I actually followed the guides that you have mentioned my guest Nabil Yacobo veterinarian, livestock expert many thanks for being a part of business insights for today thanks for having me it is indeed our pleasure all right that's the size of the show for today I'm sure you might want to consider poetry farming or any other aspect of agriculture because it is a boomer for the country many thanks for being a part of the show my name is Justin Alcadone see you again next time