 Are you trying to say our education system is not good? Our education system is not good because our education system is actually training us to become workers, not creators of wealth. You know, we need to be creating wealth. We have everything. We've got oil. We've got food. We've got water. We've got everything to create wealth. No. So our education system should shift from creating workers to create wealth makers. Congo is the richest country in the world. Definitely. You know that, right? Yeah. But the people living here are not rich. No, they're not rich. What is that happening then? Welcome back to the YouTube channel. It's your favorite village boy, Mr. Ghanibe. We're right here in Congo. It seems I'm going to spend so much time in this beautiful country because you know what? I've been telling you that it's time for Africans to make Africa home again. It's time for Africans to invest in Africa. And it's time for the youth of Africa to know that agriculture is the future. And that is why I'm not giving up on you guys, man. See, how I go here, you have no idea. You see why I'm carrying this clothes is because mosquitoes are still biting me. I've been here for two good hours just because of you. I mean, I don't know what keeps me moving, but I feel like it's because of you. You know what? Do me a favor, like this video, share. And you know, you have to subscribe if you haven't because mosquitoes are biting me. I have to sit on the motor to get here. You see, if I don't die in Kinsasa, I will never die anywhere in this world again. I'm not even scared anymore. You know, so as you can see, you see punts around me, yeah? Which means that I'm coming to a young man who left South Africa, came back to Congo to start a change. It's a pleasure meeting you, man. Yeah, it's a pleasure meeting you too, bro. You're the guy who is forcing young Congolese to venture into agriculture. Exactly. Starting a revolution. Agricultural revolution. Agricultural revolution? I love that. The revolution is actually happening, man. It's actually happening. It will make a change. Let me know when you hear the name Africa, what comes into your mind? Oh, the first thing that comes into my mind is home. But if I go deeper, it's... You know, Africa is so special because all the four elements come together in Africa, water, earth, hair, and fire. It comes together and it makes the beautiful country, the beautiful continent, the beautiful people with all the natural resources that we have. That's a beautiful description for the continent, Africa. Yeah. I mean, let's come to Congo. We are in Congo right now. Yes. When you hear the name Congo, what comes into your mind? Leopard. Leopard? Yeah. Because Congo means the leopard. Oh, leopard? Leopard, yeah. Leopard, the king or leopard animal? The animal. Okay. Geez, man. I was so mad. I wanted to slap this dude, man. Like, when you hear Congo, leopard. No, leopard. Okay. The animal, yeah. Because it's actually the real king of the jungle. It's the fastest. It's the strongest. You know that spirit? It's at what an ancestor got inspired from and they called Congo. Congo is to be like a goat, to be like a leopard. My name is Sungwadi Abanza. I'm from Congo, obviously, from Africa in general. And I like to think of myself as the starter of a revolution, of the agricultural revolution in aquaculture, agriculture, and aquaponics. So, besides that, I'm an agriculture engineer as well. I did some engineering in agriculture. I studied some agriculture engineering, yeah. You're born and raised in Congo? Yeah, born and raised in the motherland. You grew up here? I grew up here. And then I left Congo in 2014 to go to South Africa to further my studies in agriculture. How long did you stay in South Africa? I stayed for six years. Six years in South Africa? Yeah. So, you went to South Africa to study what? To start agriculture. Agriculture? Agriculture. Grow, like, listen. The engineering. Yeah. Oh, agriculture engineering. Yeah. You know, some of us want to be going to abroad to study medical, I mean, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer. Why would you go into agriculture engineering, man? Because I knew agriculture is the future in Africa. You know, if you want to be a billionaire, don't go into medical schools and stuff. Be, study agriculture. Because you know what? Let's say in Congo, in the next 20 years, we're going to be 100 million people. Yeah. And we have the fastest growing population in Africa. In Congo, the majority of people have less than 17 years old. So, these people need to eat, they need to feed, they need to drink. Agriculture is the way. See, I have to ask you a few questions, yeah. We're coming from a continent where, I mean, the youths don't value agriculture. We're coming from a continent where, when you tell your parent that you want to start a farm, they will tell you that, is everything wrong with you? Yeah. When you were in school, way back in South Africa, what were people saying when you had, I mean, a hobby for agriculture? Yeah, yo, yo, I got that from, not only from friends, people were like making jokes, like, you just go study vegetables, it's fine for you, you know. And then, also in my family, not my close family, but my extended family, my aunt and uncle, they didn't understand the choice. They're like, why didn't you go study finances? Why didn't you become a doctor? Sorry man, the mosquitoes are really biting me. I want to know, yeah, you learnt a lot, you learnt so much in South Africa. What kind of legacy did you leave behind in South Africa? You know, I started the Agriculture Student Society, which is a student society. It's the first of its kind in agriculture universities. The objective is to bridge the gap between students, especially black students, and the professional world, you know, in order to share experience and actually to bring solutions to the problems that African experience in food industry. So I wanted the students in agriculture to come together, to share experience, to be like, you know, what can we do to get to fight food insecurity? And that's the student society I came up with. Today is still going on. Baba, I mean, what really inspired that to start something like that? I realised the contrast in South Africa, you know, people who were involved in agriculture, they were not African students. They were mostly Western students that were involved in agriculture, their own land, their own farms. You know, they have all the resources, financial, economic resources. But African kids, Africans, black South Africans, they didn't have access to those things. So they just saw agriculture as just, like the third choice when they go to university. So what are you doing in the R.C. right now? I'm actually farming, fish farming and training people out to do fish farming. You know, since September 2020, I trained over 50 people out to do fish farming. You know, and five of them already started their businesses and their venture. So, yeah, I do fish farming, aquaponics farming. Aquaponics is actually mixing fish farming and agriculture, yeah. The way, in such a way that the fish waste are used as organic fertilizer for plants. And I also do agriculture and farm management. So, because, you know, I realized something. Many people here, they just own farms just for the fun of it. They don't see actually, you know, you could actually feed a whole population. So I'm like, you know what? Give me a farm, give me your money. I'm going to produce food for people and then you can get your money back. So I also do farm management. I want to know, yeah, are Congolese embracing this modern way of farming? You know, our people are always reluctant to change. You have to take them through a journey for change, actually. And what we're doing, since I've been doing training, I see more people getting interested in that. And because people actually realize that you don't have to have a big land to actually do farming. You can do farming in an urban setting, in a small area, but to still have the result. So people are slowly accepting the change, yeah. What kind of fishes do you rear in here? We rear tilapia and catfish. How many ponds do you have now? How? We have over 60 ponds here. Over 60 ponds. 60 ponds? Yeah, over 60 ponds. And how many fishes in total? How? We produce over 20 tons of fish per year. Bro, I really want to know, yeah. I mean, I'm here to inspire the youth, right? But sometimes we also have to let the youth know the truth. Like, that's how I want to know how you did it. Yeah. How did you do it? Where did you get the capital? Did you just wake up parents? Who gave you the money to start what you do? Oh, you know, in South Africa, I was working, so I got a little bit of savings. And also, you know, I started actually doing this modern, recirculating aquaculture, what I was still a student. So in my student room, I started a prototype. So in a small bucket, I put fish and I could grow tomatoes. So that's the prototype that actually made me win the African Entrepreneurship Award. I'm the only Congolese who won that thing in Morocco. And it gave me some extra money as well. And that actually helped me to come here and start my business. I feel like you're an inspiration. And so many youth have to learn from you. Where can people find you? Social media handles, emails, so that people can learn from you. Yeah, people can find me on my website, Ndunda Aquaponics. And it's the same name with Instagram, Ndunda Aquaponics, Facebook, Ndunda Aquaponics. But the website, they can see all the services that we offer. We offer trainings, farm management, installation of system. Yeah, and then you can just reach me out, then you're going to get in touch. Can we do some feeding, then I'll ask you my next questions? Yeah, definitely, definitely. Thank you. Let's go. This is the fish feed. Okay. It's a mix of maize and housefly larvae, you know. Housefly. Yeah, housefly larvae is very, it has a lot of protein and fish needs a lot of protein to grow fast. Okay. So we leave it open so that we can get fly giving, putting the eggs here. And then we're going to let it for three days until the eggs hatch. And then that's how we feed the fish. The fishes are not coming out. Yeah, the fishes are a little bit shy today. They are shy. Yeah, especially tilapia, they are quite shy. How can you be hungry and shy at the same time? They wait for it to come down. Oh, okay. You see that net over there, it's called APA. That's actually where we put the fingerlings until they get into a certain size, over 50 grams. 50 grams. And we're going to put them in the ponds. And also we have a hatchery, like a recirculating hatchery that use solar power and recirculating water to produce, like whether we can produce a lot of fingerlings actually to serve all the ponds. So you produce your own fingerlings in here? Yeah, everything is produced here. We produce our own fingerlings. We grow them until a certain size. And the feed? And the feed as well. We get the maize, we get the maize from outside. But then we produce the housefly larvae. And we mix with them and we can, that's how we feed them. Wow. The problem with Congolese is, it's like the low income, they don't get access to good food. And that's why the nutrition rate is high. So what we're doing is we're producing fish just for the low income people. So we sell them at the lowest cost in the market, the lowest price in the market, so that we can give them nutritious food at an affordable rate. I feel like this is a way of giving back to the society. Exactly, that's all about it. You know, when you give back to the community, the community will raise you up. You know, it's not about making money, it's about giving back, helping the people. And when you help people, that's how you get money. And I keep on telling people, whenever you're starting anything, think about the impact first. Because when you make impact, that's when you're going to make an income. Exactly, I love that. So exciting to be feeding fishes out here. No, but it's not bad. It's so therapeutic, man. Come with me, let me take you to the hatching. The rain is back, we have plenty of water. We just direct the water here, we mix this in turn, and then we generate electricity. Right here. Welcome to the hatchery. Oh, okay. The hatchery works with so much power here, you can see the battery. The battery is full. Yeah, and here we have the concrete pond. This is where we keep our stuff, like data, keeping data. But this is where all the magic happens. Oh, okay. Wow, yeah. So, what do they keep? They're fishes? These are baby fishes, you can see finger lids. Oh! Yeah, there are over 100,000 here. 100,000? Yeah. You know, I went to a shrimp farm, and I saw something like this, you know. Wow. Yeah, yeah. This is the same technology. It's the same water, it goes here, filtration, and it goes back. It's a recirculating system. So, this is actually where we grow our catfish finger lids. Up to a certain level before we send them to the pond. To the pond, yeah. I can see this one is getting bigger. Yeah, yeah. You have to get out very soon. Yeah, because it's up the other one. It's up the other one, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Definitely. Okay. So now we just clean the system to have clear water that will allow us to take out all the berries and stuff. How many people work in here? Here, there are two people that operate here in the hatchery. But in total? In total, we have over 12 people. All right. So, what happens is, when they get up to a certain level, Okay. we sort them out according to sizes. And then we send them to the other system here. Even you sell them to or? No, we sort them out into sizes. We sort them out? Yeah, into different sizes. Okay. We get the big ones together, the smaller ones together, and the middle ones together, to reduce the mortality. Because you know, catfish, the big ones always eat up the small ones. Okay. So, we sort them into sizes, then we put them in those tanks there. Okay, yeah. Now I know everything about fish farming. It's time to ask you my next questions. And we just go out and I'll ask you my next questions. No problem. Thank you. No problem. Bro, after moving around in here, I just want to tell you that I'm so proud of you. Thank you. You're doing an amazing job right here. And I believe that your story will inspire many Africans to also believe that agriculture is the future. But I just want to ask this question. Is it profitable? I mean, whatever you're doing, is it profitable? Yes, it is. Of course it is. It is. And we're doing it at the cheapest cost in the market. It is profitable. And so, if it's profitable, then I mean, it's worth it. Yes, it is worth it. It has all its reason to be. I want to ask you, yeah? Yeah. Starting up this is not that easy. I mean, we're seeing the end result. But definitely there were challenges that you faced coming from South Africa. You know, the system is not different from whatever that was happening in South Africa and the system in here. Let me know some of the challenges that you faced when you got in here. Yeah, I think the first challenge was to gather a team of people that actually understand the vision. Because, you know, we want hardly to live in a poor country. So when people find a job, their end goal is to make money, you know? And our end goal was to make a change. So that was the first challenge to gather a team of people that actually understand the journey and they understand the vision and they're willing to be part of it. Yeah. And afterwards it was to get equipment, you know? Because most of the equipment you can see here, they are imported. But from outside here, we can't find, we can't source them locally. And so there's a challenge of transportation and all of that logistics. Yeah, and then we try to turn the challenges into opportunities. And actually, for example, to get a team of people, I just had to change every member of the team, you know? In order to get them, to give them the knowledge and actually to... So which means you train your own people? Yeah, I train my own people. Congo is the richest country in the world. Definitely. You know that, right? Yeah. But the people living here are not rich. No, they're not rich. Why is that happening then? Because there are so many reasons. But when you talk about agriculture, we don't produce what we consume. And that's actually what we're doing. Our objective is to produce what we consume. We don't produce what we consume, we import them. We import them from Asia, from Europe, from wherever. And that's what makes us poor, because in order to buy something from China, you have to have dollars or the Chinese currency. You can't buy it with your local currency. And that makes the product create the cycle, the vicious cycle, where you have to borrow money to import food and then you borrow them at high interest rates. And that's how create the whole cycle. So we need to produce what we consume using our local infrastructure, local manpower, like we're doing here, in order to get us out of the poor zone of African countries. And I also want to say this to add it to what he just said. The narrative of Africa is the richest continent in the world, but the people are so poor, that narrative needs to change. I always say that it has to be this, not words. We talk a lot without any action. It's time for every African out there to get involved, because you can't sit somewhere and complain that, why are things not moving in Africa? But you as an African, you are not ready to partake in the chain that we're looking for, chain that mentality. This is why I do such videos. I just want to tell every African out there, be part of the chain that we're looking for on the continent. Take it as if it's your responsibility. My brother, we've got so many Africans watching us right now. If you have a message for them, what would that message be? The message would be, be the part you want to be, be the change that you want to see in the world. Thank you. If you want Africa to change, then join us, join the revolution, join the agriculture revolution, join the aquaculture revolution, because we're making an impact, we're training people. You know what we're doing is, if you ask me a question, would I end hunger in Congo? I'll say no, because I cannot do this alone. Thank you. This finger cannot wash the whole face. We have to come together. We have to be umoja, unity. We have to come together and actually to make that change together. And that's the message I'm giving to my African brothers, everywhere in the world, come join us, join this revolution, let's produce for our own people. And when we produce for our own people, we can then pretend to be rich. That is the message. If you had a chance to change one thing in Africa, what would that be? That's actually what I'm doing. I'm changing the education system. I'm training people to know the new technology, how to produce more with a little space, how to produce more at a low cost in order to feed the population. Are you trying to say our education system is not good? Our education system is not good because our education system is actually training us to become workers, not creators of wealth. You know, we need to be creating wealth. We have everything, we've got oil, we've got food, we've got water, we've got everything to create wealth. You know, so our education system should shift from creating workers to create wealth makers. I want to tell you all watching this video is that are you guys really ready for this generation? Because I believe that this generation is up to something. If you are part of this generation, get involved and let's make this happen. The revolution is happening. Like I tell you, the revolution is all about current guns, current knives. No, it's happening on the ground. Yeah. And I just want to tell you to get involved. Yeah. I just want to say thank you so much for talking to me and I will check out your website. You all should check out what he does. And yeah, I mean, check out his Instagram, social media handles and go support what he does. And if you really want to learn from him, reach out to him and let's make it happen. Yeah. Your final message, anything you want to say? Thank you very much. Thank you for creating so much impact in Africa, inspiring young generation, because the African population is young and that's where our focus should be. We need to target these people to inspire them to tell them they can actually change narrative. You know, if you're born poor, it's not your fault. But if you die poor, that's your fault. That's your fault. Thank you so much for watching. Subscribe and be part of this awesome family. I'll see you in the next one.