 Zakeisha Brown, we say that it's so cool to be from Africa, but what Amaya we say that it's a blessing to be from Africa. You know why I'm saying that our history alone is rich. Our land is blessed with natural resources and our soil is fertile. It's fertile to the extent that anything that you saw in Africa grows. Nappy Briggs will tell you that Africa soil is so fertile that even if you plant human beings they will grow. That is what makes Africans blessed and it's time for each and every African out there to grab this opportunity and cherish it. It's a blessing to be from Africa. Happy New Year from the northern part of Nigeria. I'm currently in Kanu. I'm saying that this year I'm not joking with you guys. This year all I want to do is to travel all African countries to bring you positive stories that will inspire you to go out there and be part of the change that you and I are looking for. Be part of the change. Be part of that solution not the problem. Africa belongs to you and I. Both Africans on the continent and Africans abroad. I'm in a farm right now. I'm a farmer but this farm doesn't belong to me. It belongs to a young Nigerian lady who decided that she wants to go into farming which is incredible right? Seven hectares of land. Geez I know you can't wait for me to have this interview but hey before I bring you this interview do me a favor. Like this video and share to friends and family. Let's grow together. Can we reach 700,000 subscribers before January ends? Please be on our way to a million. Be part of this family by subscribing. Please it's very important. Come with me. Let me go talk to this young and inspiring Nigerian woman. It feels so good to see you in person. Yeah finally. I mean your life alone is inspirational. Do you even know that? Thank you. I mean you've done something amazing that I think the whole world needs to come and see you. You know because of you I have to fly all the way from Ghana. Not just to Lagos or Pujap. Welcome to Kano. Thank you so much. I'm sure you won't regret it. How do you say thank you in Hoso? Now go there. Now go there. Now go there. I know that one. Halima you've done something amazing and so many people don't know why I'm saying this. Let me ask you to educate the people out there. Who are you? I'm a farmer. Not just a rice farmer actually since right now we're doing vegetables in between periods. So I'm a farmer. I'm a chef and yeah that's what I studied. I studied agric. You studied agric when you were born and raised in Kano? Yeah I lived in Kano all my life. I mean have you left Kano to stay in abroad or something? No no I've lived here all my life. I mean you've achieved everything here in Kano? Yeah in Kano. Yeah within Kano and Jigawa. Then why are Africans saying that it's not possible in Africa? Of course it is. It's just that we don't know. We don't know and we actually have certain you know mindset and misconceptions. You know for example that what inspired I actually wanted to to do something. A lot of people think that women can't do can't go into farming and women can't do certain things. So you know it's a passion for me and I knew that I could do it. I wanted to bring it out you know and make something out of it and yeah. Do you know where I saw you from? I saw you from Ted Talk. And also I saw you did the Maggie Advil and you were saying that oh my name is Halima a 22 year old farmer and I'm like 22. I'm not 22 anymore I'm 23 get into 24 so I'm not 22 anymore. This is shocking 23 years old and you own 7 hectare farm. I mean I didn't see the rice because I saw the rice farm. Yeah now I'm seeing vegetables. Yeah we're doing veggies now. Between seasons yeah so the rice season is over now. Yeah it's it's actually starting in a few weeks. Okay. So we're kind of claring for we're kind of being prepared for the for the next season yeah. So you decided to grow vegetables. Yes. You are you amazing. Thank you. Like let's go back you know how did you get all this inspiration to start something like this I mean how old were you when you decided to enter into entrepreneurship? How old were you? I was really young I was I think I was born with the entrepreneurial mind ever since I was little I you know I do this and that. Okay. Little strong. So what did you start with? Your first entrepreneurship? Um poultry I started with little birds that time I was around 10 12 yeah and then. You started poultry? Yeah I started with. How many birds did you have that time? I started with around 100 yeah 100 birds. It was a profit. Chicken it was it was really profitable I think that's where I got the the whole you know motivation the push when you do something and you gain out of it so it was it was awesome that time and I was young so I was just looking forward to the future. After high school we decided to go and study agric yeah in the university. Yeah I've always loved farming I've always you know loved agriculture I was always a fan of nature and you know it's actually very fulfilling seeing just like this vegetable seeing them grow out just like your babies yeah. Oh my goodness you know what let me know like you have poultry farmer you switch from being a poultry farmer and then now you grow crops. Yes I'm not into livestock anymore maybe in the future yeah but what what made you start this one? I think I I love the fact the green you know I love the fact that you you get to see a beautiful environment you you grow something out of nothing so yeah and I like this is where my mind is at the moment yeah. How long have you been doing this? I started in in my fourth year at the university I was doing my practical year and then I started my own personal farm as well. Here in Africa they always tell us to go to school become a lawyer, a doctor, an engineer. Yeah you know when I started everybody would be like why would you go all the way to school and study agric and I knew what I was doing so I sometimes I don't even give answers to that. Did they ever tell you that you're getting crazy for being a farmer? Not not directly but that's what people actually see you know. You think you're crazy? Yeah. But did you see yourself as a crazy person? I don't that's why it doesn't bother me I know that agriculture is a future especially in Nigeria we have amazing land you know we have everything so it's it's the future literally. I mean like now I don't even want to leave I just wish I can also buy a land in here. Yeah you can you can you can just you know relocate and stay. Yeah I have to relocate. When I go here I'm seeing people working on the farm. I'm actually not seeing you doing the farming today. I see people doing the farming. How many people work for you now? Well we have full-time workers which are about maybe 8 to 10 and then we have the you know when we have some activities like weeding transplanting we get a lot of people to do that because you know it takes it needs detail and it's human labor so sometimes you can see up to 100 150 people in the farm working it's it's not small so yeah so it takes a lot of people. But we don't live here we have to travel all the way from Hanoi like 45 minutes drive. Yeah 45 minutes one hour. So which people protect this farm for you? The the farm the villagers they protect the farm for you. They protect the farm we have for example right now since it's it's crops we have the vegetables they're always growing we have people that stays there that lives with their family just close by so they're the one protecting the the place. Seven hectares how many land are you cultivating right now out of the seven hectares? Like you have seven hectares of land how many land are you using right now? I do for the rice I do the whole farm but for the vegetables this is about one one hectare yeah for the we have peppers we have onions tomatoes a little bit of eggplant and and a little bit of beans but the beans are is actually for the you know fencing for the sites yeah we have the bigger bean. But how do you do the irrigation in here? You know we have machines it's since it's not the rainy season we have we have machines and it's you know the vegetables don't really need a lot of water so we do like once a week sometimes twice. Okay yeah. Aleema there's so many questions that I know so many people are asking like hey Maya you're not asking her how she started you're not asking her the capital that she invested in this farm I mean did you start with a huge capital from the beginning or start from the from the from the very beginning I started with small capital actually yeah but you know farming doesn't need a lot of capital you can just get in since we have rainfall it's nature we have the rainfall we have the the weather we have the soil and most of our soil in Nigeria is very fertile it's very good so you can just go in with with little capital it's it's basically just like free with a little token okay so yeah in terms of acquiring the land acquiring the land it's a bit tough but the whole process is it's not it's not really hard. What has been the major challenge that you face when you started this farming? Okay you know just like every business you know failure is just a part of life I feel like you have to fail before you you get to you know you have to fail to know your mistakes exactly when I started the first time I failed I failed and I lost a lot of money because I spent a lot it was irrigation I wasn't rainfall so it was irrigation and I got really bad seeds and that took me like twice the time of cultivating which is twice the expenses twice the labor and then at the end we got very little produce so I failed the first time and then I tried again last and I got flood it was really good and then we had a lot yeah yeah and it washed away everything so we literally didn't turn up with anything. How did you feel that time? Well I told you I I started business at an early stage so I kind of wasn't really stressed out because I knew that there's something you know yeah and I knew that there was something waiting for me yeah so and from that mistakes from that failure I learned a lot of things you know when you do when you fail in something you can't you can't go back to that again you can't really do that mistake again yeah I'll really love your mindset yeah I definitely love your mindset I just want us to move around the farm a little bit okay and I'll ask you my next question okay so Maya this is the courage a local courage we use in the farmers use in transporting the goods you know the produce the machinery the pumping machines and stuff everything neither in the farm so that's what they use in transporting it this is purely local yeah just like the pickup truck so this is what they they do and these cows are really huge yeah they are and they're organic so this is like an exercise for them so it keeps them growing the mussels the meat yeah I really like how the vegetables are fresh and healthy yeah how I feel right now because these things are so expensive in the market and I'm seeing it all over like I feel like cooking right now yeah it's I love pepper you know so I would love to cook right now where do you sell this here in Nigeria or you export them? yeah I sell it here in Nigeria but hopefully maybe in the future I'll be exporting it to other countries you know yeah yeah from other African countries yeah hopefully I'll make sure I get to buy a gun okay thank you you know we actually dried them up you dried the pepper up yeah the peppers we dried them and then we you can store it or send them dried okay so you don't sell it like fresh in the beginning maybe around this time you can sell it fresh and then when it starts getting very low in the market you dry them like when it starts getting abundant then you dry them up Halima what do you see yourself in the next 10 years I don't want to say it you know what I'm so proud of you and I'm gonna save your contacts that in the next 10 years I have to call Halima and ask you for $1 million you know what do you want to see yourself in the next 10 years I just know that it's it's going to be a success inshallah so Halima we have so many young Africans watching us right now who always think that it's not possible in Africa they have to I mean travel abroad before they make it some of them even go the back way I mean go through the Mediterranean sea before they get to Europe and all that just for greener pastures you have made it in here I'm not saying you've made it but you've done it we made it possible 24 years old if you have a message to young Africans watching us right now what would that message speak from the heart okay I I know that it's it's it's never too early it's never you're never too young you know if you see something you just just bring it I'll just do it don't be afraid of failure I mean failure is it's actually a good thing because that's what keeps you moving when you fail you just want to beat that you know and and make it so I what whenever you see something and you just bring it out make sure we all have something in us we can't just take it to the grave we have to do something to see what we're good in so just just do what what what what what you have you just bring it out did anybody in Africa told you that you're too young to do what you're doing yeah at some point I don't even like to say my age I feel kind of maybe embarrassed at some point to say my age because a lot of people will be like oh my god you're too young for this you know so yeah to young to be a farmer for so many things so then which means if I give you the opportunity or the chance to change one thing in Africa in Africa yeah in Nigeria what would that thing be what will you change I think our mindset you know we are all our minds are all corrupt so we I what I one thing I want to I just want to do in a blink of an eye is to just change Nigeria and make it a better place you know change the economy change the mindsets clean our minds we all have the same thinking in Nigeria we all have the same mindset we are so corrupt so I think that's that's what every true Nigerian really wants a great Nigeria a green Nigeria do you know how to sing the Nigerian national anthem of course I do can we sing it and end the video it's time for each and every Nigerian out there to serve yeah I mean some of you sing the national anthem without even understanding yeah you're serving your fatherland in this way and I will tell you that a lot of Nigerians out there are proud of you thank you Africa is proud of you never stop what you're doing I'm gonna come back again because of you I'm coming back to Canada yeah come back to relocate just relocate we're going to get your place to stay okay I hope you guys enjoyed this amazing episode with Halima don't forget to like this video don't forget to subscribe and don't forget to share to inspire somebody else to your favorite village boy Mr. Ghana baby and I'm out peace out