TOTAL RESEARCH LIMITED

I am Okorie Uka Okoro PhD. I reside in Lagos State and   a Nigerian. I started public service as a teacher and has imbibed the strict discipline of that profession. I have taught in the three levels of the formal education system. I retired also from the Nigerian Army as a Major- another strictly disciplined profession. I have headed the Regional Centre of Expertise Lagos which is an arm of the United Nations University.  I head the Total Research Ltd located at Lagos. I pursue social work with passion. I have given lots of talks on: Youth Empowerment; Waste –to-Wealth programmes; Workshops on Entrepreneur etc. I have attended many local and international conferences on: Education for the next century( Indianapollis USA);Education for Sustainable Development ESD( Brazil, Netherlands,South Africa);Sustainable Development( Abuja, Port Harcourt);Climate Change(UNESCO Cape Verde). We are engulfed in the implementation of the United Nation’s Sustainable Goals.

There is an overused communal farmland that induced inhabitants to migrate to cities as cheap labour hands. Improve the yield of the land and attract the migrants back for a new life with technology based farming. A proposed modern fish farm that gives less stress and high yield is introduced. A target of 200,000 matured catfish is harvested every 5months and about 400,000 yield in one year. A wide catchment market area makes the project enjoy robust demand. There is enough land for expansion to accommodate high demand. The expected high multiplier effect on the community could eliminate poverty sooner than expected, increase employment of the youths and reverse the migration trend. Mahogany plants will grow within the fish farm so that with time, the trees will produce shade for the farm and later harvested for the wood industry and environmental conservation. The community’s life becomes transformed.

The specific problem intended to be solved is the perennial youth unemployment. The scale of the unemployment in the community and the environs is monumental. This phenomenon has assumed a global dimension.

A survey conducted by Total Research had suggested that about two thousand (2000) youths from the Nguzu area have no meaningful source of livelihood. The alarming rate of unemployment in Nigeria in general and the Nguzu community in particular is the centre of violent crisis and state of hopelessness among the youths in the area.

An environment that has remained degraded and impoverished as a result of the Nigeria civil war (1967-1970) has brought in its wake rural-urban migration among the mainly unskilled youth population. Despite this trend, a good number of the youths who could not connect to the cities are languishing in the rural communities. This development is not unconnected to the ever increasing rate of social ills such as rape, robbery and other vices

With 96 million Nigerians living in abject poverty (Daily Trust Newspaper, February 6, 2020, cover page) and a $1trillion to be lost to corona virus according to UNTAD (Nigeria Tribune, March 11,2020, cover page) our fight is on point.

The project is a fish farm (agriculture) and forestry.

The Nguzu farm project (Catfish farming and forest reserve) is still at the preliminary stages. It (the project) as grow out catfish farm is estimated to produce 200,000 cat fish at the end of a cycle of 5 months. That is a total of 400,000 catfish stock in 12 months. The project has been planned to generate 45 direct jobs and 100 indirect jobs in the first year.

A study commissioned by Total Research in May, 2020 had revealed that the catfish project will generate net revenue of US$213,641 in the first year of operation.

According to the study already noted above, the project is estimated to cost US$428,923.3 with a turnover of US$1,051,836 in the first year. The total land area donated by the Nguzu community for the project is 500 acres (3,000 plots of land); 200 plots (33.33 acres) is available for catfish farming (growth out and processing (processing later); 600 plots of land reserved for hatchery and feed production (to take-off later); 600 plots of land available for social amenities; 1,600. 2 plots for forest reserve development expected to be financed from earning made through catfish farming.

The project serves the community of Nguzu. The people by the last census are two million distributed in five villages. It is a defence settlement almost surrounded by hills. No enemy will have easy access to any of the five villages. They are meant to be worn out on the bush track access roads that lead into each of the villages. They are mainly farmers of root crops and local bread of birds and goats. Motorable roads link them with other settlements of the Edda clan. They are the historic head of their clan and the seat of the clan’s traditional king. They speak a dialect of Igbo language. There are still traces of the devastation of the last Nigerian civil war in their life style. We met a pocket of them in one part of Lagos city slums. Later we were linked to the association of that community in Lagos. In our prolonged interaction, they have been empowered with scientific agricultural skills given by an American based organization we linked with. All of them are now itching to go home and practice these skills on a free land and neater accommodation than the slums of Lagos

This project is based on a communal farm land which was overused after the civil war.

Adults who depended on the land for food and up keep began to migrate to the cities.

They acquired new skills there, which they could practice back home on free land and neater homes. The success story here could be replicated in any part of the globe. Our other projects on ‘Strengthen Young Families’ include, those who enjoyed a rekindled marriage, grew and later relocated to Liberia, London, USA and Ukraine.

From 2015 I have kept record of 15 people from the primary schools; 10 from the secondary level; 5 from the tertiary;12 from the informal sector whom we have helped. Recently I nursed the idea of helping groups and settlements. I knew my monthly pension cannot sustain this ambition but I relied on sensitizing such groups to join in seeking for funds from donors. Someone explained to me how ‘fundsforNGOs’ organization helps in fundraising and we promptly registered. My office has been active searching through their adverts for relevant information.  That is how we met the Elevate Prize advert. My workers nominated me as a hero and initiated this application. One successful fund raise here will liberate a group and a settlement. I am expecting the multiplier effect will be enormous. I had learnt from the military service that the weak link determines the strength of the chain. Invariably the growth of the less privileged population translates to the growth of insecurity in any society. I determined to devote 50% of my pension to this job. I don’t have to wait until I am massively rich.

Imagine the contents of a modern home. People dead and a life strived to construct or invent them to improve the pleasure and the peace of mankind. I am convinced that a living being should endeavour to contribute to make the world a better place to live in. Slums and ghettoes are increasing by the day. More attention should now be on improvement of life among the less privileged. All the major troubled spots in the globe are fueled by the down trodden. Whatever it takes to adjust their lives early enough to dissuade their zeal to forment trouble and truncate the peace architecture of any part of the human race is my interest. I have passion to work towards the improvement of peaceful existence in the world. I served in the army and can attest to the huge and avoidable budget for defence or war. Again, the huge neglect of these citizens is a good promotion for poverty. Poverty is the hallmark of the less privileged. It defies geographical boundaries or race. It is a hideous monster. Projects like this will raise the hope of their lives and give pleasant peace and satisfaction to stakeholders.

I have had a formal education up to PhD. I obtained the basic skills of eye for details, sequencing of issues, writing and reading to find solutions. These basic skills added to nature’s endowment of maturity, empathy and rugged patience could combine to enlarge my problem-solving efforts. I have worked with adults in the   military and civil. In the military, failure to achieve target has severe punishment which could include death. Social work requires mainly blending some of your basic skills to ensure set objectives are achieved. Besides, I have been often engaged in capacity- building programmes; skill acquisition and empowerment; waste to wealth programmers; poverty alleviation workshops and seminars; youth programmes and the like. I have functioned as opinion leader both in the church and society. I have headed programmes on Low Income Schools in Lagos State. These are up to 1500 private and unregistered schools catering for the neglected areas and persons in the slum dwellings. The work brought us in contact with the group that has formed our target project. It has taken breath to transform their scope and output. I am sure these selected experiences makes me feel very fit for the success of this project.

From our project of empowering the needy two examples will help. Emma was a dropout from the secondary school. He settled for daily paid job when they were available. Three years had passed; his sick parents could not help him. We saw him through the secondary school. The same motivation led him through the university and he narrowly missed a first class grade in Economics.  He is now working and may soon leave for a post graduate study overseas.   There was this very young street-hawker.  We encouraged her to undertake extra mural classes. She later went to the university under our stipend offer. A course mate planned to wed her as they were graduating. The man abandoned the arrangement and her pregnancy. She had concluded a suicide when we intervened. Today she has hope and arrangements to study overseas. We had taken this fish farm project to an implementation level. Suddenly they got discouraged because it was frustrating to collect the imposed levy  for the registration of the business.  For three years they showed less interest. We persevered until their interest started to yield results. Any breakthrough in funding now will see the project flourishing.

There has been a significantly religious intolerance in a community I worked in.  In the first year,  I hosted all their  15 leaders on an end of year dinner. Next we enlarged the dinner to involve all their members in a  two night singing spree before the dinner and a purse to each leader. Third year, we appointed committees among them and shared responsibilities. It has been expanding and involve responsibleness and love. It has developed to be a festival, every member of the community owe a respect and love. It is a noble appointment to serve in any of their committees be it the programme, the meal, guest performers and the like. This new relationships has swallowed the previous unhealthy rivalry, class consciousness  bigotry and the like.  I now get an average of three calls each week from this community asking after my wellness, Those who have gone on transfer ask to be invited for this annual programme.

The traditional farming involve; a good cutlass for clearing bush; burning the bush and gathering the unburned branches into heaps; burning them when they are drier; acquiring a good local hoe for making heaps and mounds; planting root crops/seeds; weeding the unplanted growths (grasses and shrubs); second weeding before harvest. The innovation includes; clearing the bush of undergrowths and arranging them to rot on their own; till the soil and plant hybrid seeds; apply the corresponding fertilizer; use chemicals to fight wild plants and pests and expect bumper harvest.  But the present project involves; measuring out the land in strips; build a farm- stead of 2 rooms and string big customized plastic tanks round the farm-stead in a horse shoe formation such that resident farmers would have effective supervision of the number of tanks assigned to each farmer’s control. The number of plastic tanks in each squad are plumbered  in a way that each plastic tank would have intake and outlet of controlled water supply; fingerlings are fed into the tanks and supervised for 5months before harvest.  The feeding of the fingerlings, the changing of water and other general care are often assigned to the oversight of a specialist. The new approach accommodates the skilled and the unskilled youths in the community.

Change should be attitudinal. It can yield a temporary or lasting effect, But which ever dimension it takes, it must yield concrete  effects that can be measurable .For example,if a hairdo is adjudged stylish and created good looking effects that can be measurable or create an attractive look to users and admirals, it lasts in popularity and usage. Such style can travel across the borders of the originator’s location. Such changes  are the types that can impact humanity.

In the project being considered, the land has been impoverished and degraded. Users here abandon it  to go for greener pastures. Most of the ones that could not migrate are often  battling with sicknesses or crimes or insecurity of various levels. Poverty  brews in this community .  In fact, those who migrated to the cities often have no meaningful source of income. Life is near-hopeless. A project like this strives to assure a 100% success; it should prove that you don’t have to look unkempt to farm; you reap a harvest that have little or no loss; your market/demand is high and expanding. Two cycles a year with high profit margin makes the career very attractive. The visible healthy appearance of the investors will suggest  this is not business as usual ; their families will begin to visibly wriggle out of the strangle hold of poverty.

We must not overlook the fortune of the third party; the fortunes of the fingerling farmers; the feed merchants; the retail market women; the restaurant cooks with endless supply of fish; the firewood fetchers and drying and packaging dry fish for distant consumers etc. They flourish because of the project. The prospect of this project to expand and double itself within the first five years is a good omen for all stakeholders including the third party. The government taxes will increase,  the GDP of the nation’s economy will also improve, There may be no end to this improvement.

How many people does your project currently serve?

The project is to serve 154 people for the whole of the first year. It will plan to expand in the second year and adjust the operation of the first year . It will serve 200 people for the third year and serve 280 persons in the 5th year. This work force would have been impacting on the entire community of 2million inhabitants for the five years. The impacted service on third party may be more significant than the direct labour reported here. Fetchers of wood for drying the fish; packaging for distant consumers; busy transporters activated by the project; retailers of various sizes; sight seers to the novel farm and the entire tourism. The increased funds invested in the community catalyses other investments on hybrid plants for food. For example: creepers around the farm like cocumbers ; dwarf coconuts; watermelons and pawpaw. These fruits are very rich food items which improve the health of the farmers. The harvest improves the meals and yield higher earnings. Revived activities surrounding the fish farm might equally impact on the population as much as the fish.

A total land area of 500 acres has been donated by the Community for the project initiated by the Members of the Board of Directors and Management of Total Research and ably anchored by our delegate/candidate for the Elevate Prize, Dr. Okorie Uka Okoro.

Of the 500 acres of land, 200 plots (33.3 acres) has been allocated to cat fish farming project. The difference of 466.7 acres (about 2,800 plots of land has been reserved for road, school, maternity/clinic, parks,etc; a hatchery, fish processing plant and a feed mill; a forest reserve for growing Obeche, Iroko and Manhagony trees for hard wood.

Currently, the cat fish project is in focus while the other projects already indicated above are intended for the future. These are all connected to and under the Nguzu Farm Limited.

The cat fish farm is estimated to turnout 400,000 product in a  year .

Generally, a cat fish attains a market size and 1 kilogramme weight in 5 months.

Benefitting Community(ies): The Nguzu Community and the adjoining Communities.

Intended Value: The fish project will generate employment for the youths and an annual revenue opeople ,051,836 (before cost). Employment and revenue will be on a sustainable basis.

Project Impact: Reduction in the rate of social vices, bringing about perception change and opportunity to reconstruct damaged self esteem among young people in most rural Communities in Nigeria.

Project Justification/Need: 1. The overwhelming poverty rate and lack of alternative sources of protein.

2. Wasting land area available for alternative uses.

The Nguzu fish farm project ( projected for an initial five years) already at its preliminary stage is estimated to cost US$428,923.3 as the initial capital outlay in 2020. This amount of money is made up of the pre- operating expenses of US$1,290.58; working capital of US$306,159.72 broken down thus: ( 6 months of operating cost US$12,768,  six months of direct labour US$16,724.72,  five months of raw materials US$276,667) and non- current assets of US$121,473. The non- current assets (fixed assets) do not included as part of the value of the 200 plots of land ( for the fish farm project only) donated by the Nguzu Community. These plots of land are valued at US$258.111.

The summary of the estimated expenses in the first year is shown below:

1. Preliminary expenses US$1,290.58.

2. Working capital US$306,159.72.

3. Non- current assets US$121,473.

Though 2020 is half spent, the Nguzu fish farm is projected to run for an initial five years, the first year captures the take- estimates and systematically projected through five years. The project is expected to run for several years in perpetuity. This is in line with the idea of establishing a fish processing facility, an ultra modern fish meal plant and a Forest reserve in the future.

Of the estimated US$1,290.58 estimated as the preliminary expenses, the Nguzu Farm Limited will settle the cost of feasibility study, travels and negotiations/ agreements in respect of the acquisition of the Community land. These items are estimated at US$500.