UMP student Sandile Mkhabela, rescued his family from poverty by farming chickens and selling eggs to supplement his family's income. "Before I became a UMP student, I had a few chickens that were roaming around at home. I did not have an idea to start a business. It was when I was at UMP and the agriculture course assisted me to come up with ideas of using my chickens to start an egg production business."
UMP student turned entrepreneur, Sandile Mkhabela, rescued his family from poverty by farming chickens and selling eggs to supplement his family’s income.
The student, who holds a diploma in Agriculture in Plant Production, says it was poverty that motivated him to venture into business. However, it was his education at UMP that gave him the idea and equipped him with ideas to start an egg selling business.
Hailing from a small rural village in Schoemansdal in Nkomazi, Mkhabela is today the founder of Sucseed Investments, a thriving poultry farm business. Talking about his humble beginnings he says:
“Before I came to UMP I had a few chickens that were roaming around at home. I had no idea that we could make money from them, let alone start a business. When I came to UMP, while studying agriculture, I took advantage and did internet research, which, together with my course, assisted me to come up with ideas of using my chickens to start an egg production business.”
Mkhabela started small. He bought 14 laying hens, which together laid about 11 eggs per day. He sold some of the eggs, and some went to feed his family.
“I started selling eggs to neighbours to get money to maintain my 14 hens. It was a wonderful experience for me to wake up in the morning and find fresh laid eggs. I developed more love and passion for farming.”
Mkhabela says he continued to research more about the poultry industry and one day came across information about egg incubation. “I was mind-blown on how chicks were produced. I then did a bit of DIY (do it yourself) experiment and used an old disposed refrigerator to build a homemade incubator that accommodated 88 eggs,” adds Mkhabela.
“As the business was progressing I realised that I needed to make a few sacrifices such as using my food allowance to buy more chicks. I also needed to raise money to buy a bigger incubator, which I got and it hatched 1056 eggs. That was an upgrade for my business.”
Growing the business
To grow the business even further, Mkhabela took out a R10 000 loan which he used to buy 720 fertile broiler eggs to hatch and 200 broiler chicks.
“I am looking forward to having more incubators and more chickens. If I can produce about 2 000 chicks every week and more eggs every month, that would be great.”
When the Dean of Students, Dr Paul Maminza and the UMP Enactus coordinator Dr Ferdinand Niyimbanira heard about the good work Mkhabela was doing back at home, they paid him a surprise visit. Mkhabela says he was beyond amazed.
They loved his work and expressed pride in him since he could implement his learning at UMP. The department agriculture at UMP sponsored Mkhabela with 50 hens and also built him a good coop. This was a great boost to the growth of the business.
“I would like to encourage all young people in our country to stop waiting and complaining to the government. We have to start being entrepreneurial regardless of your education and financial status. We can see that the 4IR is taking place in the working industry. This should be an eye-opening experience for us to start our own businesses," he added.
“We should also learn to teach ourselves about economics and financial management, so we can run those businesses. As young people we are the future of this country, let us be prepared for this future we are talking about. Let us hustle and find ways to make money so we can be employers not employees.”
@ Story by Cleopatra Makhaga. Pictures Supplied.