James, 27 years old, attended the ‘generate your business idea’ training from where he got the idea to venture into agribusiness. He had just completed his high school studies and the training inspired him to get into own business. James was involved in manual jobs around the community and was able to save some money in order to get capital to get started.
He gathered enough money to start his own zero grazing unit after purchasing a young calf. The zero grazing projects eventually formed the basis of his livelihood. “It is from this zero grazing project that I am able to finance all my other projects”, James says.
It is from the yields of his zero grazing projects that he was able to venture successfully into fruit farming. James has a very impressive passion fruit farm. The farm consists of both purple and yellow passion fruits and he gets abundant profits once they hit the market. “Venturing into agribusiness has enabled me to be fully independent. Since I begun, I cannot recall the last time I asked for a handout.” James states. He has even been able to put up his own 2 bedroom bungalow that he is very much proud of. It is one of his newest and ongoing projects yet. He assures me that “Self employment is very good because I am able to manage myself. I am very grateful to YOVI for helping me discover my full potential.”
James is also motivated to start offering lessons to his fellow youth around his hometown on agribusiness so that they can also better their lives. As an AOC (peer counselor), he is determined to convince and counsel more youth to quit wasting themselves on drugs and alcohol abuse and avoid risky behavior that expose them to HIV infections. He is keen to introduce them to agribusiness too to keep them away from idleness and risky behavior.
