Raymond Nyambati: Pulling ahead with poultry
On the outskirts of Nairobi, Raymond Nyambati shows us around the top of his apartment block where chickens, chicks, and ducks roost together in a flock of more than 250. “I was brought up in a remote area in Kenya,” Raymond says as he looks out across the rooftops. “Growing up, we were challenged to rear chickens, and if you had a lot of them, then you would be proud.”
After graduating from college in Nairobi, he decided to start keeping chickens again. Before he knew it, it became his livelihood. However, while Raymond understood chickens, he was new to a lot of the pitfalls of the business. 2
“Initially, I faced challenges of counterfeit feeds and vaccines,” he explained. “I also had a challenge in record keeping. A friend referred me to the training program run by the Global Agribusiness Management and Entrepreneurship (GAME) Center at the United States International University-Africa (USIU-A), funded by the Cultivate Africa’s Future (CultiAF) program, to get more information and know how to go about scaling up my business.” During the training, Raymond learned record and bookkeeping skills. “Now, I can calculate my total sales and revenue and I know whether I’m making a profit or not,” he explained. “I also learned how to keep digital records, how to register my business – all these legal requirements – and how to get clients and maintain them.”
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Mentorship is also part of the GAME program, which helped him diversify his market and tap new networks. “Now, I’m keeping ducks because they consume the feed left over from the chickens, so I learned how to make use of that,” he said. “I have also joined with fellow farmers, and with economies of scale I’m able to get feeds at a better price. I learned how to manage my chickens, especially when they fell sick, and how to calculate the amount fetched from eggs and sale of the chickens and calculate the cost of feeds.”
Before the GAME Center training, his business, Ray Chicks, was making up to CAD$585 (AU$612) in profit a month, selling chickens to supermarkets and shops. Following the training, he was able to increase his income to CAD$818 (AU$855) per month. Now, he has his eye on the future. “Ideally, I would like to get a plot to have more space and do free-range farming, then I would be able to grow. I am hoping to create employment, empower fellow youth and bring training opportunities for others to go into self-employment. 4