Mosunmola C. Umoru

Mosunmola Cynthia Umoru’s journey into farming started in 2004. As an undergraduate student, she was thinking about what she could do differently. She had the privilege of doing her internship with Exxon Mobil at the Environmental Laboratory.  During that period, she realised that she needed more excitement in her life than the regular 8am-5pm job.

“I needed satisfaction,” she says, “and that gave me a reason to start digging into what I could do differently. Fortunately for me, my background is in Zoology, which gave me the opportunity to take elective courses in Fisheries while in school. Hence I decided to give farming a try.”

Initially, Honeysuckles was meant to start off as a fish farming venture but through the help of Mosun’s father, it took a different turn. “I could recall that I was reported by my father to the general manager of the Raw Sourcing Department of Tantalizers that I refused to take on a paid employment. Through my discussions with her, I discovered that Tantalizers had problems with sourcing for farm produce. I saw it as a good opportunity for me to fill in the gap. I latched onto it and I started sourcing snails, and later chicken.”

She travelled to different parts of the country in search of snails. And anywhere she went, she was told there were snails in abundance. She would travel down to buy and supply Tantalizers. Along the line, she discovered that snails were seasonal, and she became very curious and decided to try her hands on breeding them. That was how she got into farming. That singular but interesting experience she had with snails has evolved into poultry farming and chicken processing.

Mosun started the business in different phases. When she began in 2004, she had just N80,000. That was her savings! It was the money she got from the sale of GNLD products and the cakes she baked to sell.

“I plunged it all into sourcing for chickens,” she tells me. “Interestingly, in the early part of 2005, a friend read my business plan and he was impressed by what I had put together. And he gave me N300,000. That really helped because I could not get a bank loan at the time. I also got a loan from an uncle who was very supportive. Hence, I was able to meet the demand for my products. But as the demand grew, I had to get more money. I borrowed money from friends and family members. This sustained me for a while. Later in 2006, I had to get a bank loan.”