How To Make It: Shelika: Making Waves In Fisheries, Aquaculture Business

Oluwafunmilola Shelika is the CEO of Gef’s Smoked Edibles. The business specialises in fisheries and aquaculture, offering products like catfish, croaker, chicken, turkey, and a gizzard that are all prepared in bite-sized pieces and can be added to stews and soups healthily and hygienically using smokehouse grilling.

Speaking on how the business began, Oluwafunmilola said, two things motivated her to go into the business. One is her husband’s love for smoked fish. The second is her passion for cooking and also for meeting the needs of working-class mothers and ladies alike. These women, she stressed, have to cook when they return home from work and often have to start boiling chicken at night to make stew or soup.

“So my firm delivers oven-fresh chicken, meat, and fish, and they are prepared in a clean environment. It is healthy—no carcinogenic substance settles on it from smoke. As a result of our smoking process, chicken meat is low in cholesterol, making it ideal for health-conscious people. We also cut the chicken into ready-to-eat sizes so that the person cooking would not have to spend time cutting. So these are the things that made me venture into the business,” she disclosed.

Lucrativity

To her, “the business is lucrative, especially, when it is done right. Many people in the country are making big money every month from fish sales. There are other types of businesses you can go into that can earn you a huge income, especially when you have your target market and supply them at the right time when needed.”

Challenges

“There is no business without its challenges. We have days when we make losses from a batch produced due to damages like the fish getting burned while processing. Lack of infrastructure, like power, for storing fish before we processed it.

“Access to finance is still a major issue in the country, especially for those who are just going into business or are aspiring entrepreneurs. Banks see micro or nano business as an aspect they cannot touch, and the people in this category are the majority of a country’s population,” she pointed out.

Advice

“Start with what you have and where you are. There is never a better time to start than now. The first idea is not always the finest, but the ability to refine and redesign it makes the difference between a growth mindset and a stiff mindset.”

“Also, remember that you need to believe in yourself before people start believing in you or your solution. We also know that resilience is key to doing business. And do not cut corners in business.” she suggested.

Biography

Oluwafunmilola Shelika is the CEO of Gef’s Smoked Edibles, a seafood processing and packaging company. She graduated from Enugu State University with a marketing degree. She started Gef’s Smoked Edibles in 2009 from her savings.

She enrolled in a training programme at the Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi (FIIRO) to enhance and refine her skills. She had gained banking experience at Oceanic Bank before transitioning to the advertising industry and working for Centerspread FCB subsidiary, FCB Impact. She is the leader of the Nigerian Chapter of the African Women Fish Processors and Traders Network.