Overview of the Poultry Farm Business in Nigeria

Population growth and increased urbanization are making the demand for products to be fast expanding today in Nigeria and in the rest of African countries. Among the agricultural sector in Nigeria, poultry farming is one of the leading and fastest growing sections. As reported by ThisDay Newspaper in 2017, Nigeria’s poultry industry was worth over N1.2tn.

From market size perspective, Nigeria is the major producer of eggs in Africa and closely followed by South Africa. In 2003, chicken importation (excluding day-old-chicks) was banned by Nigeria, which resulted to a significant growth in domestic poultry production in the country.

Chicken poultry farming is the most common type of poultry farming in Nigeria. This is because farmers get a great number of chickens frequently either the egg for food or the farming meat. The end products; chicken and egg are in constant demand in Nigeria today, the marketplace like eateries, restaurants, etc. and even in various homes in today makes poultry farming very profitable as it appears to be an effective source of animal protein asides fish, pork and beef.

Potentials of Poultry Farm Business

One of the potentials of poultry farming business is that chickens develop very rapidly. Different from goats that takes 2 or more years to mature, a well nurtured chicken can be ready for the market within 28 weeks from hatch. This is one of the main reasons why it is viewed as ideal business for loan seekers to invest in, as it will help them to pay back on time if everything goes well as planned.

The potentials of poultry farm therefore include:

1. Chicken Reproduce Fast: On average, a healthy layer will lay egg almost on a daily basis or at least 5 times in a week. However, research has shown that some breeds do lay as whooping 325 eggs in a year and it takes them, 21 days to hatch. Simply put, a layer is able to produce another chicken twice in three days. Therefore, if you are lucky to 500 healthy layers California white breeds, they are capable of reproducing a mouthwatering 13,000 chicks within 40 days!
2. Chicken Grows Very Fast: Egg is hatched within 21 days and within 28 weeks, they are already mature and ready for the sale. It simply means you can start making your money at most, after 35 weeks of successfully setting up your poultry farm and whatever returns you make could be doubled in a year based on this calculation. Chicken Sells at Very Good Price: A healthy mature chicken sells between 1,500 to 2,500 naira depending on your location in Nigeria. Therefore, if you produce 10,000 chickens in your farm, you will be making 15 million to 25 million by the time they are completely sold out. That is very huge!
3. Egg Market is too large: Putting the chicken aside, the egg is another money on its own. A crate of eggs sells for N800 – N1000 for smaller eggs and N1500 – N1800 for bigger ones. A crate of eggs is made up of 30 eggs. Therefore, if you have at least 300 layers that produces 9,000 pullet in a month and decides to sell all, you can imagine how much you will be making monthly.

Steps to Starting a Poultry Farm in Nigeria

Although, Agro farming is of diverse categories like chicken rearing, snail, quails, turkey, goat, duck rearing, broiler, etc. Nevertheless, the principles and process underlying are the same. The followings are the five core steps you must follow to start a profitable poultry farming especially, chicken business in Nigeria.

1. Choose Your Type of Poultry to Start: Before you begin your poultry farming business, it is essential to have a clear understanding of what type of poultry business to run. This will help you in the business. In Nigeria today, we have different kinds of poultry farming business which include: chicken rearing, snail, quails, turkey, goat, duck rearing, etc. The most common is however the chicken poultry farming.
2. Suitable Farm Location: To begin your poultry farming business, you need a farm site. The farmland will be determined by the by the number of chickens you want to rear. It is also advisable to use a farmland that is close by in order to always monitor the activities on farmland both night and day to protect the chickens from prey. Calmness and pollution free environment are the major attributes of a very good farm site. The farm must have adequate, clean and good potable water sources nearby.
3. Shelter for The Chickens: Housing is one of the significant factors that are usually put into consideration in poultry farming business. A very conducive poultry housing is required mainly for the protection of the livestock. The housing system is therefore, depends solely on the type of poultry farming you are venturing into. That is to say, the type of housing that will be built for piggery will be different from that of snail and the snail too will be different from that of chickens. However, the most important thing to put into consideration here is space. The housing must be spacious for the free movement of livestock you are rearing. It must also be clean and properly ventilated.
4. Feeding and Medication of the Poultry Chickens: In order to get the best from your chickens, very nutritious food is a must. Quality feeds help the chicken to remain healthy always and very productive. You must make sure the feeds are kept clean and dry always, this is because contaminated feed can infect poultry. Quality and nutritious food is the fundamental to the success of poultry farming business. Try to always give them proper medication and vaccination in order to prevent poultry diseases.
5. Marketing and Sales of the Poultry Chickens and Eggs: This is the stage where you will count your success at the end. Decide whom your buyers would be. Make good research, as it will help you find out the best way to sell your products in order to make more profits. For example, the festive period like Christmas, Easter, New Year, and so on are usually targeted by many poultry farms in Nigeria. In targeting the Christmas and New Year, the strategy here is to stock broilers in October-end and they will be ready for sale by the 3rd week of December if they are nutritiously fed.

Overview of The Template

The Template provides an in-depth financial analysis of everything you need to have in terms of costing and pricing for a successful poultry farm. Real life costing and pricing is used and the excel template can be modified.

Features

1. Comprehensive Profit and Loss Projection.
2. Sensitivity Analysis.
3. Pre-Operating Equipment Requirements.
4. Operating Expense List.
5. Loan Repayment Plan.
6. Direct Material Cost.
7. Proposed Pricing.
8. Cost Forecast.
9. Sales Forecast.
10. Cash Flow Statement.
11. Viability Analysis.

Use Scenarios

This excel template is most suitable for the following:

1. Organizations and individauls starting a New Start-up Business that need funding in form of grants,loans,partnerships etc. from governement agencies and venture capitalists.
2. Business and Financial Analysts working on viability and feasibility of a poultry farm business in Nigeria.
3. Business Administration and Entrepreneurship students who need a comprehensive financial plan for a Business Plan.
4. Investors and Venture Capitalist who need financial analysis of the poultry farm business for informed decision making.
5. Entrepreneurs who need expansion ideas for their businesses.
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