A lecturer’s practical session on bee-keeping sparked something within him. Kingsley approached the lecturer after class, eager to learn more. This chance encounter ignited a passion he never knew he had, and he began to pursue bee-keeping with dedication.
By Eberechi Obinagwam
Sometimes, it takes multiple attempts and experiences to find one’s true charm or passion. Nwaogo Kingsley Osinachi’s story is a testament to this. He sat for the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examinations four times seeking to study Chemical Engineering at Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO). He ended up with Animal Science and Technology, which unexpectedly led him to discover his true calling in bee-keeping. Today, he has turned his passion into a huge success, inspiring others to embrace their journey of self-discovery.
“I took JAMB four good times, expecting to get admission for Chemical Engineering. While waiting. I didn’t consider alternative,” Kingsley told our correspondent
Kingsley is the CEO of Makizi Raw Honey Enterprises in Umuahia, Abia State. He had his first degree in Animal Science and Technology at the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Imo State, later proceeded for his Master’s degree in Agri-Business and Entrepreneurship Development at Michael Okpara University, Umudike, Abia State and currently running his PhD, in Agri-Business and Entrepreneurship Development in the same university.
Journey to self-discovery
At first, Kingsley was disappointed and frustrated with his circumstances. He had always dreamt of becoming a Chemical Engineer and the thought of pursuing a different field seemed like a setback.
“It got to the fourth JAMB in 2006, I passed both the aptitude test and was waiting to see my name on the Chemical Engineering list. One day, I was discussing with my friend about school and I heard a voice that said, how about if they give you Animal Science and Technology? I vehemently rebuked the voice.”
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Bringing his earlier thought to reality, Kingsley was offered admission to study Animal Science and Technology at his dream school, FUTO but not his desired course, Chemical Engineering.
“I was furious. I had to reach out to most of the professors, crying to them and telling them about my problem and they told me to go and explore the will of God concerning me.”
It resulted in him not attending classes for two years, but only writing exams. “I was in school for two years and not attending classes but I was writing exams. If you asked me what I was studying, I would lie because the course I was studying was against my will.”
To underscore the depth of his desperation, Kingsley who is also the President of Apicultural Initiative, in his third year on campus, which was 2009, he decided to go and buy JAMB form again so he could try gaining admission to study his desired course.
“As I wanted to go buy the JAMB form, one of my friends said to me, do you know how many times you have written JAMB? Do you know if you will pass again? I had a re-think and decided to manage the course,”
But one day, a lecturer’s practical session on bee-keeping sparked something within him. Kingsley approached the lecturer after class, eager to learn more. This chance encounter ignited a passion he never knew he had, and he began to pursue bee-keeping with dedication.
He said: “After the training on Bee-keeping by my lecturer, I started right away by collecting abandoned wood. I used my savings to buy the Saw Blade. I picked some abandoned wood from a desk the school had thrown into the bush to build a hive, a box where bees live.”
After that, he started promoting bee-keeping among his colleagues in school.
“I told them about the ones they can do as young people because I had done a lot of studies on them. I told them that bee-keeping is an untapped honey well.”
Creating a market for self
Kingsley told TheNiche that while studying bee-keeping, he saw that adulteration was one major problem. Getting pure honey is very difficult. So, he decided to make a difference by creating a market and standard for himself.
“I said to myself honesty makes one wealthy. If I can give pure 100% natural honey, the market belongs to me. I had to redefine business to not only profit maximization, but profit maximization must be equal to customer satisfaction. That was what propelled me. And I found out that the passion was even beyond me,” he said.
Birth of Makizi Raw Honey
“When I started doing the bee-keeping, other students from engineering gathered and I introduced them to my boss and my boss gave me a go-ahead to start training them.
“After my graduation, in 2012, I moved down to my Village, Amizi Oloko Community, Ikwuano LGA, Abia State. I said to myself, let me make agriculture a business in my hometown that will serve as a role model that attracts people to use bee-keeping to create job opportunities, so that after graduation, they should not be carrying files all around looking for jobs, instead, be job creators. I also went into it for the health of the people, to present a 100% natural pure honey that will be accepted by people all over the world; to have a global brand.”
Kingsley said he has a processing unit, a building on its own with facilities of about 500 beehives. He has also trained hundreds of people across the 36 states and his product sells across the states.
Among his customers, he said is the Head of Trade, European Union Ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS, H.E Samuela Isopi whom he said consumes his honey and has confirmed that Makizi honey supersedes what they have in Europe.
Challenges
CEO Makizi mentioned land, vandalism, finance, electricity, international certification, and getting people to believe in his product as among his major challenges when he started. He said he later found a way out of each of the challenges.
On securing land for the business, he said it was difficult for him to get it because people saw bee-keeping as dangerous and without knowing the value.
“But I started having community sensitization, calling the chiefs and community members to educate them on the need and how much they can make out of it. They started accepting me and I started training some of the responsible ones in their community. I would ask them to give me one or two persons to train free of charge. That was how I gained trust,” he said.
On vandalism, he said people who go to farms to fetch aluminum, often set fire on the beehives. “What I did was to engage them, and reach out to the security agencies and town criers.”
Kingsley said he dealt with the challenge of finance by relying on savings and grants from friends and family.
“In Nigeria, they do not know the value of bee-keeping, which is a multi-million naira business. So, releasing funds to you was not possible. So, I relied on my savings and grants.”
On getting patronage for his product, he said it was initially challenging. “People were scared of taking honey, saying that there was no original honey. I started giving them samples of my honey for free to guarantee them of my brand. I told them to run analysis in the best laboratories in the world, assuring that that if it failed I would pay for the cost of the analysis. That was how I was able to convince them. Also, I started packaging them as honeycomb un-extracted.
“Today, 95% of my customers come from referrals, showing that the product is a good one,” he enthused.
The honey merchant said electricity is a huge challenge for businesses. “The light challenge hinders us from meeting up with schedules in sealing up our products. The problem of electricity supply leads to increase in price.”
Kingsley said he has been working hard to have International Certification, but that has proven to be difficult, for now.
He said: “The logistics of exporting goods in Nigeria are not friendly. They are only paying lip service. International Certification is part of my present challenges”.
On Japa, the honey entrepreneur said he has not left Nigeria because of his patriotism for the country.
He said: “Despite the hard conditions, I am trying to see how I can contribute to the growth of this nation. I know that the price of honey outside the country is very high and my honey is being underpriced here. But I am highly interested in seeing the well-being of this country. Even though some of my friends who have left told me that I am wasting my time here, I don’t mind. I have passion for the people living here so that they will be able to access pure natural honey and for me to use my skill to improve the means of livelihood of the people living in Nigeria.”
Kingsley, will be speaking at the upcoming World Bee Day holding on May 20, at Nigeria Export Promotion Council, Maitaima, Abuja FCT.
He said the theme for this year’s celebration is; Bee Engage with the Youths.
According to him, the event aims to engage youths in the act of Bee-keeping, an enterprise that is simple, sexy, clean and to create a sustainable means of livelihood and job opportunities through it.
