Entrepreneur Ann-Elizabeth Swai is the founder of poultry business AKM Glitters in Tanzania. Instead of selling chicken meat and eggs directly to the public, she has built a franchise business model where AKM Glitters provides its franchisees, or ‘brooder enterprises’, as the company calls them, with the farm inputs and technical services to run their own poultry ventures. Currently the franchisees don’t operate under AKM Glitters’ branding, although this is something the company is working towards.

The Dar es Salaam-based AKM Glitters supplies its franchisees, typically existing smallholder farmers, with a package of day-old chicks, feeds, vaccines, drugs, drinkers and feeders, poultry guidebooks as well as other tools and resources they need to raise them. The company also provides them with extension services and training. The franchisees then rear the chickens for about four weeks and sell them for a profit of 20-30%.

AKM Glitters has around 520 franchisees across the country. Farmers choose to work with the company because it can be challenging for them to find high-quality chicks and supplies on their own. AKM Glitters specialises in the hardy Kuroiler breed, originally from India. It took the company 10 years to obtain the necessary approvals to import this breed. Kuroiler is a dual-purpose breed producing both meat and eggs. The breed has a high egg and meat production, with eggs production ranging from 160 to 200 eggs per year.

From UN employee to poultry entrepreneur

Swai spent many years working for the United Nations (UN). During that time, she began purchasing day-old chicks from nearby villages and raising them in her backyard. This side hustle proved to be profitable, as she was able to sell eggs and live cocks for meat consumption.

In 2006, Swai left her job at the UN and used her early retirement savings to focus on her poultry venture full-time, a move that was “scary” at the time.

In the early days of her business, Swai continued to operate from her home, gradually expanding her operations. She purchased a small incubator with a capacity for around 3,000 chicks, which she used to hatch eggs at home. A modest feed mill was also installed in her garage.

Starting in 2010, Swai began slowly moving the company’s operations out of her home. In 2011, she brought on a lawyer and finance expert as fellow shareholders who help manage the business on a daily basis. The abbreviation “AKM” in the company’s name stands for the first names of the three shareholders, while the “Glitters” part represents Elizabeth’s desire to “light up people’s lives and make them shine”.

Ann-Elizabeth Swai / Photo Courtesy

Vertical integration

Swai has built an integrated business by investing along the poultry value chain.

Currently, AKM Glitters has three parent stock farms that produce eggs for the hatchery, where they are incubated. The company produces over 150,000 chicks per week from its hatchery, which are then sold to franchisees throughout the country.

A few years ago, AKM Glitters opened its own feed mill, which produces chicken feed from locally sourced crops such as maize, soya and rice. The company plans to enter into a contract farming arrangement with local farmers in order to secure a consistent supply of the desired crops. Under this arrangement, it will provide training, extension services, and farm inputs to the farmers. By partnering with the farmers, the company aims to prevent disruptions in production and ensure a steady supply of the crop.

Growth potential

Despite the increasing competition in the industry, Swai sees opportunities for growth. She says that AKM Glitters’ strong, trust-based relationships with smallholder farmers is one of its competitive advantages. Trust is crucial when working with these farmers, and she emphasises the importance of being honest and transparent, even when there are production challenges. She believes that including smallholder farmers in the decision-making process is key to maintaining relationships.

There is strong demand for broiler chickens (poultry raised specifically for meat production), and AKM Glitters plans to expand to production of these birds. Swai is also considering investing in an abattoir to process poultry raised by AKM Glitters’ franchisees for sale in the local market and abroad. 

Within the broader poultry supply chain, Swai believes there is potential for the local production of products like veterinary drugs, safety gear, and feeding systems. Currently, most of these items are imported.  By JACO MARITZON, How we made it in Africa

The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) says it will continue investigating cases where police officers are accused of using unjustifiable force.

The agency’s chairperson Anne Makori on Saturday, December 17, faulted the Inspector-General of Police Japhet Koome for calling some of its members “busybodies”.

Koome, during Friday, December 16 memorial ceremony of 57 police officers killed in the line of duty, said IPOA lacks empathy for police officers. 

The Police IG was accompanied to the ceremony at the Kenya Police Training College in Embakasi, Nairobi, by Interior Cabinet Secretary Prof. Kithure Kindiki, who echoed Koome’s sentiments.

“Today, we are holding a memorial ceremony for police officers killed during work. There are no representatives of IPOA here. Are you seeing any?” Koome asked the gathering during his speech.The IG said whenever a police officer kills “dangerous” people, IPOA is quick to take up the matter for investigation, yet when the reverse happens, the agency hardly speaks.

“We do not want to hear you (police officers) have been hurt or your hand severed by crooks when you have a firearm. Count on the Inspector-General [of Police] to stand with you. Kenya has a committed Cabinet Secretary. Do not be scared by busybodies saying the police officers [who use their guns] should be arrested,” Koome said.

Interior CS Kindiki, on his part, said IPOA remained silent when eight police officers and a chief were killed in Turkana County on September 24, 2022. 

“It is as if police officers are to wait for their deaths. Let the police officers use the guns to defend members of the public, public property and themselves,” said Kindiki.

IPOA now says it won’t be intimidated by the comments made by Kindiki and Koome, promising to continue weeding out rogue police officers from the service.

IPOA chairperson Anne Makori says the agency, established in 2011, enjoys constitutional backing.

Terming Kindiki and Koome’s remarks as “unfortunate and dangerous”, Makori said: “The Inspector-General, in his swearing-in speech on November 11, 2022, acknowledged that 98 per cent of police officers are good while the remaining 2 per cent needed to be rehabilitated with the support of institutions such as IPOA. It is in the spirit of this pledge that IPOA continues to commit to the execution of its mandate.”

“Article 239 (5) of the Constitution of Kenya determines that all national security organs are subordinate to civilian authority,” added Makori. 

Makori said IPOA was established “after a period of unchecked police excesses”.

“The authority shall [continue to] investigate any death or serious injury; including death or serious injury while in police custody, which are the result of police action or were caused by members of the service while on duty.

“For the ten years the authority has been in existence, rightfully, it has been busy, ultimately to ensure that Kenyans have confidence in the men and women in uniform – the police – in whom they entrust their lives and property on a daily basis,” said IPOA boss Makori.  By Brian Okoth, The Standard

The agency has assured police officers of its support “including when they make a decision that may result to the use of lethal force”.

“Holding the [police] service accountable is not fault-finding or a witch-hunt, but it simply seeks to answer – what happened? Why did it happen? Was it avoidable? Can we prevent it in future? And finally, was there ill motive? – when incidents requiring our investigations occur.”

To suggest that it hasn’t engaged in witch-hunt against the police, IPOA said since its inception in 2011 it had received more than 20,000 complaints, but only less than 500 had been forwarded to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions for court action.

“Some investigations have also found that officers used lethal force justifiably,” said IPOA boss Anne Makori.

IPOA said it won’t, nonetheless, allow police to act extra-judicially under its watch because “the conditions for the use of force and firearms are well spelt out in the legislation”.

The authority highlighted the conditions under which a police officer can use force. Below are the guidelines:

1. A police officer shall always attempt to use non-violent means first.
2. The force used shall be proportional to the objective to be achieved, the seriousness of the offence, and the resistance of the person against whom it is used.
3. When the use of force results in injuries, the police officers present shall provide medical assistance immediately, and unless there are good reasons, failing to do so shall be a criminal offence.
4. A police officer who uses any form of force shall immediately, report to his or her superior.
5. Any use of force that leads to death, serious injury and other grave consequences shall be reported immediately to the Independent Police Oversight Authority.
6. It shall be a disciplinary offence for a police officer to fail to report in accordance with these regulations.
7. A Police officer in uniform shall at all times affix a nametag or identifiable Service number in a clearly visible part of the uniform.
8. Following the orders of a superior is no excuse for unlawful use of force.

Leaders of Peoples Democratic Party and its Presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, according to APC Presidential Campaign Council, are playing on the seeming forgetfulness and insulting the collective intelligence of Nigerians.

According to a statement by Bayo Onanuga, Director of Media and Publicity, having consistently shown lack of capacity for introspection, PDP Leaders have been going about the country slandering the All Progressives Congress-led government of President Muhammadu Buhari, believing that as Nigerians “we have forgotten their atrocious era and that we are unappreciative ignoramuses.” 

He continued: “Notably Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the party that once contemplated changing its brand name because of its atrocious record, has been emboldened by our assumed forgetfulness as a nation, mounting podiums and trying to deodorise and beautify the party’s ugly era.

Alhaji Atiku blamed the APC for the emergence of Boko Haram, forgetting that the insurgents emerged in 2009 under his party’s watch. He blamed Buhari over the economic challenges, forgetting that he opportunistically joined the coalition that toppled the clueless PDP government of President Jonathan, when the economy was nose diving.

Atiku has now been joined by Abubakar Saraki, the failed Senate President and saboteur-in-chief of the Buhari agenda, who in his latest comment in Ilorin, urged Nigerians to “go back to the PDP at both the State and the national levels”. In the famous words of Dino Melaye, we say “PDP: God forbid ”.

Pushing his party’s propaganda to insane level, Saraki said: “From my trip round the country, I discovered that Nigerians are tired of the ruling APC government because they are overwhelmed with hardships,” he said.

The truth be told, PDP in a sane society should not be canvassing for votes to be returned to office, when during their 16 years in power, they laid the foundation for the challenges we face today. 

Let us not forget what the party of looters did to our treasury, depleting foreign reserves to $28 billion by May 2015, even though a record N75 trillion flowed into the treasury from oil sales alone, with almost nothing to show.

Let us not forget that the party of looters nurtured the conditions that led to the emergence of Boko Haram on our soil and it was so clueless about how to deal with the menace as our cities and people were bombed and maimed by Boko Haram terrorists.

Let us not forget that for six years, the PDP allowed the insurgents to declare a Caliphate on our soil, controlling 17 local governments in Borno State and four in Adamawa, making Atiku unable to go to Jada, his hometown.

Let us not forget that the PDP left our infrastructure decrepit, highways impassable after allotted money to contractors had been shared by party stalwarts.

Let us not forget that this party now posing as recovery agents had already grounded our country and made our economy comatose before Buhari took over on 29 May 2015.

Let us not forget that the two poorest states in our country, Sokoto and Bayelsa are states being governed by the PDP in the last 8 years.

In the past seven and a half years, the Buhari government has been trying to clear the mess left by the PDP predecessors. Despite the challenges faced on the economic front, among which is dwindling revenue exacerbated by oil theft, the government has been able to showcase many game changing projects.

One of them which temporarily opened 15 December, is the Second Niger Bridge. The PDP promised the South East states and Ifeanyi Okowa’s Delta state that it would do the bridge. For 16 years, the party made one empty promise after another. Muhammadu Buhari in 2018 decided to take on the project. He awarded it all over again and in record time the 1.6 kilometres long bridge is ready.
And it comes with other ancillary infrastructure including a 10.3 km highway, a bypass to Owerri and a toll station at Obosi.

While we promise Nigerians that our presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, will build on Buhari’s legacy and improve the economy and the security situation, we can only say to the PDP: “Nigerians have rejected you and our people will not buy your lies again!”  The News