HOW A UNIVERSITY GRADUATE ABANDONED CERTIFICATE TO MAKE MONEY FROM RABBIT FARMING BUSINESS.

THIS COULD INSPIRE YOU:
Inspiring Start-ups: Kwame Owusu Basoah, a would-be Career Diplomat turns rabbit farmer
September 26, 2016
Source: Obed Attah Yeboah| thebftonline| Ghana
This is an inspiring story of a young man who was determined to become a Career Diplomat after his university education but ended up becoming a rabbit farmer. How?
Background:
Kwame Owusu Basoah, the CEO of Basoah Agric Centre, was born at Old Tafo, Kumasi, to Mr. Yaw Asamoah Basoah and Mrs. Nancy Asamoah Basoah, and he is the second of five children.
He had his basic education at UST Junior High School. and continued at the Prempeh College, Kumasi, and completed in 2001. He then proceeded to the University of Ghana, Legon, where he graduated with a degree in Political Science in 2007.
While growing up, Kwame Basoah developed a keen interest in becoming a Career Diplomat. So after his university education, he took a course at the Ghana Foreign Service that would qualify him to land his dream job. But Kwame waited for the results, which never came.
He was, however, determined to get something doing. So he decided that by the end of the first quarter of 2009, if he did not hear the needed response from the Foreign Service or get any other suitable job, he would go back to his hometown and engage in farming.
And so it happened. The call never came. But the question is, why did farming, a profession often regarded as belonging to the unlettered in the society, and is not attractive to the young generation, fall among the options of jobs that Kwame wanted to do?
He explains: “Farming has always been something I am used to. So initially, my plan was that after working as a career diplomat for some time, I will retire early and venture into farming. Growing up, we had a lot of land around our house and my father used to grow maize and cowpea. So through that I had my own garden and I used to plant any crop I came across. I remember I was just around seven years old at the time. So that is where my interest in agriculture started”.
How harvest at church blessed Kwame with rabbits
Another interesting bit about Kwame’s story is how he first came into contact with rabbits, the small mammal whose lean meat is relished for its low fat. And it started from church.
“I remember when I was a young boy, we went to church and it was harvest time (a period where members of the church take along goods and sell to each other so the proceeds could be used as offering). So one woman brought rabbit and my father bought it for us so we would use it for supper when we went home.
But when we went home it was late and so we couldn’t kill the rabbit. So we put it in a hen coop. The next day when we decided to go and take the rabbit from the hen coop to kill it, it had given birth to ten. We didn’t know it was pregnant. Since I was the only boy, it was natural that I took care of them.
So I went to the woman who sold it to us to find out how we could take care of the rabbit and its young ones. She tutored me and right from there I started being their care taker.”
Kwame was so excited about his new responsibility at home. He woke up early in the morning every day and went to look for Milk Bush for the rabbits. As time went by, the young ones grew and the rabbits continued to multiply in number.
But as he climbed the educational ladder, Kwame had to devote much of his time to his academic pursuit, especially as his basic education examination drew nigh. So his family agreed the rabbits be sold so he could have time for his books.
But the fondness for rabbit farming did not leave Kwame, and so even after earning a university degree, he has decided it must be his career.
The rabbit business
As Kwame missed out on becoming a Career diplomat, he wasted no time but packed his luggage and went to his hometown, Old Tafo in Kumasi, to kick-start a new business.
How he would start now became a challenge. He didn’t have any sizeable land at home to start the rabbit farm. But there was a way out for him.
“We had a family friend who was a poultry farmer. She had a piece of land available near the poultry farm which was not in use. So I went to beg her to allow me use that land for some time while I look for a bigger space. Then she agreed.”
Next, Kwame had to find a hutch to house the rabbits. Here again, another window opened. His Sunday School teacher who reared rabbits could no longer keep up with the demands of the work as a result of ill-health. So Kwame bought his hutches along with four female rabbits and two males. That marked the beginning of Basoah Agric Centre.
As the proverb goes: ‘we do not test the depth of a river with both feet’, and so Kwame did not start but did a little market research to determine how viable the business is. He went around some rabbit farms to get vital information which would help him know the best practices to adopt.
How he markets them
Kwame started his business in April 2009 and by January 2010, he had close to 500 rabbits. The rabbits were thus ready for sale. How would he sell them? He printed “Rabbits for sale” on A4 sheets and pasted it at vantage points during the Easter festive season. Within some few days, people started calling and to his utmost astonishment, all 500 rabbits got finished within two weeks.
Presently, Kwame says his rabbitry has the capacity for 1,500 rabbits, although he does around 800 for now.
To market his products, he takes advantage of food fairs. He has moved from selling the live rabbits to processing the meat and packaging it, which he also distributes to some restaurants.
He takes the opportunity at any gathering he attends to mention his products to attendees and explain the health benefits of eating rabbit meat.
Rabbit meat is said to be relatively low in fat and in cholesterol, but is a good source of protein, vitamins and minerals.
Challenges
Kwame Basoah had to contend with internal challenges. As a young man who had just completed a prestigious university with most of his colleagues securing what many term as a white-collar jobs, his parents were initially not pleased when he wanted to be a rabbit farmer. They saw it then as a dent on the family’s image, since members of the community could ridicule his choice of career as a graduate.
Aside his parents lack of support, other well-meaning people who he discussed the business idea with discouraged him, asking questions like, “how many people eat rabbit in this country”?
But Kwame was not perturbed by these questions. He was determined to try and succeed.
Another major challenge he faced when starting up was the non-availability of information. “It is a new sector where there is not much local research. So it was difficult to find information which pertains to Ghana.”
But a challenge which he still grapples with is that, awareness about the rabbit sector has received little attention in the country. Unlike poultry, rabbit has not been championed by government as a way to grow the economy.
He also had challenges raising enough capital to expand as the business grew.
How education played a role
“I think my educational background has played a very good role in my business. It has made me proficient in the English language and so I am able to speak at any gathering I attend. This has helped me in marketing my products. It has also helped me to research on my own, plan ahead and also take calculated risks.”
Vision
“It is my vison that Basoah Agric Centre will become the largest producer and supplier of quality rabbit meat, rabbit breeding stock and rabbit manure for farmers. We also want to be the largest exporters of the meat in the near future.”
How government can help
Kwame believes if the same attention is given to the rabbit sector as it is done to poultry, the economy will stand to benefit immensely.
“I am not asking government solely for financial assistance. What I would rather ask government is to give us a platform which will promote the health benefits and business gains from the rabbit sector. Just as a platform was given to Guinea fowls, same should also be given to the rabbit sector.”
His advice to the youth
Kwame Basoah thinks his fellow graduates who are waiting to be employed by companies should take the bull by the horn and venture into agriculture. He urges them not to see agriculture as a profession for the uneducated but seize the opportunity and create jobs for others through agriculture.
Kwame is also encouraging his colleague graduates in agriculture to motivate the youth to venture into the sector. He has set the example by training over 200 people in rabbit farming.
Together with his friend Godfred, they have formed a group called the Graduate Farmers Association of Ghana which is about to be launched. The group has the aim of advocating policies which will motivate graduates to move into agriculture.
Kwame Basoah says he does not regret using his university degree to farm rabbits

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In some years to come you hear " how a 52yrs old dropout graduated from the university"