Ahmed Ali Mali Shuwadi popularly known on social media as King Mali is Nigerian based in Turkey .He is the Chief Executive Officer of King Mali’s Empire Limited. He left the shores of Nigeria in 2012 for higher academic pursuit. The English Lecturer and business mogul in this interview with Femi Adi, the Managing Editor of Daily NewsTime Nigeria explains why he took the risk despite harsh economic situations to invest all his hard earned money in Nigeria rather than overseas, where he’s currently based. He also speaks about need for government to take deliberate actions to revive agricultural sector; subsidise Fertilizer and machineries to support farmers in local regions as well as the dire importance of deploying solar powered equipment for farming. Excerpts-:
We would like to know you?
I am Ahmed Ali Mali Shuwadi, a Nigerian from Gadaka, Yobe State, Nigeria. I graduated from a Nigerian Turkish International College. I then proceeded for my degree in Turkey. I did my first degree; Masters and now in my final year for my PhD. I am a lecturer teaching English Language at the University in Turkey . I did my Masters in Linguistics, and currently teaching English Language. I am currently working on dying languages in Yobe State and How to revive them. I am currently in Yobe State to interview one thousand people for the project.
You’re into academic and studying hard to get your PHd, what informed your decision to go into farm business?
My father was a great farmer with vast and arable land before he died. He farmed for a very long time and used to produce corns; vegetable, Garden egg, tomatoes and several crops, because in my town, we have a streamy river, which flows throughout the year. It gave us that ample opportunity to produce sugarcane and many other cash crops all through the year. My passion and interest to embrace farming was injected into me by my father, who died in 2018. But, he left large expanse of farmland of plantation for the family. However, I bought some in addition to what he left and to some extent, the harsh economic situation that we found ourselves in Nigeria. Anyone, who wants to survive this harsh economy must find something doing outside of government to eke a better living.I also discovered that Nigeria is more of a consuming country than a producing country. So, I opted to be a producer.
What kind of crops do you produce currently in your farms?
I am into cassava farming and by next year, I hope to get into production of garri for export. I intend to achieve this feat by constructing a factory for that, I am also into production of fruits such as: Banana, sweet and sour oranges and production of crops like beans, groundnuts, yam, cocoa yam, sugar cane, millet etc. Outside farming, I am also into real- estate buying, selling, and land development business.
People are saying Nigeria is a very harsh place for business to the extent the likes of Aliko Dangote and Femi Otedola are crying fowl today. Why did you decide to take such kind of huge risk against all odds?
I have an insight into how things are done in developed countries and knowledge about how people living in a consuming country suffer. It is unfortunate that Nigeria is a consuming country as well, we don’t produce much of what we consume. And the world is moving to industrialization, meanwhile my country is still waiting for NEPA to supply electricity in the 21st century. It was at this point that I decided to take the risk to invest all the money I have been making while overseas into Nigeria. I don’t have any single kobo outside Nigeria, all my financial base have been deployed into business here. My interest is to give back to the society; to support my people to grow and develop the agricultural sector. My company is small for now, but I am hoping to grow bigger by the day. My target is to produce job for my people, a minimum of five thousand job opportunities. My passion to help my people partly informed my decision.
The greatest problem militating against business growth in Nigeria is importation of goods, do you intend to produce for Nigerian markets or international markets?
I intend to produce for both Nigerian and international markets. I have said earlier in our interview that we produce crops such as: Cassava; yam, cocoa yam, that can’t be produced in some countries. I am trying to produce, package them under my company’s name and export to many countries.
The problem of mechanized farming is a major issue in Africa and Nigeria especially, what kind of machinery farming do you use ?
Now I work with people, but I am very happy that we had series of workshop for more than twenty years. My brother and I, have people working for us in the production of machines. Right now, we have produced so many machines on ground that squeeze liquid from sugarcane; machines that process wheat, corn, millet, groundnuts etc. Even ploughing machines are produced by our company. The ploughs we produce is a one controll, A person can do a great job on a farm when he or she purchased this machine, we have been selling it to lots of people. It’s very simple to use, just like holding a motorbike and work and have a great outcome on the farm. My farms are being ploughed using same machines . Though, I am planning to buy some tractors to maximize time and for effective farming.
Government policies used to be very harsh to industrial growth, what are you doing to ensure that government policies favours you to expand your business?
I have plan to extend my tentacles to work with Government and seek for their maximum support. What I am doing now is self development, but I will try to see how I can deploy requisite information to the public on how government could invest in manufacturing of farm equipment and facilities for agricultural and industrial growth. It is our desire that government look inwards to local manufacturers, such as our company for purchase of machines that would help improve on food production output. You can see lots people buying those locally made machines now imagine if government support our company in the production of those machineries to help the local farmers in our locality and Nigeria at large.
Agriculture used to be mainstay in northern Nigeria in the 60s and 70s, today Farmers in the region have abandoned agriculture for politics, do you have a plan to support them to go back to farm, moreso acquire new methods of farming?
I am raising awareness about the need to go back to farm, because we have to be producing something for sustenance and development not totally rely on government as youths of 21st century. Every country or region that grows or desire to grow must embrace production of goods and services and not consuming alone. I am therefore hoping to reach out to government to help provide security in areas, where farming activities is high. We don’t have that much problem of insecurity in the northeast like we used to have before, Boko Haram used to be a big problem but it is almost down. The main thing here is farming, unlike in Kano people do businesses. In Bauchi,Gombe ,Yobe and all these areas, people farm a lot .
What is your advice about the nationwide protest due to economic hardship and soaring food prices? And what do think government should do about food insecurity?
First, the government at all levels must take deliberate actions to tackle the insecurity challenges and economic hardship that our dear citizens are currently in, the government officials should please be aware of the hardship and come to our aid. the world Is into high technological use meanwhile Nigeria is still busy with paperwork, I am urging government to help Farmers to secure farm in their areas, especially affected areas. We need to adopt the use of technology to address this problem. The government should provide easy access to faming machineries by encouraging local production and empower them by providing subsidised fertilizer and loans to support their production and services. The world is moving to irrigation farming, farmers need to start farming three times a year. I farm all through the year, I grow rice and wheat with irrigation techniques. Turkey, where I stay don’t wait for rains to come, they use irrigation system to farm. Dry season farming is one of the solutions to food insecurity.
And for technology, I want to talk about solar energy. I am not expecting to use fuel generators or wait for NEPA to bring light before wetting my farms, I am using and planning to use more solar energy to maximize my farming using technology. constant electricity supply is key to drive development. I have been schooling and working there for over twelves years and no power outage. If you provide twelve hours power supply daily, half of Nigerians will be in the middle class. The government could support farmers by providing solar power technology. Nigeria is left behind with about hundred years, but we can close the gap. We should focus on growing our people, because hunger is killing people in this country.
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