Small business is one of the most actively developing branch of economics in Nigeria. It is actively supported by the government, as small enterprises are a great help in reducing the unemployment rates in the country, which is the huge problem. One of the most prominent fields for creating your own small business is agriculture and foodstuff.
Garri processing industry is one of the biggest parts of this field, as it is one of the main products, consumed by Nigerians. Each year around 7.7 million tons of garri is consumed in Nigeria, which means that it is a huge part of the market with constant demand of about 130 million of consumers. If you’re interested in joining this market, here are a few tips that will help you to start a garri processing business in Nigeria.
Buy products, related to Agriculture and Foodstuff on Jiji! Use the Jiji app to make your shopping fast and easy!
1. What is garri?
Before starting your own business, you need to understand, what you’re dealing with. Garri is a type of food, made out of cassava tubers. Cassava is a crop that’s very easy to crop and take care of, probably that’s one of the reasons of garri’s popularity. If you have cassava tubers, here are the steps you need to take to make the garri:
- Sort out damaged and/or rotten tubers
- Wash and peel them
- Grate the plant
- Unwatering and fermenting of the cassava
- Roasting and sieving of the garri
- Packing
Based on these steps, let’s take a look at what you’ll need to be engaged in garri processing in Nigeria.
2. Basics
The first thing you need is a garri processing business plan. This document will help you to understand, how profitable this business will be and how much starting capital you will need. It would be better for you to hire a professional to make a detailed business plan for you.
The first thing you’ll need is a place to work at. You can either rent or buy a building, or buy some land to build the plant on. Depending on the location of your business, one or the other will be more preferable.
3. Equipment
You can make a small amount of garri with your own hands, but if you want to make a living out of it, you will need some machinery to help you out. Here is what you’ll need:
- Graters that will turn your tubers into a pulp. You need to do this to remove the dangerous cyanides from the cassava tubers
- Hydraulic press to unwater the pulp you get
- Sieves of different size to properly separate your garri from different unwanted particles
- Furnace or an open flame and a frying pan for the roasting of the garri
- Packing machine (not necessary)
All in all, you will have to have about ₦3,000,000 to set up the minor plant for garri processing.
4. Selling
As it was mentioned earlier, garri is a really popular food item, so you shouldn’t have a problem selling it. Yet still, you will have to spend some money on the marketing of your product. If you want to save some money, you can sell your garri on Jiji – the site offers you free ads and access to a huge marketplace.
Sell and buy the Agriculture and Foodstuff on Jiji! Download the Jiji app to be able to buy stuff wherever you are!
