Female Kenyan fish farm owner in a male-dominated sector

DW (English)

Fishing has always been a traditionally male domain – and Lake Victoria in Kenya is no exception. But putting her stamp on the industry is Angela Odero, who’s set up a sustainable fish farm that also supports other women.

Transcript

00:00 For me the greatest highlight has been being able to stand out as a woman CEO in a male-dominated industry.

00:08 And I'm happy to say I'm the chairperson of the Commercial Aquaculture Association of Kenya.

00:13 My name is Angela Wodero. I'm a co-founder and the CEO of Reofish.

00:26 I'm a wife, a mother, and I'm very passionate about women and youth and their economic empowerment.

00:33 I grew up in Nairobi, well went to school in Nairobi, and then I did my undergraduate in the UK.

00:41 Came back to Nairobi, and then after some years went back, did my MBA.

00:47 So Rear Holdings is a family-owned business, and we felt like those are not the women we want to target.

00:55 So we started thinking about women around this area and probably even how we can change, you know, how we do our thing.

01:00 Around 2018, we decided to just set up a spin-off company, Reofish, to take care of just the aquaculture side of things.

01:11 Because we also realized that we wanted to expand, grow the business.

01:15 I never imagined I would be doing this, actually absolutely not.

01:19 My idea was being this high-flying corporate professional in an office somewhere, not in a rural setup, nothing like this.

01:26 I just thought I would be sitting somewhere, probably CEO of a blue-chip company, you know, wake up in the morning, get driven to work,

01:34 do your stuff in the office, come back home, board meetings, and that was it.

01:38 That was also the same year that we got our first plastic cages.

01:43 We initially had metal cages, which is what everybody had, but they were rusting, they were breaking, and we were losing a lot of fish.

01:52 There was a processing facility, which was built by the government during the ESP program, where they're encouraging aquaculture.

02:07 So it has an ice maker, a freezer room, a cold room, and a processing area, and offices.

02:13 Now, at least we could buy time, we were able to process the fish.

02:23 So, apart from just offering whole fish, now we're offering gutted and scaled fish, filet,

02:29 and then we're also doing sun-dried and smoked fish, which are very popular delicacies around here.

02:36 So, to just take care of that aspect of what are we selling out, and we also want to maintain a brand,

02:41 we started training these farmers to make sure that the quality of fish is what we are looking for,

02:47 and we're also able to preserve it, and then we take it to the traders.

02:50 So, for the traders, again, you know, their capacity is small for each trader.

02:54 So, another thing we found is that it was so much easier to move them together into groups,

02:59 so that we order, not like the group places an order.

03:04 Most of my managers are women.

03:06 The resistance is there, but when the results are seen, it gets easier.

03:11 A lot of the men are struggling to report to a woman, you know, like having a woman as a boss,

03:15 they'll try and undermine her, and all that thing.

03:18 But we continuously train them, educate them, and for the women who we recruit, we prepare them.

03:23 For the men who are working very well with the women, we pick them out as male champions,

03:28 and they are supported, you know, to grow in themselves.

03:32 So, you find that now those kind of men are the ones who go and speak well of the organization.

03:37 My husband comes from this community.

03:39 He has allowed me to be able to do what I do, and he supports, you know, what I do.

03:44 And we still have a normal relationship. I give him the respect that he deserves.

03:48 He respects me.

03:49 When I first came, remember, I don't come from this community, that outsider there,

03:53 she's coming here, and she's trying to tell us, you know, let's do this, let's do that.

03:57 And coming from that point, people who are not very receptive, especially the men,

04:02 they were like, ah, this guy is lost. He has gone to Nairobi, now he has come back here,

04:06 and the woman is just sitting on him and telling him what to do.

04:09 But he didn't react to it, and I also continued doing what I was doing.

04:13 There is this practice we have here called Jaboya.

04:27 It's the men who fish, and men are demanding, you know, sexual favors in exchange for allocation of fish.

04:33 The painful part is that the women still have to pay for the fish.

04:38 So you give in to those sexual demands just so that you can be able to buy the fish.

04:42 Women are seen as commodities here, so you can, you know, do whatever you want to do.

04:46 Because now she wants the fish, she can't get it any other way.

04:50 The women can be able to just come to real fish and buy fish.

04:54 No one is asking for anything other than the money for the fish.

04:57 And then also the fact that we have women here who are working and being seen as managers,

05:04 so the women look up to them, those are mentors for them, and they see that we can actually do this thing.

05:08 And then also coupled with the fact that, you know, the women are not just here to do the work,

05:13 but they are also here to be seen as managers.

05:16 So they can actually do this thing. And then also coupled with the fact that we are giving you access to finance,

05:22 you can be able to grow your business, and we support you with training.

05:25 So you're having a viable business, and you have access to funding, and it can grow.

05:30 Now, aquaculture, if done correctly, will boost the fish production.

05:37 So it is very important for our community to embrace sustainable aquaculture.

05:41 And at Rio Fish, what we do is that we engage in aquaculture on the lake.

05:47 What we do, we rely on data and sensors.

05:54 We're actually developing a mobile app, so you have proper records, records management, and record keeping,

06:01 so that you know how much fish you have, how much fish you're feeding,

06:05 given that feeds are 70% of your production cost.

06:08 And then also, you're not fertilizing the lake, but you're not harming the environment,

06:15 because as the lake is, it's not a renewable resource.

06:19 It's something that you need to take care of as it is.

06:21 So we're really encouraging the farmers we work with to rely on data,

06:25 as opposed to just the rudimentary farming we've been seeing,

06:28 so they can be able to evade climate changes. It's there, it's not going anywhere.

06:32 [Music]

06:40 My future plans are centered around Rio Fish and this community.

06:46 And I see Rio Fish being one of the major players in the fish value chain within the next five years.

06:56 We're a big player now. I want us to be one of the major players.

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