How former banker carved a niche with live animal exports

When Abdullah Abdi decided to enter into the livestock and meat business in 2021, he realized that most of the entrepreneurs in this sector focus on slaughtered animals (slaughters) with little to no export of live animals.

Together with his brother, they established Najibes International Livestock to take advantage of this relatively new market.

“Exporting live animals is a niche market and cash-intensive business. We realized that we could support livestock farmers from arid and semi-arid regions (ASALS) more when we buy live animals from them than with carrion,” says Mr. Abdi, CEO of Najeeb.

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“We export livestock, both live animals and carcasses, although we specialize more in live animals which we sell to the Middle East through the port of Lamu.”

Upon starting the business, the 30-year-old who studied procurement and supply chain said they pooled the money from savings, family members and friends. As the business grew, they started using Local Purchase Orders (LPOs).

LPOs and aggregation

With LPOs from overseas aggregators and buyers, their payments were secured, and banks were reassured that their payments would be refunded.

With a typical shipment costing between $1.3m (176.9m shillings) and $1.5m (204.2m shillings), Abdi says they were able to collect half of it and with the purchase deducted from the buyer’s side, they were able to create a revolving fund.

Abdi was a former banker before he left his official job. He says he has never felt any fear of failure or regret.

“You can never be successful when you have fear unless you are involved in an illegal business. It takes time, hard work, determination, and if you don’t take risks, you will never know whether you will make money or not,” he says, adding that he For him, the mentality was ‘if he chooses to work well, if not, I’ll live to try again’.

When they started, they could hardly do 5,000 animals to fill an entire enclosure with a capacity of 15,000 animals (cows, camels, and sheep).

But two years down the line, they’ve done two shipments in the past, which translates to 30,000 to 40,000 animals a month.

As the demand for live animals from Kenya increases, so does their growth plans.

“Our main market is very much the Middle East, but we have our eyes on the EU and West African markets,” he says.

growth

Although profitable, one of the challenges is sourcing the animals.

With the dispersed nature of cattle farmers in Kenya, Mr Abdi says they have had to build a strong relationship with the ranchers and gatherers, with each farmer and gatherer assigned a set quota.

They also go to market days to get livestock.

challenges

Just like any business, growth comes with greater challenges. The entrepreneur says the biggest challenge at the moment is logistics because they source animals from different regions, including neighboring countries.

“We don’t have animal carriers in Kenya, so instead of using two or three decks, we use one truck that carries only 200 animals, and the same truck is used to bring the animals in for slaughter in Nairobi,” he says.

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lessons

In terms of lessons learned, the entrepreneur who believes the future of wealth and job creation in Kenya lies in agriculture points to a strong work ethic.

He says that most entrepreneurs lack work ethic and believe that one can start and grow a business and become rich overnight. He says you need to build the foundation and the foundation.

“Most importantly, you need to separate work money from your personal money. Pay yourself a salary and then turn yourself around with that salary. Don’t take money from work for personal spending,” he says.

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