Awhanto Joseph is the chief executive officer of BIOS Company Limited, a computer engineering and solar installation firm. BIOS also manufactures and markets an Automatic Fish Feeder device designed for remote feeding of birds and fish.
Awhantor’s passion for finding solutions to societal problems led him to invent the device.
“What’s driving me is the desire to solve people’s problems. In 2020, my father had a 6,000-capacity fish pond in Badagry, and we were invited to pitch our business in Ghana during Covid-19, we were excited about the opportunity, but it turned out disastrous.”
He explained that the journey to Ghana was meant to last two days but took six days, resulting in many of the unfed fish being dead.
“We feed the fish for the two-day programme and locked the compound for security purposes. We got to Ghana and the programme changed to a week programme, we were thinking about the fish at home and also the grant money.
We finally pitched our idea at the end of the sixth day and we couldn’t win the grant. When we got to the farm, we noticed that almost half of the fish had died. This was to us a double tragedy, as we lost the business, and my source of education,” he said.
Besides, the collapse of the family fish-farming business due to their inability to feed the aquatic animals while out of station, and the similar experiences of other neighbourhood farmers, he decided to find a solution to remotely feeding fish or birds.
“When I noticed that some of the fish farmers in my environment were facing this same challenge of inability to feed their fish whenever they were not around, I started doing a series of research on how to tackle the challenge.
“With the tools I inherited from my father, such as a generator, and some plumbing tools, I was able to kick-start my innovations,” he said.
Awhantor started his business with his personal savings from his computer engineering business, and family support; and has nurtured it into a profitable venture.
“In 2022, I built this feeder from my contributed money from my computer engineering work. At first, I built the feeder as alarm-based, but then I found out a challenge that the device might not feed the fish due to some technical faults,
“I upgraded it to a call device that can feed and call back to confirm the exercise is done. A device sells for N200,000, and more depending on the size,” he explained.
The street computer engineer explained that the BIOS Automatic Fish-Feeder is designed to enable users to have the ability to feed their animals without being physically present, just by using their mobile phone, through a phone call.
Speaking of his challenges in the face of growing his business, he said; basically, lack of finance was his constraint which he overcame by sourcing and pitching his product for sponsorship.
He is a recipient of the University of Lagos’s Project Innovation to Market (I2M) N1.6 million grant .
Awhantor said that his contact with the UNILAG’s I2M project helped refine his invention and prepared him better to rule his business ecosystem.
“The UNILAG’s I2M training gave me a lot, it opened my eyes to realise that I have something in me to rule the world.
“From then, the business has generated lots of tractions in my first year, I got it registered, patented, and funded,” he said.
Through I2M experience, Awhanto has grown the business to have four team members and has won lots of awards such as the best Green Innovator at CADEF and Jabob’s Ladder, and selected for Young Africa Innovates, sponsored by MasterCard and UNDP, among others.
He partnered with the Lagos State Crayfish and Allied Farmers Association to boost the market penetration of his products.
Awhanto urges young entrepreneurs not to limit themselves on what they can achieve no matter their background, and the challenges.
“You have got something great in you, search it out, work on it and put it to work, we’ve got to conquer,” he said.
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