Briefly, I am trying to show Ugandans that we are sitting on wealth, which can turn this country around in six years. As I said earlier, the enuuni (fish maw) from Nile perch is the golden egg. This is a brief from our research desk.
Introduced in Lake Victoria in 1947 by an Italian priest, the Nile perch survives only in fresh water. The Nile perch is purely carnivorous, and hunts its own. As of today, farming Nile perch is impossible, which is a blessing in disguise.
At about 1.5 years old, the Nile perch is about 50cm and spawns over two million eggs, twice a year. It lays eggs on lake shores, especially the rocky, sandy, or stony areas. About 10,000 or less, hatch in tinny fingerlings and go on to grow into adults. In a good natured environment with plenty of Nile perch prey, it will grow to 300kg in four to seven years. At about three years old, some male Nile perch may change to female and lay two million eggs twice a year.
Compared to a dairy cow farm, the Nile perch herdsman is the government and nature. We the fishermen, fish trader, enuuni trader or any lake dweller, contribute absolutely nothing to the welfare of the Nile perch.
While on the dairy farm, the milkman goes to milk the well-fed cow, we the fishing folk, only buy nets and go fishing, using our boats to get the millions I am showing you below: Currently, a big Nile perch fish maw sells for US$ 2700 (about Shs 10,000,000). And a middle one sells for US$ 1,000, about Shs 3,650,000. The bigger the Nile perch, the bigger the money. And this big and old Nile perch will lay over 15 million eggs.
In Uganda, we have plenty of fresh water where the Nile perch can habituate normally. Below is the estimated perimeter length/area where Ugandans can be organised in units similar to our LC1 structures to earn a decent income.
The perimeter of Lake Victoria is shared by Uganda 1,750km, Tanzania 1,150km and Kenya 550km. Uganda is blessed with other lakes: Kyoga, Albert, George and Edward. We estimate the perimeter area of these four lakes to be 1,800km. Another Nile perch breeding shoreline and operation area is Kalangala with 84 islands and about 1,500km in perimeter.
Buvuma Islands is another Nile perch breeding and operation shoreline. We also have over 120 small lakes and wide River Nile parts. We estimate the total perimeter area of Buvuma islands and the small lakes to be about 2000km –that brings the total area for both operation and breeding to about 7,050km.
Our Prayer
1- Declare Enuuni Uganda’s privileged special natural resource.
2- Introduce Nile perch fish in all lakes and other water bodies of Uganda as long as there is plenty of “Nile perch prey”.
3- Harvest only Nile perch whose enuuni will sell for US$1000 or more.
4- Install digital landing sites. One kilometre apart. As long as the terrain, the fishing folks, and the basic infrastructure, are in place.
The basic infrastructure includes: spy camera, laptop, Digital ID coder, and digital tag reader.
5- Declare a six months’ countrywide fishing holiday to allow proper preparation for all coming programs.
6- Currently only a few foreign companies export enuuni. Remove all hindrances so that all Ugandan youth can legally export their enuuni.
7- All enuuni exports must pass through a customs digital weighing chute. Installed on all exits. This chute identifies the weight of each enuuni piece tagged to the owner, and all URA details in concert with the enuuni app.
8- Allow special addendum on ennuni, to the current (10.07.2022) fish bill before Parliament. The current fish bill does not specifically address this enuuni issue.
This is a wakeup call
Today, over 5,000 fishermen fish daily. Some fishermen harvest over 1,000 pieces of Nile perch daily per fisherman. The total amount earned by all these fishermen (including their fish maws from their Nile perch) does not exceed Shs 500,000,000. But with this project in the offing, only 1,000 fishermen, fishing only 10 pieces of Nile perch per day, per fisherman, will earn Uganda $10 million per day.
The author is a businessman
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