When Kenyan students join higher learning institutions to pursue various courses, they leave with immense hopes and pertinent dreams of securing big jobs immediately after graduating.
While some are lucky to join the job market, the unlucky ones end up tarmacking and in the process lose hopes of ever securing decent jobs.
The sad reality has forced many graduates to venture into entrepreneurship to earn an income and create employment for others.
Francis Thoya, a Pwani University Sociology graduate is one of the young entrepreneurs whose innovation has created employment for other graduates further contributing to the economy.
Thoya, who runs a restaurant in Kilifi County, has ventured into the agribusiness value chain, adding value to farm products, further boosting his income.
His flagship product “samaki cookies” (fish cookies) has gained popularity in the region due to its high nutritional value.
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In an interview with a local daily, Thoya revealed before venturing into making the cookies he was selling dry pieces of shark. However, the entrepreneur found the business limiting due to supply constraints from fishermen.
“I thought of making porridge blended with fish powder, but the fish smell was hard to eliminate making it harder for children to consume it,’’ he recalled.
The idea of making cookies from fish and cassava would later spark thanks to support from his chefs who helped him select the fish species suitable for the cookies.
Today he makes cookies from cassava flour and barracuda, one of the scariest yet nutritious fish in the world. It is nutritious with vitamin B2, and omega 3 and has a lot of flesh because it can grow to about two metres and weighs up to 50 kilos.
“We had to come up with a recipe that ensures we grind even the bones and use them as the entire fish is nutritious,” he explains.
When making the cookies, Thoya says the cassava and fish must be dried well and then milled to end up with very fine flour.
Raw fish is dried in an oven at a regulated temperature before being removed, sliced and ground into powder using a mincer.
The powder is then mixed with dried cassava flour in a ratio determined by the chefs. Then the dough is mixed with sugar and rosemary herbs.
The cassava dough is cut into small round or star-shaped cookies that are baked for 10 to 15 minutes. Once ready, they are packaged in plastic containers.
“Our target market is children, expectant mothers in hospitals, and diabetic patients,” Thoya revealed adding that his products have received good reviews from the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF).
