Prudence Thulisile Mokwena

What does your company do?

RBKM Chickens specialise in broiler production,processing and marketing broilers that are live or have been dressed, packaged, labelled, priced and sold to potential buyers and also sale of fresh eggs.‘ RBKM is set up to promote the creation of jobs, women and youth empowerment, economic development and poverty alleviation. safety is our absolute priority. Our chickens are raised in large spacious houses.They can roam freely and eat and drink as they wish. We also work with respect for sustainability and animal welfare. By a continuous focus on innovation and development, RBKM is and will remain 'Fit for the Future'

What is your biggest success?

My biggest success was being able to discover my passion in poultry farming, I started off as a Microbiologist I have worked in the laboratory for more than a decade without any promotion and I was ok with it because I always believed that I will be a manager, I wish I had but of course not at my employer or within my professional space. So during that stagnation I then enquired on other opportunities I could explore within my professional field, since biotechnology was my first qualification i obtained and is very broad, while researching I couldn’t think of anything than a day old chick that is raised for meat or a day old layer chick that is raised to be able to lay an egg and also through out my research I found out that people in our country didn’t like the taste of the chickens produced from our neighboring countries they were described as fatty and tasteless, then I saw an opportunity to play a role in protecting our food security through producing local grown chickens that are loved, preferred by most people and is affordable. Feeling stagnant, it turned my adverse situation of my career life into an innovative entrepreneurial opportunity to start a business which became a solution to a problem of low production for broiler chickens in our country whereby as a business we play a huge role through increasing the supplies broiler chickens that are above the usual market standard. I believe My biggest success is also being able to hire 20 unemployed youth from rural communities this year early February through my poultry farming, and knowing that as business based in rural communities really gives me success energy.This initiative empowers and benefits the rural communities by offering poultry skills that creates opportunities and develops the current and future generation who wants to become poultry farmers and it shifts paradigms for rural community individuals to start utilizing the agricultural land that was under utilized to start poultry business that will boost our economy by creating more jobs in the agricultural sector.

What has been your biggest hurdle?

My biggest success was being able to discover my passion in poultry farming, I started off as a Microbiologist I have worked in the laboratory for more than a decade without any promotion and I was ok with it because I always believed that I will be a manager, I wish I had but of course not at my employer or within my professional space. So during that stagnation I then enquired on other opportunities I could explore within my professional field, since biotechnology was my first qualification i obtained and is very broad, while researching I couldn’t think of anything than a day old chick that is raised for meat or a day old layer chick that is raised to be able to lay an egg and also through out my research I found out that people in our country didn’t like the taste of the chickens produced from our neighboring countries they were described as fatty and tasteless, then I saw an opportunity to play a role in protecting our food security through producing local grown chickens that are loved, preferred by most people and is affordable. Feeling stagnant, it turned my adverse situation of my career life into an innovative entrepreneurial opportunity to start a business which became a solution to a problem of low production for broiler chickens in our country whereby as a business we play a huge role through increasing the supplies broiler chickens that are above the usual market standard. I believe My biggest success is also being able to hire 20 unemployed youth from rural communities this year early February through my poultry farming, and knowing that as business based in rural communities really gives me success energy.This initiative empowers and benefits the rural communities by offering poultry skills that creates opportunities and develops the current and future generation who wants to become poultry farmers and it shifts paradigms for rural community individuals to start utilizing the agricultural land that was under utilized to start poultry business that will boost our economy by creating more jobs in the agricultural sector.