Yalelo Limited, Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest fully-integrated aquaculture company, is tackling one of the major obstacles hindering the expansion of Africa’s aquaculture potential. Recognizing the critical role of technology in transforming the sector, Yalelo, owned by FirstWave Group, has unveiled its integrated production management and business intelligence solution on the AquaManager software platform.
The AquaManager software promises to address the challenge of insufficient technology in the African aquaculture sector. By launching this innovative solution, Yalelo aims to support fish farmers in reducing production costs, enhancing operational efficiencies, and ultimately boosting profitability.
With the deployment of AquaManager’s aquaculture software, farmers can now manage, control, and monitor fish production at every stage of the production chain. The software enables seamless data collection, analysis, and utilization for administrative tasks and decision-making processes.
AquaManager Founder Kostas Seferis emphasized that the successful implementation of this technology marks a crucial step towards digitizing the African aquaculture sector. The software allows Yalelo Zambia and Yalelo Uganda to collect data anytime, anywhere, using mobile devices and web platforms, converting this data into valuable information for informed business decision-making.
Real-time monitoring of operations in Zambia and Uganda, where Yalelo operates more than 100 fish cages, has become possible with this technology. The integration of information systems from both geographies into a common cloud infrastructure enhances efficiency and collaboration.
The innovative technology facilitates the evaluation of food suppliers, improvement of feeding and growth of tilapia, and the creation of fish production strategies. AquaManager empowers Yalelo to generate operational and management reports critical for monitoring and controlling fish production in both countries.
With Zambia already reporting increased tilapia production surpassing 30,000 metric tons in 2016, the adoption of AquaManager positions Yalelo as a key player in transforming the country into a tilapia production hub in Sub-Saharan Africa.
FirstWave Group Co-CEO Bryan McCoy expressed satisfaction with the AquaManager deployment, emphasizing its role in providing daily visibility into operational performance, supporting customer demand, and ensuring a steady and increasing supply of fish.
The introduction of AquaManager to Sub-Saharan Africa aligns with the African Union’s concerns about the continent’s low contribution to global aquaculture production. With a mere 2 percent share, the union emphasizes the need for increased grants to support research and the development of modern technologies to address challenges in Africa’s aquaculture value chain.