Ibeno is located in the south east of Nigeria. The community lies on the eastern side of the Kwa Ibo River about 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) from the river mouth, and is one of the largest fishing settlements on the Nigerian coast.
Just like Ibeno, Ibaka on the other hand is another fishing community in Akwa Ibom State where most of the inhabitants are mostly skilled fishermen.
Fishing is a way of life for these communities and they love it, casting their fish net into the sea, pulling of the net with fishes, sorting them according to their sizes, then waiting for customers to come and buy. This is the everyday circle for fishermen.
Waiting for buyers is one of the tasks the fishermen have because each of them wants to sell his/her fish on time in order to go back to the sea, to catch more. The buyer takes good advantage as they often force the fishermen to sell their fish at a very low price. The fisherman is ready to sell off as quickly as possible because there is no form of cold storage in the fish market. The risk of not selling off quickly, is burying the fish in the ground, once decay sets in – an incredible loss.
There is an urgent need for cold storage in community fish markets such as Ibeno and Ibaka, this will allow the fishermen, to store and preserve their fish and sell when they need to.
ColdHubs with support from All On will be deploying two ColdHubs for fish storage in Ibeno and Ibaka, to serve more than 200 fishermen and retailers, who will have access to cold storage for the first time in their lifetime.
ColdHubs is excited about the partnership with All On.
All On is a Nigerian impact investor, which supports and invests in early stage energy solution providers to help them grow and achieve scale.