Business picks up for entrepreneur

 By Clement Kaupa

INCREASING demand for a small scale Morobe entrepreneur’s homemade washing soap, cooking oil, flour and body lotion requires him to significantly upgrade production.

That includes Gibing Oboko’s latest addition to the inventory – stockfeed for pigs, chicken and fish.

Oboko said the market for his products stretched from his 

humble Gaweng Labu village 

in Finshhafen to Morobe capital Lae because they were cheaper.

“There is a big market in Lae and I have secured an area at Situm.

“However, my production capacity is too small,” he said.

Oboko opted to fix the machines he already has rather than purchase an expensive manufacturing machinery to expand production.

For a struggling rural farmer-cum-entrepreneur, he admitted that he could modify and upgrade 

his existing manufacturing capacity.

“I just need the right parts and other simpler machines to 

build into and modify the ones I have. 

“I have tried some light modifications, such as replacing the fuel operated motor of our rice pulping machine with a manually driven motor and it is working very well,” Oboko said.

The businessman is looking for either a financial partner or an entity to assist him upgrade his machinery.

Oboko is a success story of 

the labour department- sponsored Independence Fellowship Scheme. 

He completed his training in 2005 at OISCA in Rabaul then spent the next four years developing a rice project for his rural community.   

In 2010, he did a seven-month business management course at Rabaul Business Study and has since trained more than 4,000 people, including instructing primary schools in their making a living classes.