‘We have empowered more youths, women in fish production’

The Federal College of Fisheries and Marine Technology, Lagos, has trained about 150 youths and women in fish production and value addition.

Provost of the college, Dr Abiodun Sule, who spoke at the closing ceremony of the week-long capacity building in Lagos, in which about 150 participants from Edo, Ogun, Delta, Lagos and Oyo states were trained in fish seed, brood stock, ornament fish and fish feed productions, said the college was contributing to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the nation’s economy through the training programme.

He said a lot of women and youths who had benefited from the programme over the years had employed and trained more people who are still doing the agribusinesses.

According to him, “The programme is being financed by the government for food security, youths and women empowerment in the area of fisheries and aquaculture. Some will employ people that will service the agricultural industry in fish production and food security. We are putting more emphasis on practical because that is what we need them to go to the field to do. It is expected that after this training, they will go and produce more fish, which will amount to more protein for the country.”

Deputy Provost, Dr Chucks Onuoha, said the government fashioned out the skill acquisition schemes to empower the youth and women and give them means of livelihood to reduce the high unemployment rate in the country.

He said though not all the participants would venture into fish farming at the end of the day, the feedback from previous schemes showed that a large number of them did.