Fishery industry can employ millions of Nigerians —Provost, FCFFT

Dr (Mrs) Rosaline A. Obande

Dr (Mrs) Rosaline A. Obande, Provost of the Federal College of Freshwater Fishery Technology (FCFFT), Baga, Borno State, speaks with FEMI IBIROGBA on the fishery industry, its potential to employ millions of Nigerians and contributions of the college to the fish production and preservation in the country.


In what ways is your institution contributing to fishery development in Nigeria?
The Federal College of Freshwater Fishery Technology  (FCFFT) was established because of the Lake Chad Basin. Baga, Borno State, is one of the biggest smoked fish basins in West Africa and because of the volume of fish trade in Baga and the Lake Chad Basin, the college was established to improve on production, processing and preservation of aquaculture.

How far have you been doing in this regard?
The mandate is specifically for smoking. The Baga fish market has benefitted a lot on research findings by way of improving the smoking and preservation of the smoked fish and also packaging, which, by extension, is sold to the middlemen in Lake Chad Basin and this has improved the short shelf life of the fishes which are being distributed all over Nigeria and to some parts of West Africa, particularly Chad, which benefits from the trade.

Considering the level of education in that part of the country, how about the enrolment of students and the quality of education, and how would you describe your graduates?
I resumed as the provost of the college in October 2011 and since my resumption, due to the sensitisation and publicity carried out by my management, we have increased the student intake to about 300 per session and we have also established certificate courses for those who are not too educationally qualified but are fishermen to improve on their knowledge and their level on how to smoke fish and preserve it. So, we have been doing a lot of extension work and the visitation of adopted villages by the Agriculture Research Council of Nigeria. We have been able to reach out to people who are living around the Lake Chad Basin, the villages that are close to Lake Chad Basin, where the fishes are caught and we teach them how to process fish generally. Also due to the drying of Lake Chad, we have also started bringing to them the technology of acquaculture so that when the lake is no more producing as it is now, (because Nigeria has lost almost half of the Lake Chad Basin that is part of the country) they will embrace aquaculture and the fishermen are very interested.

You just talked of aquaculture technology. Are you incorporating fish cage technology in that region and in what ways will that help them?
We are not into cage technology now, but we have started teaching them how to construct ponds along the lake so that water will not be their problem. If they cannot use the concrete ponds or earthen ponds, they can use the plastic ponds, which were procured from the Food Security Agency of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and distributed to the farmers, because they are being sold at controlled prices.
We are helping them to get to this because of their level of education. They don’t know much about it, but we are already into it and it is yielding results.

Can the fishery sector actually create more jobs, because the Federal Government is looking into creating 5 million jobs or so in the sector?
 It is very realistic because fishery is a cardinal subsector of agriculture that can reduce unemployment in Nigeria. Also, if you produce fingerlings and can hatch up to a million eggs and can sell at N20, and if multiplied by the number of fingerlings, you will discover that is massive. So, that will encourage the youth to acquire knowledge and practice. It is physical, and once they concentrate and do the right things (which we are trying to do for the youth in the northern states, because the school is the only fishery institution in the northern states), they will succeed. The government has been cooperating. If not for the insecurity, we would have gone far and right now, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has chosen the college as part of youth entrepreneurship development centres and actually, we should have been able to turn out men if not for insecurity. We are also part of the youth empowerment for the Niger Delta Amnesty programme. We turned out about 200 youths and most of them have established fish farms on their own.

Now, the importation of fish is very high. How can the government checkmate this through local means?
The government is already on the path with the youth empowerment in fishery and aquaculture. Through the empowerment, you can capture fishes in the lake; you can go into aquaculture, which is breeding and culturing the fish. You can also go into processing. The very important sector that can generate useful income is the fishery aspect of agriculture. You can do one aspect by producing and selling to the person who is processing; the processor will give it out to the wholesaler and retailer in the market. You can also cultivate by breeding fingerlings, because the bane of fishery and aquaculture in Nigeria is lack of fingerlings, which we call fish seeds and when you produce that and sell to the market, you don’t have income problems. There will be enough income to take care of the person who is in charge, and most people are going into aquaculture and fish breeding in particular.

Source: Tribune