FG Gives 164 Vessels Licences For Operations

Federal Government says it has licensed 164 vessels to operate on its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone.
Director, Fisheries Department, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development Mr Ime Umoh, made this known at the Second Dialogue with Regional Economic Communities (RECs) implementation of Fisheries Governance Project phase 2 (FISHGOV-2) in Abuja.
Umoh said this was one of the achievements recorded by the Department.
The three-day dialogue was co-hosted by African Union Development Agency, AUDA-NEPAD, and African Union-InterAfrican Bureau for Animal Resources, AU-IBAR, with the support of European Union, EU.
“For the artisanal, we help them with training, provide inputs, which we do take enhancement, which we take fingerlings to boost some water bodies that lack fish.
“For aquaculture, we normally establish fish farm estates, where we establish it for youths and women, and also provide them with feed because of the flood we had in 2020, in collaboration with National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA.
“We are intervening in 15 states, providing fish feeds, fingerlings, nets, canoe, and that is what is going on presently in Nigeria.
“On industrial, we install Vessel Monitoring System (VMS), not to finish everything of the artisanal.
“What we do is in collaboration with Navy and other security agencies when we install the equipment in the vessels so that we will be able to monitor what they are doing; the type of fish, vessels that is being used, equipment that is being brought into the country.
“For example, they can use the vessels for smuggling and every other activity.
“We have to prevent all these from the trawlers being used for other obnoxious activities”, he said.
Speaking at the event, Chief Executive Officer of the African Union Development Agency (AUDANEPAD), Nardos Thomas, said the FISHGOV project was funded with three million dollars to support member states.
He was represented by the Acting Head, Food Security Unit/AUDA-NEPAD FishGov-2 Project Coordinator, Cheikh N’dongo.