Anambra State Governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo has approved ‘in principle’ the opening of a Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO of the United Nations Office in the State.
The Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer, Fisheries and Aquaculture Business Development Agency (FABDA) Anambra State, Mr. Emeka Iloghalu disclosed this after a dinner meeting at the Governor’s Lodge over the weekend.
The meeting was attended by Mr. Fred Kafeero, FAO Representative in Nigeria, Mr Iloghalu, Dr. Usman Abubakar, National Programme Coordinator, Fish for Africa, Caribbean and Pacific, FISH4ACP, FAO-Nigeria and top officials of the state government.
The Fish4ACP Natonal coordinator, Dr Abubakar, was in the state last year with his team, for data collection for analysis of the Catfish value chain in Anambra and Southeast states.
After the data collection activity, the team went bank and conducted analysis on the data collected.
In March last year, the Fish4ACP called a National Stakeholders Workshop in Abuja, where they presented the value chain analysis results for adoption and validation.
Speaking with TNC correspondent after the dinner meeting with the governor, the FABDA MD/CEO said they are already preparing the paper works to formalize the governor’s approval for the establishment of FAO office in the state.
Describing the approval as a great development for fisheries and aquaculture business development in the state, Iloghalu disclose that the FAO representative in Nigeria, Mr Kafeero was in Anambra on the invitation of Governor.
“Mr Kafeero’s visit is in respect of the Fish for Africa, Caribbean and Pacific, Fish for ACP which we started working on since last year.
“The state is on the verge of implementing FISH4ACP.
“The idea behind the FISH4ACP is because Africa, the Caribbeans and the Pacific contribute less than 10 percent of world fish.
“So, this programme was designed to increase the production of fish in the regions,” Iloghalu said.
He disclosed that in Nigeria, Catfish was chosen for development while other countries chose other species of fishes to increase production.
According to him, the programme is value-chain development focussing on business and not on welfarism or supporting homesteads.
Iloghalu, who also spoke on the FISH4ACP National Stakeholders Workshop in March at Abuja, said at the event, they adjusted the analysis and made inputs.
According to him, from the results and analysis, Anambra State was much more ahead of other states in terms of fisheries value chain development and structure.
He said; “That was why the governor invited the country representative of the FAO because of his interest in development of the sector.
“At the meeting, the governor requested that FAO establishes an office in Anambra State so that it will be proximal to all the fisheries development activities.
Also at the meeting, it was discussed how FAO can provide technical assistance to the development of other commodity value chains the way catfish had been done.”
The FABDA Anambra boss also revealed that the meeting, the governor got the FAO to commit to supporting other aspects that lends assistance to the successful fisheries and aquaculture business development in the state.
“The governor also succeeded in getting the FAO to support other commodities such as maggots and cassava production that enable the economic dynamics and values of fish feed and animal feed so as to bring down the cost.
“This is a major aspect the producers are complaining about,” Iloghalu said.
Prior to the dinner meeting with Governor Soludo, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of United Nations Team led by the FAO Representative in Nigeria, had an exhaustive interactive session with the representatives of all the actors and stakeholders of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Value Chain and the Innovation Platform in Anambra State.
The interactive session held at the FABDA Boardroom, FABDA Building Awka.
