JUBILATIONS AS ENUGU REP EMPOWERS FREE FISHING TRAINING GRADUATES

The Three-day empowerment training in Fish value chain that was attracted by the the Deputy Minority leader, House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Toby Okechukwu, as a means of encouragement of an entrepreneurial spirit, has ended in a gleeful note as the Rep, empowers the graduands with a starter pack as well as every equipment needed for a successful Fish cultivation business, UGAMATV reports.

The Provost, Dr. Paul Chukwudi Onuorah, of the Federal College of Fishery and Marine technology, Lagos State, the host institution of the just concluded, free Fish value chain training, has awarded the graduands a certification of participation bearing the Institute’s title, ushering them into the alumni body of the Institution.

Okechukwu, renowned for his intuition and ability to reckon with the global trend, has envisaged that one of the most Viable Economic sectors, of the world, is the Agricultural sector and by part, the Fishery section.

As such, he keyed into this growing trend and decided to empower, the good people of his Constituency, through a full funded training in the Science of Fishes, as well as the production of their feed, hence, curtailing the cost of breeding and growing healthy Fishes.

Not only will this gesture empower the participants, it will aide in poverty alleviation, a complimenting source of income for Fish farmers whom are alternatively employed.

Most significantly, this will benefit the General public, since, it makes available Food, to eradicate any manner of hunger or nutrient deficiency diseases, as fishes are one of the major Oil, Protein as well as Vitamin A sources. These participants are by this reason, Food producers in their very little but growing capacity.

In the very recent past, the world was met with the very horrendous COVID-19 pandemic, that hit the world’s economy and sent it reeling, several preexisting major sources of revenue and income for both the government and individuals alike, took a major hit backwards, thereby, leaving quite a few sectors as fall-back plans, the Agricultural sector, leading the list, thus, with this empowerment towards the Agricultural sector, there is still a very great possiblity of striking a balance on the world’s lagging Economy.

The initiative, accommodates, the training, certification and empowering of Fifty beneficiaries from Awgu, Aninri, Oji river, the three Local government areas, which Okechukwu represents at the National Assembly.

A certain Chrustain Enebe from Awgu, intimated UGAMATV on the several course outlines for the training, he thus listed, “we were understudying the fish value chain which are the various processes involved in fish production, right from hatchlings to fingerlines to the juvenile to the growers, then the adult fish. We have also learnt Fish breeding, marketing and distribution. We were taught to produce fish feed to increase the survival of the fish, to reduce the cost of growing the fishes and to increase the competitive advantage in the market.

“Food fish production, is about producing fish for food, which we learnt to avail production of fish for the sole purpose of human consumption, fish processing however, is to enhance the fish uses for the maximum value, utilization and more Economical advantage, we also engaged in the practical aspect where we learnt the artificial propagation of fish.”

Lucy Okoro from Aninri, lauded the efforts of the facilitators of the program, as well as the vision bearer, she however, stated that she learnt the  entrepreneurial practices involved in fishery Business.

An Oji River Indigene, Hon. Ifeanyichukwu Onyebueke, stated that Okechukwu, makes fishermen in Greater Awgu, it was indeed an engaging class, everyone of us can comfortably start the fishing business, we learnt every possible  environmental factors suitable for fish growth and the growth inhibitors.

The Chairman of the training’s Local organizing committee, Frank Chukwu, said that fifty fish ponds were made available for Sustainable development and training. “We trained them to train others and make sure there is continuous supply of fingerlins to populate other fish ponds, we urge them to imbibe the fish doctor’s attitude to ensure that the Fishes  does not die off due to environmental hazards, I want to encourage all of you to know that you have been included in the mentorship programme. You can choose to continue to produce hatchlings or engage in sales of juveniles as a value chain choice, very soon, you will have intendings to teach and mentor on this course.

Prior to the conferrement of the Alumni title, Dr. P. C Onuorah, Dr. PC Onuorah, expressed his profound gratitude for the warm reception given to his team by the good people of Ugbonabo. “Toby pioneered the partnership and the empowerment of the people, this is an incubation period and starting point for the college, it will soon grow to nationwide recognition. We realised that we needed to expand the frontiers of the college to accommodate other parts of Nigeria, since the school is in Lagos, we then decided to establish severel centres in Nigeria, the South-east is first to take the training, it took us quite an effort for this program to be approved”, he explained.

The Managing Director of Anambra-Imo river basin development authority, hailed Okechukwu, saying that he was a man of d people, he always has d interest of his people at heart. He explained that Toby transformed and continually transforms this place, so as to create Jobs. The college, he said will partner with Anambra and Imo river basin to better the utilization of the Ugbo dam for more Fishery and Agricultural activities to develop the place more, this will aide in the Development of business ideas which caused the attraction of the Dam, School and the commission.

Out of sheer appreciation for the gesture and intent of this initiative, Engr. Johnson Onuh, Commended the initiators of this programs, saying that it will make recurrent impacts on the wellbeing of the people of this constituency. He then, made his investment towards the furthering of the program.

Rt. Hon. Okechukwu in his response, said that the people who participated applied and were chosen out of Passion and interest.

He explained saying, ” we are people who are supposed to be mentoring others, five percent of western countries feed others, as part of our Social responsibility to our Constituency that the college agreed to organize this training for our people to know, what it means to have a water body which is impounded, where you can practice all manner of things.

Continuing, “this is just the tip of the iceberg, one can possibly set up hundreds of ponds for individuals to declare interest in, to make the place an economic zone.”

“Take advantage of this, most of these participants are professionals from other fields, but our interest is the passion. The Igbo land has no land mass, but the most interesting kind of Agriculture to do is one that you can practice from the confines of your home, with about 10sq/m, you have an economic activity, I was selling fish at the back of my house before, but I stopped because of erosion, it was sold in kilos.”

“Take this very seriously, this can give you access to CBN grants, since they want to invest in Agriculture, supporting Farmers, Practicing farmers, you use your facility to attract loans and run an enterprise, you can be qualified for the loans, there’s a possiblity of getting upto 3million, even 2 billion naira depending on the size of the farm, as a practicing farmer, but first you have to own a facility and practicing commercial agriculture.”

“We currently have the Mgbowo Dam, Ugbo Dam, Ivo Dam as well as the Oji river, where you can easily go and set up a farm there, this is not laden with politics, this is very serious, you are being treated as graduates of an institution, even if you don’t practice, teach your Children to do so, make them to be interested because this creates value.”

“I commend the college for doing this, they are also doing this in several other places, I noticed that people sell off their equipments, I then asked them to orchestrate a partnership with the participants to hamper such occurrence, we arrived at the idea of nursing the fingerlins here and when you get ready in your own place, you can come and evacuate them, or you can deliberately form a coperative group and finish with this set, before you migrate to your own, then you can enjoy common expertise from others, the subsidy that comes with this is that there’s a borehole which can help you with water saving you the stress, you can also agree, you can employ the services of a manager, now you can run a shift of about five persons per week to check on the wellbeing of the farm, you can also pop in to check on them yourself, once this set is done and sold, you can migrate to your own personal farm because you have acquired the competence and knowledge to do that.”

“If about ten to twenty of you can form a coperative, government looks more positively in encouraging that, because they know that not all of you can do away with the funds, in other words, you have a company that has a liability.”

“So please, I think we should take this more seriously, when the dam takes off, we will try to encourage these practices. With Johnsons donation, this batch of Fishes can be fed till the end without you contribution.”

“I want you to pay attention to this, instead of asking me for money to repair your car, I will rather you ask for encouragement in your farm, from which you can get the money to repair your car.”

“Personally, I prefer to encourage someone, since giving money is detrimental to both the giver and the receiver, the later will always come back for more, it is better to encourage entrepreneurship, business to help himself.”

“Post Election management is very difficult, after election, all the people who have helped you, you don’t know how to return the favor, As a member of House of Representatives, I can only employ, five persons, what then do I do with the rest, taking advantage of government’s interest in Agriculture, we get to empower them.”

“This school Awards OND and HND, they get admitted through Jamb, they have a three thousand population, they train ship captains, marine Engineers, logistics and cargo handling, boat and skiing specialists.”

“Due to our natural topography, the IMO river basin commission is responsible for extension farming, not just the Dam but even into the communit, but due to the nearness to water, it is advisable to do Agriculture there. It also teaches you that when you have water bodies in your home, you can do Agriculture. I congratulate you and urge you to mentor others.”

“We intend to achieve some kind of sustainable empowerment, which is why the participants has agreed to aggregate their potentials and talents, capacity in a place, so this is a demonstration farm which will last from now through out the period of gestation of the fish to table size.

“They have agreed to cooperate in an adhoc coperative, then, post that, they will now review it to ascertain if they can go on Solo entrepreneurship, partnership or coperative participation, however, the idea is preferably to be an entrepreneur, so that people can be gainfully engaged, than trying to get white collar jobs, the political space it too limited, one can also do farming and participate in politics, by Nigeria’s constitution, that is the only occupation that is allowed to co-handle with politics.

“Passion and interest was our basic criteria for the selection, we placed an Advert in every greater Awgu platform, those who have interest and had preexisting farms, applied and got selected, I had no prior knowledge of them, I only got to know them when I got here”, he concluded.

Subsequently, the graduands were certified and empowered with equipments, feeds and facilities to ease the production of Fishes from the hatchery to the table size.

Amid the vote of thanks, the member representing Awgu South in the Enugu state house of Assembly,  Hon Johnson Chukwuobasi, commended Okechukwu, encouraging the beneficiaries to make the best out of the Golden opportunity, he then, actively promised to give his input when they form cooperatives and are in need of CBN grants or Appeal Funds, he can aide in Certificate generation of about 10 million Naira loan.

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