President Nana Akufo-Addo has launched the Aquaculture for Food and Jobs programme under the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development.
The programme would train 10,000 Ghanaian youths within six months as part of efforts to create employment for sustainable development.
Addressing the chiefs and people of Nsuaem in the Gomoa Central District of the Central Region, the President said the launch of the programme was an initiative under his government to create an enabling environment to train more youths in aquaculture to create jobs and increase fish consumption.
The initiative reaffirmed the government’s obligation to harness abandoned water body resources for a robust aquaculture industry to ensure food sustainability to support the dwindling fish stocks and reduce importation.
The programme is being implemented with the R&B Farms, the largest fish farm in the country, located in the Gomoa Central District of the Central Region.
President Akufo-Addo said the Aquaculture for Food and Jobs programme sought to train the teeming unemployed youth to create jobs as they were given startup capital, fingerlings and fish foods to begin their own jobs.
He urged them to take up the challenge to undergo the training to support themselves and their families and respond to the demand for fish domestically to improve nutrition.
He called on private investors to actively get involved in the potential venture to promote jobs and wealth.
Mrs Mavis Hawa Koomson, the Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, said the programme would transform the lives of fishermen and fish farmers due to the estimated increase in demand because of population growth.
She said the fishing industry had recently faced challenges such as illegal fishing and pollution of water bodies, drawing government’s attention to implement that laudable programme to support fish farmers.
Mrs Koomson said the trainers would receive startup capital of GH¢38,700 each, including allowances, to begin their fish farms, and it was expected that after sales every beneficiary would get GH¢70,000 to improve their standards of living.
Mrs Justina Marigold Assan, the Central Regional Minister, said the programme was for the whole country and not the Central Region alone.
She commended the R & B Farms for its potential partnership with the government to implement aquaculture for food and jobs to create employment and wealth among Ghanaian youth.
Mr Ekow Quansah, Chief Executive Officer of R&B Farms, said the vision was to engage both educated and uneducated young men and women to be gainfully and lucratively employed.
He called on the external partners to continue to support the programme to ensure its sustainability to reduce poverty.