Empowering Rural Fishing Communities
For too long, rural fishing communities in Lagos State, southwest Nigeria have been experiencing losses in their fishing businesses because they do not have the means to preserve their fishes, hence most of their catch go bad.
Sometimes the fishermen sell at a loss. To prevent the fishes from getting spoilt, the rural fishermen would quickly dispose of their catch to middlemen at a cheaper rate. The middlemen, who did not toil to get the fishes, reap more profit than the fishermen since they have places to store the fishes and later sell at exorbitant prices.
It is in a bid to curb this that the Lagos State Ministry of Rural Development decided to empower three rural fishing communities in the state by giving them deep freezers to store their fishes, generators, UPS, fishing nets and outboard fishing engines among others.
The communities are Okun-Ise in Ibeju Lekki Local Government; Asakpo in Badagry Local Government and Ibeshe in Ikorodu. Three other fishing communities benefited from the same gesture last year.
Presenting the fishing equipment to the benefiting communities, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development, Engr. Babatunde Oshodi said that the presentation was part of the government’s effort to economically empower rural communities and discourage the trend of rural dwellers moving to the city in search of jobs.
Oshodi stated that the equipment were given to the communities so that they could continue to practice what they know best, but could not do so due to financial incapability.
He said that the state’s mega-city status demanded that the state government enhanced the capacity of every sector to contribute its quota to the corporate survival of the entity.
The permanent secretary noted that improving the capacity of the rural segment of the state to provide gainful employment would reduce rural-urban drift.
According to him, the search for jobs in the city usually creates huge slum growth and  government was determined to provide facilities that would ensure that people stay back in the villages to fish.
Oshodi enjoined them to make adequate use of the equipment and guard them jealously so that they could last.
Director, Rural Agriculture, Mrs. Risikat Yusuf said the equipment and freezers would assist fish farmers to have improved yield and maximise the capacity to preserve their harvest.
He said the ministry had also constructed storage houses for the communities where they could keep those equipment safely, adding that the era of losses resulting from inability to preserve their products would be a thing of the past.
The Baale of Okun-Ise, Chief Raufu Bello expressed appreciation to the state government for the gesture, saying that the implements would go a long way in boosting fish farming and rice cultivation in the communities, while soliciting for more aid from the state government.
A representative of Asakpo community, Mr. Dauda Asakpo commended the government for the gesture while appealing for more fishing equipment to boost their trade.
Also, Alhaja Olamide Omotayo from Ibeshe community said with the fishing equipment provided for them, their fishes would be stored in the deep freezers to preserve them but called for more help from the government.
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