The Fisheries and Aquaculture Business Development Agency, FABDA recently attained a major milestone in its efforts to advance the Fisheries and Aquaculture Economy in the state through measurable strategic and structural approaches.
Table Fish Production (Awka) Cooperative Society Limited was established in 2022 following Youth Training on the Table Fish Production Business to contribute to achieving the specific target of attaining the production of a minimum of 51 million kilogrammes of Table Fish annually in Anambra State.
This pioneer Table Fish Production Business Cooperative is also being positioned as a model to mentor other Table Fish Production Businesses, specifically focusing on youth.
Following the emergence of new leadership for the Cooperative led by Mr. Benjamin Emelife, the Management Committee members were taken through a training session by Cooperative officers of the Ministry of Industry, Mrs. Nkiru Okeke and Mr. Ifunanya Umeji, both of the Department of Cooperatives in the Ministry.
The training held in Awka was to acquaint the Cooperative Leadership with the task ahead of them and ensure that their activities align with their mandate and the Cooperative Societies Act of Nigeria.
Speaking with newsmen after the training, Mr Emeka Iloghalu, the FABDA Managing Director and CEO as well as the Promoter of the Table Fish Production (Awka) Co-operative Society Limited, said the Co-operative was created in line with the strategy to populate the several enterprise needs in the segments of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Value Chain in the state amongst other reasons.
Noting that there are now 7 Table Fish Production Co-operatives in the state, following the 2023/2024 concluded ECOWAS Commission sponsored Youth Training on Table Fish Production Business. Iloghalu insisted that the Table Fish Production (Awka) Co-operative Society Ltd is critical because it is the pioneer-focused Co-operative Society in the Table Fish Production segment of the value chain. The FABDA is working to ensure that they get things right to be able to lead efficiently and drive the expected growth to actualize the state target for Table Fish Production volumes.
“The emergence of the Cooperative resulted from populating the segment with business enterprises and entities like Co-operatives and companies that do fish business,” he said.
The FABDA boss disclosed that the Fisheries and Aquaculture Value Chain in Anambra State has been delineated into 16 segments, each representing an entry point for business and investment.
According to him, “the Table Fish Production Segment is an investment area, same as the Seed Fish or Fingerlings Production Segment, the Fish Feeds Production or Trading Segment, Brood Stock Production Segment, Processed Fish Production Segment and so on; there are 16 Segments.
“This, we have done, to progress in line with the mandate of FABDA to reposition the Fisheries and Aquaculture economy for effective and efficient governance, regulation, productivity and growth.
“For us to have good governance, we need to have orderliness. For us to have regulation, we need to look at their specific focused practices and activities. And for us to have productivity, we need to look at the quantities produced.”
Iloghalu, who reiterated the target of the FABDA to drive the production of at least 51 million kilogramme of table Fish per annum., said the Table Fish Production (Awka) Co-operative Society Ltd is one of the entities contributing towards the production target in the state.
He also revealed that FABDA has led the creation of an additional six Youth-led Table Fish Production Co-operatives, whose core business focus is Table Fish Production.
He noted that this pattern differentiates Anambra from other states in terms of organizing the economy of the Fisheries and Aquaculture sector.
He said they had set a minimum target for the Cooperatives, and the reason for the training was to ensure that they were fortified enough and well-poised to contribute progressively to the Fish component of the state’s GDP.
He recalled how, prior to the enumeration of fish producers in the state and subsequent organization of the Fish Sector, no system or development structure was in place, hence the disarray.
According to him, fish was produced using the mass-in mass-out pattern, which reflects the occupational and subsistence mindset.
Owing to this, he said the FABDA, upon the constitution, adopted the new technology that provides for reliance on data and precision production, called the Taenprowiz Fish Production Business System.
“Based on this, we began to guide new cooperatives and fish companies as well as not leaving out the old ones. However there is a challenge with change management, so it is much easier to start from scratch to establish the order and begin to count from there while carrying the old ones along.
“This Table Fish Production (Awka) Co-operative Society Ltd, as we speak today, has at their disposal, the facility to do a minimum of 2,650 kg per month of Table Fish.
“The other six Table Fish Production Co-operatives have facilities which they are working to optimize, that can collectively produce 24,000 kg of Table Fish per month. Add it to the other one and you see that we are getting somewhere.
“Even if it is not close to 51 million kg per annum yet, you can see that as they are producing and are productive, they are bound to grow.
“So, this is a milestone we have achieved out of nothing in 2022, when we had no such value chain segments focussed Co-operative. Today, we have seven Table Fish Production Business-focused Co-operatives in the state and it is Youths-centered.
“It is therefore important that we get things right and then gather momentum to move faster, instead of rushing off at the initial stage without focussing and then crumbling afterward,” Iloghalu posited.
