Friday 9th July, 2021, Freetown- the Project Manager, Youth in Fisheries Project, Joseph Maada Lahai has updated the media and the public through the ‘Good Morning Salone’ 98.1 FM Programme about the impact of the project on the lives of youths living in the Coastal Areas and that are engaged in fishing.
Maada Lahai giving the overview of the project, Youth in Fisheries Project said, it was part of President Julius Maada Bio’s vision to ameliorate illegal migration of young people in the country, minimize youth unemployment and diversify the country’s economy through Aquaculture.
He continued that, President Bio believes in the power of young people of this country that is the reason he has committed himself to ensure that youths of all walk of live are engaged to contributing to the development of Sierra Leone.
Mr. Lahai informed the public about the components of the project, Youth in Fisheries Project. He said, the project has two components. One is been supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) which is implemented by phases and the other one is a government funded which is full blown across the country.
The Project Manager confirmed, “One of the components is funded by UNDP, it is been implemented for this pilot phase at the Western Area. They want to see how we can do hatchery, were people will come buy fish, until the fishes outgrow and sell. The other component is the Government sponsored part. One thing we are enjoying in this government is the political will of our Boss, President Julius Maada Bio. The President is committed to this Programme that is why all I am saying here about the implementation of this project is a policy direction of the government of Sierra Leone through my own Boss, the Minister of Youth Affairs, Honourable Mohamed Orman Bangura. The President is committed to finance this project and more especially now we have the ‘bulldozer’ Chief Minister JJ Saffa. They are ready to fund this project across the country.”
Joseph Maada furthered that, Aquaculture was really basically new to Sierra Leonean although people had been doing it but was not enticing for many people to engage into it. But said, with the new innovative Fish Farming that they have gone and seen, donors like UNDP, EU, and GIZ are ready to come on board, and government is ready to invest money into it thereby helping young people to drive economic diversification through fishing.
Manager Lahai, who said was not a ‘sit-in-office’ and direct responding to a claim that people are now using the Fishing Boats for transportation purposes instead of their intended purposes said, he was not aware of that but can neither deny nor agree but promised to do a tour on those boats to ascertain the truism of that claim.
He disclosed that with fund from UNDP, himself and the Youth Affairs Minister, Hon. Mohamed Orman Bangura recently went to Ghana on tour to learn from the Ghanaians’ Aqua-cultural system. He said their assessment on the Ghanaian Aquaculture focused on the viability of aquaculture, the process involve in constructing fishponds and how to manage them, study cost benefit analysis, and how to network with critical suppliers.
Manager Lahai, concluded by assuring the public that the Government of Sierra Leone through the Ministry of Youth Affairs is ready and committed to implement to latter all the recommendations in the 2020-2025 recently launched National Youth Policy. He said, that is the normality of the New Direction “Tok n Do” Government of Sierra Leone.
MoYA Communication Unit.